GIFT or MICHAEL REESE ^^^^% Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/cossacksofukrainOOkrasrich J ^^IM'^ . THE /Slo COSSACKS OF THE UKRAINE:. "^ COHFBISINQ BIOGRAPHICAL NOTlOl^rf ; OF Cl^c nujgt «lebrateU CoiS^acfe €^ti^ or ^{ttamans, INCLUDING CHMIELNICKI, STENKO RAZIN, MAZEPPA, SAVA, ZELEZNIAK, GONTA, PUGATCHEF, AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE UKRAINE. WITH A MEMOIR OP PRINCESS TARAKANOF, AND SOME PARTICULARS RESPECTING CATHERINE II., OF RUSSIA, AND HER FAVOURITES. BY COUNT HENRY KRASINSKL ^^-^"^ CAPTAIN IN THE LATE POLISH AKHT ; KNIGHT OF THE POLISH MILITARY ORDER ; AND MEMBER OP THE POLISH HISTORICAL SOCIETT IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND ; Author of "Vitold;" "The Poles in the Seventeenth Century;" " Gonta, an Historical Drama,-" • To those who, having never exposed their heads to the Russian bullets, advised the Poles to submit blindly to Russia, as well as to those who, without the slightest knowledge of Polish history, past or present, became suddenly authors of political pamphlets, and from various motives (no doubt favourable to their private interests), now preach the same doctrine among the Poles, I beg to answer, that in proportion to the increasing danger with which Russia was occasionally threatened by numerous wars and political commotions in Europe, she always flattered Poland, and tried, with crafty and seasonable insinuations, to gain the confidence of the Poles. So did Catherine 11. before the partition of Poland ; so did the Emperor Paul I. ; so did Alex- VIU PREFACE. ander in 1807, 1812, and 1815 ; so did the Emperor Nicholas in 1829, and does now — and while I admit that the hatred that exists between Russia and Poland for ages, is entirely of a political nature, and can cease under proper circumstances — I by no means admit blind submission to E-ussia as beneficial to the Poles, especially in the present unsettled state of Europe. If, however, Russia will give up part, at least, of her Polish provinces ; if she will restore all the confiscated property of the Poles, recal from abroad and Siberia all the Polish political exiles, if she will withdraw her armies from Poland, re-establish the constitutional king- dom of Poland, proclaim either his Imperial Highness the Grand Due Michel, or his Imperial Highness the Duke of Leichtenberg, or any other personage whom she may think proper, as the future king of Poland, and allow the formation of a purely national Polish army, under the command of Chlopicki, Skrzynecki, Uminski, Dwernicki, Bern, or Rozycki, as the safest guarantee of keeping her promise, then a permanent peace between Russia and Poland is possible, and Poland, though oppressed for ages, and who had, and still has such a strong claim to the gratitude of civilized Europe, may consider Russia as her sister, improve her morality, keep pace with the march of constitutional freedom, and drown in oblivion her Tartaro-Calmuck pranfe?? but without the fulfilment of a great part of the above- named guarantee, the friendly dispositions of Russia towards Poland is too great a mockery, and cannot PREFACE. IX possibly deceive any man who has one single grain of common sense. The denationalizing of Poland for many reasons is impossible, and if Russia will not give up Poland volun- tarily, that kingdom will be wrested from her sooner or later. Poland was conquered, temporarily, because she was a republic ; had she been a regular kingdom, she would never have become the prey of her neigh- bours. Should all Europe become a republic (which is very doubtful), Poland might accept the form of re- publican government; but even then, Poland would be the last of all the European nations where the republican government can work well. Whoever has a practical knowledge of all the parts of Poland, must be well aware, that a king is as necessary to the future well-being of Poland, as the mother's milk to the existence of a child. Having, after a mature consideration, formed my own opinion on the Polish question (though at variance with the generaUty of the Poles of two opposite parties), I am convinced, that neither any advocate of the wild democracy, nor any man notoriously connected with the last Polish insurrection in 1831, can ever rule Poland; but any talented and energetic man (unconnected with either party), whom circumstances or European diplomacy may favour, can rule that kingdom, and soothe all its internal animosities. Considering that true liberty, which is spoken of everywhere, does not exist but in England ; considering that all dispas- X rUEFACE. sionate men, who have resided some years in England, agree that British institutions are superior to all others without exception; that the British govern- ment is the best in the world; considering that dethroned kings, expelled dukes, illustrious princes, fallen ministers of various shades ; considering that even such contrasts as Metternich and Louis Blanc, with swarms of persecuted chiefs, sectarians, exiles, from all parts of the world, find shelter in England, where their persons are safe, their creed respected, their property protected ; considering that parties are so well balanced in England that none of them can oppress each other; considering that England expended twenty-five millions for liberating the slaves ; considering that British sailors and soldiers, without much noise, under Nelson, Wellington, Harding, Napier, Edwardes, never showed their backs to the enemy, and conquered all nations; considering that there is no better climate for longevity than in England; nowhere are to be found fairer, or more virtuous women than in England ; it must be acknow- ledged, without speaking of British superiority in every branch of science and literature, that as long as she shall reasonably protect the Established church, and produce such political giants as Lansdown, Pal- merston, Russell, Peel, and Graham, who, under the most trying circumstances governed her realms with ex- traordinary firmness, prudence, and foresight, and give at the same time fairly an example of all domestic PREFACE. XI virtues, England, firm like a rock amidst the raging political storms, will always be the real queen of the world; and, therefore, I cannot but imagine that nothing could be more advantageous to Poland (in the event of the restoration of that country), than that a British nobleman should become the future king of Poland. But should no British noble be induced to ascend the throne of Poland— and my earnest hope thus remain ungratified — his place might then be supplied by one of the princes Esterhazy, or by a Swedish, Servian, German, Italian, or any other foreign prince. By propagating such an opinion, I offended some in- fluential individuals, who never forgave me, and find- ing it impossible to alter my feelings in their favour, knowing some of my weaknesses, as also various difii- culties in which I have necessarily been involved as an exile, they have indirectly inflicted great injury upon my prospects in England. I was exposed, not only to annoyances, but to artfully propagated slander, un- worthy even of an answer. Let them remember that noble blood flows in my veins, and that no offers, how- ever tempting, can bribe me, and though, in conse- quence of crafty intrigues, some publications have been directed against me in various languages, it will ultimately rather tend to serve than to injure me. Confident in the purity of my intentions, and in the soundness of my political intellect, I shall fight my own battle, like the worthy British Missionaries who spread Xll PREFACE. in all parts of the world, amid raging storms, the blessings of the Gospel. Three years ago, during my stay at Richmond, in Yorkshire, I compiled a regular history of the Polish Cossacks, which I properly corrected in the British Museum ; but having neither literary acquaintances, nor available means of publishing it, and being more thwarted than encouraged in my literary exertions, I was twice obliged to curtail it, and so leave unpublished, perhaps, the most interesting part of it. "Whoever is an author, must admit that there is nothing more un- pleasant than to condense and completely re-model historical subjects, after they have been once prepared and matured for the press. In my present work on the Cossacks, I describe their piratical expeditions into Turkey, and sketch their dangerous rebellion (fostered by Russia) in Poland, under Chmielnicki, Zelezniak, and Gonta ; and not less formidable rebellions in Russia, under Stenko Razin, Mazeppa, and Pugatchef, which rebellions cost Russia nearly a million of human beings, and shook that empire to its very foundation, and even to this time has not only impaired its whole strength, but ren- dered its continued existence a mysterious problem. Having further described all the branches of the Polish Cossacks, with their most noted chiefs, from almost the beginning of their political existence till our time, I then unveil many interesing facts re- specting Catherine II., as connected with Poland, PREFACE. Xm and give a short account of her lovers and the victims of her hatred, as also the various diabolical intrigues for which she was so infamously celebrated. I conclude the work with a statistical, historical, and geographical description of the Ukraine, from time immemorial the land of unbridled passions, poetry, and romance, and the source from which the genius of Byron d-rew the material of his poem of Mazeppa. Some of the notes are written in the form of memoirs, and will be found full of interest. The anecdotes on Prince Pashkievich and Countess Cordule Fredro, are peculiar and characteristic. Many curious customs of the dreariest parts of Poland are mentioned. The dark shade of the Ukrainian poetry, and the singular adventures of the principal Ukranian poets are faithfully described. The music to be found at the end of the book may be attractive to the fairer portion of my readers. In the life of Pugatchef, following blindly a written document, I committed, unintentionally, an historical error, which I am anxious to correct. It was not the Russian general Tchernishef, but the Russian general Carr, who was first vanquished by Pugatchef. The whole work, though very imperfectly written in English, may yet prove interesting alike to the histo- rical student and the general reader, if they wiU but consider the importance of the subject rather than its style of composition. XIV PREFACE. A small part of this work I have already written in French, those who wish to translate it into Italian, Spanish, and German, will not, probably, take ad- vantage of a Polish exile, and may readily make terms for publication. In any written communication with me, it is necessary to put distinctly my christian name, Henry, on the address, to prevent mistakes, which has on more than one occasion exposed me to great annoyances. CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter L — The Polish Cossacks 1 n.— Kebellion of Stenko Razin 57 nL— The Zaporogues 74 rV.— Mazeppa 92 v.— Zelezniak 105 VL— Gonta 117 Vn.— Sava 134 VIIL— Rozycki 141 IX.— Prmcess Tarakanof 163 X.— Catherine II., and her Favourites . . .178 XL— RebeUion of Pugatchef 186 Xn.— Description of the Ukraine . . . .224 Notes 275 OF THE NIVERSITY HISTORY OF THE COSSACKS OF THE UKRAINE. CHAPTER i; THE POLISH COSSACKS. C Origin of the Cossacksz-Perivation of the Nam^ Invasion of BatuEhan — 'ihe Tatars— Pifferen^TietweiBn Eiissian and Polish Cossacks— The Cossacks of the Don— Their Arms and Mode of Warfare— The first Chief of the Cossacks of the Dnieper— Union of the Cossacks with Poland — Batory — His Policy respecting the Cossacks— Their Incursions— Boats— Cruises on the Black Sea — Dissensions between the Cossacks and the Poles — Revolt of the Cossacks— Their Defeat — Sahaydatchny — Dechne of the Cossacks —History of Khmielnitski — Andrew Firley — His Defence of Zbaraz— Horrors of the Siege —The friendly Arrow— Battle of Zhorof— Convention of Khmielnitski with the Poles — His treacher- ous conduct — Deliverance of Khmielnitski — His Invasion of Mol- davia—Battle of Beresteczko — Defection of Khmielnitski — The Convention with Russia— The two wild Bulls— The dying words of Khmielnitski. The immense solitudes which spread between the Volga, the Don, and the Dnieper, between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, appear to have been, from time immemorial, the fatherland of those wandering nations and barbarian hordes who, subsisting by rapine and 25 THE COSSACKS pillage, thundered down upon civilized Europe like an avalanche ; leaving in the rear of their destructive and fearful track nought save carnage, conflagration, ruin, and despair. Confounded and intermixed, as regards their origin, the one with the other, these predatory tribes have passed, ever since the ancient Scythians, under different names; but all bear one peculiar, distinctive, and forcibly -impressed character, both individually and in common, too indelil?le to be either obliterated or mis- taken: whii&t the general resemblance observable amongst them is so decided and striking, as to preclude their being confounded with any other races ; notwith- standing that a few varying shades in individual character, attributable to slight diiferences or modifi- cations of general climate — the moral results of suc- cessful or of unsuccessful wars — and other accidental circumstances influencing the destiny of so numerous and widely- extended a race of barbarian adventurers, may have caused some disparity in the general features of resemblance otherwise recognizable among them. The origin of the Cossack tribes is lost in the obscurity of ages ; and many celebrated historians are still divided in opinion as to whence the term Cossack, or rather Kosaque, is properly to be derived. This word, indeed, is susceptible of so many etymological explanations, as scarcely to offer for any one of them decided grounds of preference. Everything, however, would seem to favour the beKef that the word Cossack, OF THE UKRAINE. 6 or Kosaque, was in much earlier use in the vicinity ^^ of the Caucasus than in the Ukraine.* It is possible that the Kotzagery and the Kosarts may claim some sort of affinity with the primitive ancestors of the ancient Kosaques, with whom they are occasion- ally confounded ; nevertheless, it is not until long after- wards, that the Pelooses or the Komans can be reason- ably considered as the true stock of the Kosaque race, from whom the Mamelukes also derive their origin. Sherer, in his " Annals of Russia Minor/' (La Petite Russicj) traces back the origin of the Cossacks to the ninth century ; but he does not support his assertion by any facts clothed with the dignity of historical truth. It appears certain, however, that the vast pasture lands between the Don and the Dnieper, the country lying on the south of Kiow, and traversed by the Dnieper up to the Black Sea, was the principal birthplace of the Cossacks. When, in 1242, Batukhan'' came with five hundred thousand men to take possession of the empire which feU to his share of the vast inheritance left by Tchingis V Khan, he extirpated many nations and displaced many others. One portion of the Komans flying from the horrors of this '^terrific storm, and arriving on the bor- ders of the Caspian Sea, on the banks of the la'ik, (now Ouralsek,) turned to the left, and took refuge between the embouchures of that river, where they dwelt in small numbers, apart from their brethren, in a less fer- tile climate. These were, incontestably, the progeni- THE COSSACKS tors of the Cossacks of the laik, who are, historically^ scarcely important enough for notice ; and who;, obscure and ignoble, were supported chiefly from the produce of their fisheries, and the plunder acquired during their predatory excursions. In religion they were rather idolaters than Christians. At the approach of this formidable invasion towards the Don, that portion of the Komans located on the left bank took refuge in the marshes, and in the numerous islands formed by that river near its em- bouchure. Here they found a secure retreat ; and from thence, having, from their new position, acquired maritime habits and seafaring experience, they not only, themselves, resorted to piracy as a means of existence, but likewise enlisted in a formidable con- federacy, for purposes of rapine and pillage, all the roving and discontented tribes in their surrounding neighbourhood. These latter were very numerous. The Tatars, ever but indiflferent seamen, had not the courage to join them in these piratical expeditions. This division of the Komans is indubitably the parent- stock of the modern Cossacks of the Don, by far the most numerous of the Cossack tribes: by amalgamation, however, with whole hosts of Tatar and Calmuck hordes, lawless, desperate, and nomadic as themselves, they lost, in some degree, the primitive and deeply- marked distinctive character of their race. The Komans of the Dnieper offered no more ener- getic resistance to the invading hordes of Batukhan OF THE UKRAINE. O than had been shown by their brethren of the Don : they dispersed in various directions; and from this people, flying at the advance of the ferocious Tatars, descended a variety of hordes, who occasionally figure in history as distinct and independent nations. Some of them hastened to implore the hospitality of Bella IV., king of Hungaria: they made their appearance as supplicants for his protection ; lands were distributed to them, a chief assigned as their ruler, and efiTorts were made to polish and soften down their rude and ferocious manners. As long as the danger lasted, they remained quiet ; but, after a while, incapable of subjection to the yoke of a calm and peaceful existence, they broke out into open revolt, massacred the chief who had been set over them; and resumed their former life of rapine and pillage. Being consequently attacked with considerable forces, they were defeated and pursued with great virulence; and ultimately found a permanent resting-place in the wild islets of the Dnieper, below the cataracts, where dwelt already a small number of their ancient compatriots, who had escaped the general destruction of their nation. This spot became the cradle of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, or of the tribes known in after times as the Polish Cossacks. When Guedjmum, Grand Duke of Lithuania, after having defeated twelve Russian princes on the banks of the Pierna, conquered Kiow with its dependencies, in 1320, the wandering tribes scattered over the b THE COSSACKS steppes of the Ukraine owned his allegiance. After the victories of Olgierd, of Vitold, and of Ladislas lagellon, over the Tatars and the Russians, large bodies of Scythian militia, known subsequently by the comprehensive denomination of Cossacks, or Kosaques, served under these conquerors: and after the union of -the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Poland, in 1386, they'continued under the dominion of the grand dukes of Lithuania, forming, apparently, an intermediate tribe or caste, superior to the peasantry and inferior to the nobles. At a later period, when the Ukraine was annexed to the Polish crown, they passed under the protection of the kings of Poland. Kazimir lagellon had in his service a body of these troops, forming a kind of militia, dressed in English woollen cloth.'' We cannot, therefore, assign to the Cossacks a Russian origin, without rejecting the authority of a series of historical documents, the veracity and genuine character of which are indisputable. The similarity of their lan- guage to that of the Slavonic races ; and, as regards religion, their profession of the Greek faith, may be easily explained and accounted for. Located in the immediate neighbourhood of the Slavonic nations, they have adopted the idiom of the latter : in nearly equal proximity to the Greeks, they embraced that religion, probably at a much earlier period than did the Rus- sians. To give, in the present work, a detailed account of all the Cossack tribes, and to describe the various OF THE UKRAINE. 7 points of difference formerly existing, and which still continue to exist, between the Russian and Polish Cossacks, would be too wide a digression from the main subject of this historical essay : however, as the two races in question are still frequently confounded together, it may be proper here succinctly to inform the reader in what these points of difference appear chiefly to consist. Although there may, doubtless, exist several species or castes of Cossacks, and to whom Russia, in order to impose on Europe, is pleased to give as many different names, yet there never have been, nor will there ever be, properly speaking, more than two principal tribes of the Cossack nation, namely, the Cossacks of the Don, or Don-Cossacks, and the Cos- sacks of the Black Sea, known in ancient times as the ^-/^ Polish Cossacks, or Zaporowscy Kozacy. And notwith- standing that the Cossacks may have had one common origin from the very commencement of their existence as a people, it needs to be repeated again that a variety of causes, as, for instance, the lapse of time, the mutation of events, the disparity of their individual modes of life, the changing influence of unforeseen circumstances, the modifications of slightly varying climate, or of the soil they inhabit, and more especially their fusion or inter- mixture with other nations, (the sure and powerful source of change, both social and physical), would seem to have established a perceptible difference between the two principal branches of this singular race of men. >^: THE COSSACKS ¥ The Cossacks of the Don long inhabited both shores of that river. They are the most numerous : as military adjuncts, they are excellent for foraging parties, for surprising an enemy, cutting off his communications, and pursuing him when defeated. They make excellent pioneers ; nor are their services less useful in pillaging a country, or in guarding its frontiers. They utter most singular cries when in pursuit of a retreating foe: their horses, small in make but extremely vigorous, and proof to all kinds of fatigue, clear all difficulties of the ground, carry their riders everywhere with facility, and are, like their masters, content with the most meagre fare : indeed, there can no be doubt, but that the Cossacks in question have rendered signal service to Russia, which, ever since the year 1549, has taken them under her protection, without, however, the existence of any official act, treaty, or stipulation, confirming their sub- mission to that power. But sooth to say, these pre- tended heroes are, in point of fact, altogether wortliless as regular soldiers : the mere aspect of a musket or a pistol suffices to disperse them: they never dare charge in line, nor can they sustain a charge made upon them; so that with a single regiment of regular cavalry, one may always successfully attack ten regi- ments of Cossacks. In addition to a crooked sabre, a very long lance without pennant, and pistols, some few amongst them are armed with a long carabine, which carries to an almost incredible distance, and the ball of OF THE UKRAINE. which is exceedingly small : this is perhaps their most dangerous weapon, and in the use of which they are very expert, turning it, mostly, to very good account. Occasionally, they feign a sudden retreat ; and when they perceive that their pursuers are comparatively small in number, they rapidly face about, and become the assailants ; this, however, can only happen with an inexperiencedbody of troops, totally detached, and who are unacquainted with their adversaries' wily mode of warfare. The Don-Cossacks especially have always stood in extreme dread of the Polish Lancers ; a few squadrons of whom put to flight, during the wars of Napoleon, many of their entire regiments. The Cossack troops but rarely form into squadrons ; they even appear to entertain a strong aversion to every species of order and discipline ; they never decide an action ; but divide in their attack, falling indifferently on the van, the flanks, and the rear of an army on its march ; hovering around them like a vapoury cloud, which from one instant to another alternately aug- ments, fades away, or dissipates entirely, again to form into shape and to revive with increased density. They but seldom make a direct charge in line with their cavalry ; but keep constantly pirouetting and prancing about, wheeling round, and skirmishing about in every possible direction, with astonishing swiftness and activity. From the moment of their having taken the field for a campaign, they observe no regular int^vals of repose, nor stated times for repast; they 4 10 THE COSSACKS set at nought the inclemency of the weather; and rarely does anything escape the vigilance of their piercing sight, or the well-trained alertness of their acute sense of hearing : pillage is their peculiar /br^ey and they are dangerous only to a flying enemy. Once dismounted, they lose all their previous activity and courage, become altogether useless, and may be easily vanquished. The Don-Cossacks enjoy a certain kind of liberty and independence ; they have a hetman^ atiaman^ or chief, nominated by the Emperor of Russia ; and to this chief they yield an obedience more or less willing and implicit ; in general, they are commanded only by Cossack officers, who take equal rank in the Russian army. They have a separate war administration of their own ; although they are compelled to furnish a stated number of recruits who serve in a manner for life, inasmuch as they are rarely discharged before attaining sixty years of age : on the whole, their con- dition is happier than that of the rest of the Russian population. They belong to the Greek-Russian church. The existence of this small republic of the Don, in the very heart of the most despotic and most ex- tensive empire in the world, appears to constitute a problem, the solution of which is not as yet definitively known, and the ultimate solution of which yet remains to be ascertained. \ As for the second branch of the Cossack race, the V / remnants, so to speak, of which, namely, Czarnon^cy, OF THE UKRAINE. 11 still exist, and who have not hitherto lost in any- material degree the distinctive mark of their origin, a wide and striking difference is observable as to habits, mode of Ufe, customs, and social peculiarities between them and the former class, without however impairing the general mutual resemblance which must ever continue to characterize the two nations. The south-eastern districts of Poland, the Ukraine, and Podolia, exposed in former times to the incursions of barbarian hordes, were the scenes of eternal strife and bloodshed ; but as the soil of this part of Poland is the richest and most productive in all Europe, these provinces, although constantly ravaged, and frequently depopulated, became speedily repeopled, and regained their previous state of prosperity ; and this the more easily, as these countries principally consist of extensive fields, capable of yielding support to a population of almost unlimited numbers. In order to impose an efficient check to the incursions of the Tatars, the WaUachians, and the Kussians, the kings of Poland made grants of vast tracts of land on the banks of the Dnieper to the Polish nobles, on condition of the latter providing for their defence at their own expense and charges ; an arrangement which compelled these seignorial lords constantly to maintain a certain num- ber of armed retainers in their pay, and to construct a line of strongholds, or fortified habitations, proof against the danger of a sudden attack. The soldiers . in their pay were, usually, either the descendants of 12 THE COSSACKS ancient warriors, or of the primitive inhabitants of the Ukraine."^ It is towards the year 1506, after the I'atar wars, and in the time of Sigismund I., king of Poland, that historians mention, for the first time, a peculiar race of men as inhabiting both banks of the Dnieper (then nominally appertaining to Poland) , as likewise the large and numerous islands formed by the course of that river below the cataracts. They are described as half- savages, living from the produce of the chase, of their fisheries, and of their excursions both by sea and land into Turkey ; their numbers were daily increasing by the arrival amongst them of deserters, fugitives, and adventurers of all kinds and from all countries, seeking a refuge from the vengeance of their respectiye laws, and anxious to make war on their own account ; and as the word Kozah, according to the Tatar translation of it, signifies a man slightly armed, a man who belongs or owes allegiance to no one, a man who has no fixed residence, who despises the conventional forms of society, and is ever ready to adventure on break-neck enterprises, the class of men in question then received for the first time in Poland the denomination of Kosaques ; and as za signifies beyond, and porog cataract, in the Polish language, they were also called " Kosaques beyond the Cataracts," Zaporogscy Kozacy, although strictly speaking this term is applicable only to the Cossacks actually inhabiting the islands of the Dnieper, known under the designation of Zaporogues. OF THE UKRAINE. 13 These latter formed afterwards a kind of aristocracy amongst the Cossacks, and must not be confounded with the agricultural Cossacks : they were, however, the nucleus of the race of Cossacks of the Ukraine, and ultimately separated themselves from the main body, in order to form a confraternity apart ; retaining, up to the last moment of their existence, the primitive distinctive mark of their origin. We shall, subse- quently, have again to recur to this subject, when explaining the word Zaporogue. The first chief or attaman of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, Polish Cossacks, or Cossacks of the Dnieper, (for they are aU three comprised under this denomi- nation,) appears to have been Przeclaw Lanckoronski (pronounced Pchetslave Lantskoronsqui), staroste de Khmielnitza, a Polish noble of very ancient and dis- tinguished family. At first the union of the Cossacks with Poland (in 1515) was the source of great embar- rassment to the latter, seeing that over the vast pasture grounds of Podolia, then but nominally belonging to Poland, and forming scarcely more than a desert waste, the Turks left their herds of cattle to rove at will beyond the river Dneister. In so doing, they had never yet experienced any hindrance whatever. The Cossacks, however, urged by their thirst for rapine, and without permission from the Polish government, fell on their defenceless neighbours, whom they surrounded on all sides, massacred the herdsmen, and seized upon their cattle. At the news of this outrage, the Turks passed 14 THE COSSACKS the Dniester, which they then regarded as the limit or barrier between the two states, and in their turn fell upon the aggressors. The Turks were defeated, but returned to the charge, seven times invaded Podolia, and set the Tatars upon Poland.^ This was afterwards the firuitful source of frequent and cala- mitous wars between Turkey and Poland, and between the Cossacks and the Tatars ; whereas their true line of policy would have been for all to have united for mutual self-defence against their common enemy the Russians. As the Cossacks aided Sigismund I. on his return from his Russian expedition to take possession of Bialogrod, they thereby insinuated themselves into his good graces; and shortly afterwards the Diet of Piotrkow (in French, Petrykof) accorded them (in 1518), by the influence of that prince, a kind of pay or subsidy, on condition of their defending the frontiers; and it is only from this period that they are officially known throughout Poland under the name of Cossacks. By a second resolution of the Diet of 1529, both their numbers and their pay was somewhat increased. But it must be here remarked that the crown of Poland never recognized any territorial rights as belonging to the Cossacks; a precaution equally just as prudent. Sigismund, however, with his habitual sagacity, resolved to turn this irregular militia to some useful account, and to render it, by degrees, advantageous to the state ; for this reason, he permitted Ostaii Daszkiewicz OF THE UKRAINE. 15 (pronounced Daschkievitch), a man of low extraction, but of great intelligence and bravery, to organize them if possible into regular form and discipline, and to instruct them in the art of war ; a task which he ac- compKshed to a certain point. He fashioned them into something like a regular body of militia, by means of which he was enabled to repel the incursions of the Tatars, and to gain some advantages over the Ottomans, the Wallachians, and the Russians. The king, Sigismund, not only ennobled the successful chieftain, but conferred upon him the starosties of Czerkassy with Krzyczef and Cieciersk (pronounced Tcherkassy, Kchitcheve, Tsetshiersque,) on the banks of the Dnieper, and appointed him attaman or chief of all the Polish Cossacks, as the recompense of his fidelity, valour, and good conduct. Although Daszkiewicz was not the first attaman of the Cossacks in question, yet it is to him nevertheless that is incontestably due the merit of having laid the first stone of their military organization : his successors but followed in the track he had originally marked out for them, and only perfected the work his genius had commenced. At a later period, the celebrated Stephen Batory, as great a captain as he was a shrewd politician, saw clearly the advantages derivable from a nation (for with that title they were already invested,) who h^ been kindly treated in consideration of the good ser- vices they had rendered to the state, but who, in reality, were nothing more than a barbarian horde, a 16 THE COSSACKS rabble of notorious adventurers, a troop of ferocious banditti. He flattered himself with the hope of taming their impetuous ardour, by overwhelming them with kindness and marks of favour ; of attaching them permanently and indissolubly to Poland, and of being able to make a beneficial use of their enterprising bravery, without having to fear from their turbulence, their excesses, and unbridled license. He nominated Bohdon Rozynski attaman of the Polish Cossacks, and gave him the fortress of Trehtymirow, together with considerable revenues ; assigning superior marks of distinction to the dignity with which he had in- vested him. As part of the insignia of office the new attaman likewise received the huldva, or baton of com- mander-in-chief, a horse''s tail, bunizuk (bougnetchou- que), for his standard ; and for armorial bearings or device, a figure representing a Cossack armed for battle, bearing a naked sword above his head, covered with the peculiarly shaped czapka (tchapka) or Cos- sack-bonnet, surmounted by a sort of triangular tassel, by way of aigrette, in all of which latter insignia the allusion to the Scythian origin of the Cossacks is sufficiently evident. In order still further to facilitate the subjection of these new troops to the restraints imposed by a system of vigorous discipline, King Batory distributed the Cossack forces into six regiments of one thousand men each, again subdivided, respectively, into hundreds, or sotnia ; and in some one of which subdivisions OF THE UKRAINE. 17 every Cossack soldier was required to have himself inscribed. He likewise created a general of artillery, styled ohozny, a secretary (pisar), aides-de-camp {assawaly, pronounced assavouU), colonels commanding regiments (pulkowniki or poulkoveniqui)^ centurions commanding a sub-division or sotnia {sotniki), and sudi (soudi), a species of military judges, whose office it was to assist the chief in the regular discharge of his duties, and by their presence to add a more im- posing and solemn character to his station and dignity. The hetman, attaman, or chief of the Cossacks, was required to fix his residence at Czehrin (Tcheguerine) or Trekthymirow, and it was in the environs of these two military stations that he was to exercise his militia, to renew the garrisons in the islands of the Dnieper, to prevent the incursions of the Tatars, keep watch over the safety of the frontiers, and direct all the ofiensive expeditions. Each Cossack received, as a largess or bounty from the King of Poland, as part of his pay, a ducat of gold and a pelisse. Those who were in receipt of this allowance were inscribed on the registers, and were called rejestrowi (registered men). Their chief had at his disposal, not only infantry, cavalry, and artillery forces, but also an excellent, marine. Stephen Batory sanctioned the establishment of a stiU greater number of Cossacks in Lower Podolia and the Ukraine, as a reserve body, wherewith to replace, in case of need, their brethren engaged in active service ; allowing them in the meantime to clear 18 THE COSSACKS and cultivate the waste lands. All this organizing of the Cossacks of the Dnieper seemed to be somewhat foreign to the settled institutions of the Polish mo- narchy, and resembled rather one of those military- colonies of ancient Scythians, organized after the model of a Roman legion. i This was, undoubtedly, an institution highly favour- ^*\J able to the project of this great king : by this means he secured the defence of the southern frontiers of Poland, and increased his military strength at a cheap rate ; at the same time fertilizing a desert country, and by insensible but sure degrees civilizing a race of men who were no less dangerous to those whom they were to defend than those with whom it was their business to be in a state of constant warfare and hostility. As the Cossacks in question were under the obligation of serving the king of Poland in all his warlike expeditions, Batory, from their ranks, aug- mented the Polish army by an additional force of six thousand light cavalry ; and this addition, it was intended, should be permanent. In 1578, during the memorable war with Russia, this newly raised Cossack' cavalry performed prodigies of valour, and powerfully contributed to the victories obtained by the Polish army over the Russians. At a. latter period. King Batory, whilst according his favour and protection to the brave and meritorious portion of the Cossack troops, yet neglected at the same time no measures for re- pressing their lawless depredations. Having heard OF THE UKRAINE. 19 that their new chief, Podkova (a Wallachian, so named on account of his extraordinary strength, he having repeatedly broken in two, with his fingers, a horse-shoe, podkova^ in Polish), had, without his orders, invaded Wallachia, and by a sudden and totally unexpected irruption into that country, had seized possession of it, before its hospodar, Peter, an ally and relative of Batory, could have time to arm in its defence, he sent a prompt reinforcement to the assistance of the latter ; and Podkova, pursued and vanquished by superior numbers, was captured, and, by the king's orders, beheaded. This was the first collision that had occurred between the Poles and the Zaporogue Cossacks ; and, although affording a seasonable opportunity for the assertion of sovereign authority, and for the exercise of a just severity, requisite for the maintenance of public- order, this incident served to open Batory's eyes, and to warn him that the Cossacks and their chief already possessed by far too ample means and incitements to create disturbance for them to remain submissive and tranquil. He resolved, therefore, to place some restrictions on their growing power ; and, by a skilful admixture in his measures of well-timed rigour with politic conciliation, he succeeded in calming the restless agitation of the Cossacks ; sending Polish colonists into the Ukraine to counterbalance for the future the innate turbulence of this singular race. As a state of almost eternal warfare existed beyond the cataracts of the Dnieper, the successor of Podkova, 20 THE COSSACKS the Attaman Schah, found a pretext for invading Turkey both by sea and land. After ravaging several of the Turkish provinces on the coast, he burned the suburbs of Constantinople, subdued the Turkish forces on every side, and carried off from the gates of the Seraglio, and under the very eyes as it were of the Sultan, one of his most beautiful favourites, re- turning back with his prize into the Ukraine. Incur- sions of a similar nature constantly succeeded each other, like the waves of a tempest-troubled ocean. All the corsair incursions of the Cossacks in ques- tion were performed in light boats, called czayhi (pro- nounced tchaiqui),^ the nature and construction of which merit particular notice. The largest of these pirate-ves- sels of the Zaporoguian Cossacks, the czayka^ would con^ tain from thirty to sixty men ; was sixty feet long by twelve in breadth ; furnished with a sail and from fifteen to twenty-five oars, and was armed with a couple of swivel guns, or leather cannons, and a competent number of smaller fire-arms. These vessels were, sometimes, con- structed of the single trunk of the linden-tree, which was hollowed out by the Cossacks, and so fashioned that, by fastening to it a few planks of wood coated with pitch, they converted it into a kind of light bark or elongated barge, lined on the inside with skins or with leather, and surrounded, outside, with small floats or osier- boxes, which, breaking the force of the waves, served both to lighten the weight of the vessel, and, at the same time, to secure its steadiness, even during the OF THE UKRAINE. 21 most violent tempests. This singular species of bark, having from eight to ten feet interior depth, possessed also the advantage of being managed with a facility- aim ost incredible ; inasmuch as a bark so constructed drew infinitely less water than any other vessel of equal capacity and dimensions. To complete such a vessel required generally the labour of sixty Cossacks for fifteen days. With these barks, well-furnished with arms, ammu- nition, and ships'-stores, the Cossacks,^ having chosen a naval chief and a favourable season, made sail for the Turkish coast. To form some idea of the boldness and reckless daring of these marauders, it may be remarked, that the Turks possessed at the mouth of the Dnieper and along the two opposite banks, Kissikerman and Tavangorod; and that the passage was defended by strong iron chains, stretched across under the cannon of both fortresses. The Cossacks, previously to their arrival at this spot, usually felled an enormous tree, which they drove before them on the surface of the stream with prodigious force : the chains were burst asunder, and, at the alarm thus given, the cannon were discharged. But the Cossacks, after clearing the ob- stacle in question, and in utter contempt of the Turkish fire now opened upon them, pushed forward into the Black Sea. Like the ancient Danes, wherever they x made good a landing, they spread slaughter, conflagra- \ tion, and ruin ; they burned the fleets, pillaged the / towns, gathered together their booty, carried oflf they 22 THE COSSACKS young women and children, massacred without pity all the males, and disappeared before news could be spread of their sudden appearance, or the necessary measures taken for repelUng their terrible incursions. The time chosen for these murderous attacks was generally at day-break, or, occasionally, under cover of the darkest midnight. Their very name created terror along the coasts of the Black Sea. Not unfrequently they would even penetrate into the centre of Natolia. At sea, they directed their course without the aid of any nautical instruments, but by the sole guidance of the stars ; and this with a regularity and precision dif- ficult to be conceived — presaging winds, calms, and tempests, with mathematical exactness. By dint of these continual cruises on the Black Sea, and of their expeditions, almost invariably successful, they had ac- quired so intimate an acquaintance with its navigation, that, even through the darkest and most tempestuous night, they could sail on its waters with far greater cer- tainty and security from danger than could the Turks in mid-day. The vessels that gave chase to them on their retreat, not only could never come up with them, but were frequently exposed to considerable loss. The Cossacks, to whom all the harbours were well known, took refuge, with their light barks, in shallows and sheltered creeks; from whence, having thus enticed their pursuers into dangerous and sometimes fatal posi- tions, they slipped away beyond reach of their ven- geance, and arrived safely with their booty on the desert — OF THE UKRAINE. 23 islands of the Dnieper, in triumphant defiance of the Turkish vessels sent out to chase them. The number of the Cossacks engaged in these piratical expeditions, varied from six to ten thousand picked men. The retreatj however, of the Cossacks into the shelter afforded by their islands was occasionally attended with considerable difficulty, and with greater hazard than even their attack, seeing that, closely watched, as was often the case by the Turkish navy at the mouth of the Dnieper, and not having the advantage of sail- ing with the tide in their favour, they were compelled to secrete themselves in the tall osier-beds, and to gain at high tide a bay separated only by a narrow slip of land from a lake. This lake communicated with a river which discharged itself into the Dnieper, a few miles above the mouth of the latter stream. The Cossacks, having once reached the vicinity of the lake, trans- ported overland, and on their shoulders, their portable barks, gained the lake, on which they then re-em- barked, and by this route returned home, thereby avoiding the Turkish batteries : at other times, they would retreat by way of the Don, ascending the course of a small stream which flows into that river close by the Samara. Such a mode of retreat was, however, but of rare occurrence, as in general they boldly ventured to make good their passage homewards under the very beards of the Turks. It may also be remarked that, as it was only during the clear bright nights that the Cossacks were liable to interruption by the Turks in 24 THE COSSAOKS their movements, they generally chose for their piratical excursions the period of new moon, when the nights are dark and gloomy. There never yet have been, as there probably never will be, a finer race of seamen navigating the Black Sea, than were formerly the Cossacks in ques- tion : they were never equalled, but in order to have again a Kke class of men, it would be necessary that a state of circumstances similar to those then existing should likewise be revived, an event which is all but impossible. After the death of Batory, dissensions of a dangerous character began to arise between the Cossack colonists and the Polish nobles. Sigismund III., either from weakness or from ignorance, allowed the seignorial lords to oppress the Cossack settlers, who, it is true, were considered merely in the light of a militia in the pay of the PoHsh crown, but who were never serfs. They enjoyed, defacto^ a certain kind of independence ; had the privilege of reclaiming the waste lands in particular districts ; as also of distilling brandy and brewing beer ; privileges highly displeasing to the Polish nobles, and tending to diminish the revenues of the latter, who were in the habit of establishing Jews in their wine- houses or taverns for precisely the same purposes. Hence the extraordinary antipathy manifested by the Polish Cossacks towards the Jews, an antipathy which has never subsided. To this cause of ill-feeling was added another subject of discord still more serious, OF THE UKRAINE. 25 the Poles were Catholics and the Cossacks schismatics. Sigismund III., a zealous Catholic, and governed en- tirely by- the Jesuits, insisted on converting the Cos- sacks at whatever price ; an attempt which exasperated the latter more than ever. As some of the attamans ^ appeared favourable tohisprojects, the Cossacks refused to accept an attaman at the hands of the king, but elected their own chiefs, some of whom they even killed occasionally, when they happened to be unsuccessful in their piratical expeditions. They perceived, moreover, that there was no longer a Batory, whom they at the same time loved and dreaded, at the head of state affairs. It may also be remarked that the emperors of Ger- many, frequently at war with the Turks, powerfully en- couraged, underhand, the incursions of the Cossacks against the latter power. Under this complication of disturbing causes, symp- toms of open rebellion began soon to manifest them- selves in the Ukraine. After a few abortive attempts, energetically repressed by the skill and promptitude of the Polish generals, the Cossacks, in 1596, revolted en masse. The Grand- Hetman Zolkiewski marched against them ; defeated them several times, not without considerable difficulty, and drove them at last into a spot where, surrounded on every side, and exposed to the destructive fire of the Polish artillery, they were forced to surrender at discretion. Their chiefs, Nale- ygyke and Laboda, were taken, condemned to death, and executed. An amnesty was granted to the rest. »b THE COSSACKS In 1621, in the war declared by Turkey against Poland, and which threatened the very existence of the state, Peter Konassewitch Sahaydatchny was elected by the Cossacks themselves attaman, and his election confirmed by the king. This chief, renowned for his victorious expeditions against the Russians, the Tatars, and the Turks, after having defeated and slain his rival, led 35,000 Cossacks to the Polish camp of the Grand-Hetman Chodkiewicz, near Khotzim ; and, having signalized himself by prodigies of valour, greatly contributed to the glorious result of that memorable war. He died shortly afterwards, with the reputation, undoubtedly well deserved, of having been one of the greatest chiefs of the Polish Cossacks, of whom he had several times been elected attaman. He was also pre- fect of the convent of K'iof (Krivobratzkay), and pre- sident of the academy of that celebrated town. From the year 1621 the maritime excursions of the Polish Cossacks appear to have declined in frequency, either on account of Turkey having adopted more effi- cient measures for repelling them, or from the Cossacks themselves (who had, in consequence of the wars with Russia and Germany, frequent opportunities of display- ing elsewhere their restless activity in the field, and their passion for plunder), esteemed these marauding adven- tures as no longer so profitable as before. Previously to the Turkish war, in 1621, one of their chiefs was admitted into the presence of the Sultan, who seems to have been anxious to behold with his own eyes an individual of OF THE UKRAINE. 27 that strange race of beings who had formerly been so severe a scourge to the Ottoman empire. After putting several questions to him, which the Cossack answered with equal boldness and sincerity, he asked him, what were the numbers of his people. ** Sire," replied the chief, '^ they are as numerous as the grains of sand on the sea shore : each grain covers a multitude of others." He was dismissed with presents. It appears that they carefully concealed the true amount of their population. As, after the war with Turkey, they again continued to seduce the peasantry of the great nobles from their allegiance to their feudal lords, the latter, exasperated at the incessant defection of their vassals, commenced a still harsher system of oppression than before, towards the authors of these vexations. Seve- ral partial revolts ensued in consequence. The Cos- sacks were defeated by Konietzpolski, and by others of the Polish generals, who, however, failed to turn their victories to profitable account. The centre of the Cossack power was at that time established at Czerkask (Tcherkaske), defended by precipices and inaccessible rocks: they had 50,000 excellent troops under arms, and a large flotilla on the celebrated islands of the Dnieper; and this force they, on emergency, easily augmented by fresh levies of trained recruits. After the victory gained by the Polish general Konietzpolski over the Cossacks at Kumeyki, and the execution of their chiefs, the Diet of 1635 deprived them of the city of Trchtymirow, abolished their privileges, sup- 250 THE COSSACKS pressed their militia, and declared their territory re- united for ever to Poland. But to publish decrees of this kind, with any prospect of having them obeyed, requires an accompanying power of being able to carry them into effect. Poland had at this period several other wars in hand ; the Cossacks were rather scattered and dispersed than definitively vanquished ; added to which, an event altogether unexpected exercised the most fatal influence on this unfortunate war. The cir- cumstances of this new subject of political disaster are of sufficient interest to merit particular mention. Sinevoy Boghdan Khmielnitski was the son of a Po- lish gentleman of Mazovia, who had, in order to repair his shattered fortune, formed an establishment in the Ukraine, near Tcheghrine. Successful at first, he was subsequently taken prisoner, and died a captive in Turkey. His son shared the fate of his parent. Pre- viously to his being taken prisoner, the elder Khmiel- nitski had maltreated and caused to be flogged in the Ukraine a young and high-spirited Pole, Czaplinski, who, in consequence, had vowed deadly and implacable hatred against him, but had not had sufficient time to avenge the insult. Boghdan Khmielnitski, after the death of his father, had been ransomed by the liberality of the Polish king, Ladislas IV., of whose favour he subsequently proved himself worthy, by the extent of his knowledge and his great capacity, both military and political. He was appointed secretary-general of the Zaporogues, a post of considerable importance, and he OF THE UKRAINE. resided on the patrimonial estate of his father at Sob- otof, a domain the value and productiveness of which he greatly improved by the cultivation of fresh districts of land, hitherto lying waste, and by his industry. Whilst thus engaged, Czaplinski, then pidotsrostu of Czegryn, excited by the still nourished thirst for re- venge, persecuted him with unremitting animosity. Not content with thwarting his plans of territorial im- provement, and contesting with him the advantages justly derivable from a superior system of management* he proceeded so far as to attack him in his own house, burn it, throw him into prison, and offer outrage to his wife. Khmielnitski, on his release from prison,** found that in the meantime his wife had died of grief. Un- able to obtain justice from the local tribunals, he re- paired to the Zaporogues, and raised the standard of revolt at the head of 50,000 men. With these, making his appearance in the Ukraine, he was forthwith pro- claimed chief of all the Cossacks of the Dnieper. He attacked and took by assault several towns in succession, and at the outset obtained many signal advantages over the Polish generals, who were forced to yield to supe- rior numbers. Either as a ruse, or from some other motive not explained, he addressed to King Ladislas a letter, couched in the most humble and submissive terms, ascribing his hostile proceedings to the sole desire of avenging the affront to which he had been subjected, and promising to lay down his arms, and to return to his allegiance, provided the condition of the Cossacks 30 THE COSSACKS were ameliorated, and himself pardoned. As Ladislas IV. had just then (1648) died, this letter remained un- answered; meanwhile the forces of Khmielnitski in- creased daily, so that in a very short time he found himself at the head of a vast body of adherents. John Kasimir, who had now ascended the Polish throne, had at this period a variety of other wars in hand, and was moreover sufficiently occupied and distracted by the internal dissensions of his own kingdom. Khmielnitski, after having proclaimed the emancipation of the pea- sants, called the Cossacks of the Don to arms, increased his army by a strong reinforcement of Tatar troops, and, having taken several places by assault, crowned his exploits by the indiscriminate massacre of all the Polish nobles and of the Jews. He ransomed Leopold, and, after having married the widow of his former persecutor CzapKnski, he advanced with 400,000 men to annihilate the remnant of the Polish armies. This war was conducted on either side with relentless cru- elty, and in the savage spirit of a struggle for mutual extermination, the more especially as it was to some extent a species of religious warfare ; the schismatics of the Russian provinces favouring the cause of Khmiel- nitski. Never indeed had Poland found herself placed in a position of such imminent danger. Her assailant was already master of a third part of the kingdom ; giving public audience to foreign ambassadors from the principal courts of Europe, and deigning scarcely to listen to the various propositions for an amicable OF THE UKRAINE. 31 arrangement which were submitted to him. Already- had he meditated the project of falling suddenly, Hke a second Attilla, upon Europe, and of conquering for himseK a new empire by relinquishing Poland ; when his victorious career was at once arrested by the heroic courage and surprising energy of a Polish noble, Andrew Firley, castellan of Betz, near Zbaraz. This nobleman had but 9,000 men under his command. Zbaraz is a siiiall town of Lower Podolia, situated at the conjunction of two roads ; its population num- bered at that period but a few thousand souls. Firley, foreseeing that he would very shortly be attacked, repaired the old fortifications, laid in a competent supply of stores and ammunition, strengthened his camp by an entrenchment, and took the requisite mea- sures for securing from sudden attack a small pond or natural tank in the neighbourhood, the waters of which sufficed for the requirements of his little army. To his prudence and valour it was that, on the near approach of the coming storm, the Polish king had confided the important charge of arresting the progress of Khmiel- nitski, and of awaiting with some other Polish troops the first arrival of the enemy : nor was ever task more faithfully accomplished or royal confidence more judi- ciously placed than on this occasion. Scarcely had Firley taken up his position and com- pleted his entrenchments, when the Cossack and Tatar armies surrounded him on all sides : instead, however, of tamely surrendering, he resolved to defend \ 32 THE COSSACKS himself to the last extremity. Khmielnitski and the Tatar Khan glanced in anticipated triumph from the aspect of the immense forces at their command to the comparatively insignificant strength of the small Polish army before them ; and with a smile of disdain made certain of destroying the latter in the course of an hour's engagement. Too confident of victory, Khmiel- nitski, willing to prevent the effusion of blood, sum- moned Firley to surrender, assuring him of kind treat- ment, and of the highest regard for his courage, which he held to be unimpeachable. Firley returned for answer, that he had only to come and take them ; upon which several columns of infantry were instantly set in motion, fifty pieces of cannon opened their fire upon the Polish camp, and 60,000 Cossacks, commanded by Khmielnitski in person, and led by skilful and experienced officers, mounted to the assault. They were, however, repulsed with considerable loss. The Tatars and Don-Cossacks now followed in their turn but with no better success, and their dead bodies choked up the ditches. Khmielnitski, anxious to avoid the protracted delays of a siege in form, and to animate his troops by the excitement of a victory, gave orders to resume the assault. Column after column pressed forward to attack the entrenchment, but the incessant and well-directed fire of the besieged rendered unavail- ing every effort of the assailants, whose dense masses were every moment thinned by the terrific discharges of grape-shot and musketry brought to bear upon them OF THE UKRAINE. 33 by Firley, upon whom these repeated onslaughts failed to make the slightest impression. Irritated and ex- asperated rather than discouraged, Khmielnitski now issued orders to concentrate the principal attack in the direction of the pond, a point of the Polish camp which appeared less strongly defended than other por- tions of the entrenched position, and where, conse- quently, a breach seemed more practicable. Eighty-five pieces of cannon were sent forward to cover this attack ; by the combined fire from these, the artillery of Firley was dismounted. Scaling-ladders were now everywhere applied, but a fearful discharge of mus- ketry from the besieged, joined to the havoc caused by the explosion of a shower of shells and ignited hand-grenades hurled by them amongst their assailants, occasioned such great loss and confusion in the ranks of the latter, that the assault was once more repelled ; Khmielnitski himself, from motives of commiseration, giving the order to retreat, after having suffered in seventeen successive assaults enormous loss. The night passed off quietly. On the following day, a number of general assaults were attempted ; and the attack was pushed with so much vigour and pertinacity, that already the Cossacks were on the very point of carrying both the camp and town, when, at this critical juncture, Prince Visniovietski cried aloud to spare the Tatars, since they had brought, by mes- sengers from their khan, words of peace and good- will, and were about to turn their arms against the 34 THE COSSACKS Cossacks. This stratagem had the desired effect ; it revived the drooping courage of the besieged, and damped the ardour of the assailants ; the Poles made a last desperate effort, and the enemy were repulsed. Khmielnitski, perceiving that his army began to mur- mur, and that it would be dangerous, for the moment at least, to renew the assault openly, had recourse to treachery, and despatched three secret emissaries, dis- guised in the Polish uniform, into Zbaraz, to sow discord in the camp, and to assassinate Firley : the attempt however failed, the plot was discovered, and the three spies quartered. He was compelled, therefore, to undergo all the delays and procrastinations of a regular siege. In a short time, immense works, directed by foreign officers and engineers, had brought the Cossacks into close proximity to the town. For- midable batteries were erected ; in addition to which Khmielnitski gave orders to divert the course of a small river that fed the pond, in order to cut off the supply of water to the Polish army, and thereby deprive the besieged of a resource indispensable to their very existence. This project was not altogether impracti- cable, considering the then prevailing heat of the summer season ; but it required time for its accom- plishment, which, on the other hand, was not unattended with serious difficulties. Firley, who began already to feel the absolute necessity of economising his means of subsistence, was obliged to expel from the town all the women, children, and old men. The rest of the OF THE UKRAINE. 35 inhabitants, even to the boys of the age of thirteen years, were armed and organized for the defence of Zbaraz. Scarcely had this wretched crowd of helpless beings quitted the entrenchments, when a brutal and ungovernable soldiery fell upon the women, whom they first maltreated; and afterwards, together with all that left Zbaraz, pitilessly and indiscriminately massacred, without regard to age or sex. At the sight of this atrocity, cries of rage and execration arose from within the ramparts; but it was already too late to afford succour to the miserable sufferers, and they all perished. During the enemy's operations to divert the course of the river, Firley, now more than ever resolved to sell his life dearly, was not inactive ; and as he united in his disposition an iron stubbornness of will with consummate skiQ in all branches of the art of war, he ordered some houses to be demolished, and on their site a second entrenchment to be constructed, imme- diately behind and parallel with the first : within this again a third, on the descent ; and finally, an inner stockade of baggage-waggons and caissons, linked together by iron chains: he even made all requisite dispositions to defend himself and his men to the very last extremity, in the vaults and under-ground works of the fortifications. As soon as the small river had been intercepted, and a number of breaches made in the outworks, a heavy cannonade announced a fresh attack on the part of the Cossacks. Strong columns 3b THE COSSACKS of the enemy advanced to the storm ; but when, after a vigorous resistance, the Cossack troops had carried the first intrenchment, they were not a little surprised at finding a second and a third, wherein they met with so warm a reception, that, bravely repulsed, and in their turn fiercely attacked and pursued, they left the streets of Zbaraz encumbered with the corpses of their slain, and with the bodies of their wounded comrades cut off in their retreat. In the intervals thus gained from attack, Firley ordered all the mus- kets and ammunition to be collected from the dead, and distributed but few rounds of cartridge to each of his men, in order that they might be thereby induced to take surer aim. He had recourse, moreover, to a singular stratagem, the success of which even surpassed his hopes. He had perforations made in the intrench- ments; and in these apertures were planted several rows of muskets, well charged, and so arranged as not to be perceptible to the enemy. These muskets were all carefully levelled so as to tell with precision on the ranks of an assailant; and to each trigger was attached a string which led from other stronger ropes, disposed in such a manner as that on violently shaking the latter the muskets were discharged in vollies of fifteen at a time. To guard against an attack by surprise, the main cords of this species of " infernal machine " passed through holes under ground; that is to say, into the subterranean barracks or excavations beneath the intrenchments, wherein were lodged some of the OF THE UKRAINE. wounded and disabled from active service, who re- ceived the requisite instructions for the management of this novel means of defence. For some days the besieged remained unmolested, but the waters of the pond continued to decrease visi- bly ; the provision stores began to fail, threatening an absolute scarcity of food. The stifling heat of the weather, the great numbers of men cooped up together in a confined space, and more especially the want of proper nourishment, carried off the sick and wounded by hundreds. Many of the soldiers perished in defending the breach : all the messengers whom Firley despatched to the king to apprize him of the fearful position of the small garrison of Zbaraz, anxiously expecting every instant but in vain the arrival of reinforcements, were either taken or killed by the troops of Khmielnitski. To crown all these disasters, a putrid fever broke out amongst the besieged, and did more havoc in the Polish camp than did the balls of the enemy. Meanwhile, Firley continued to sustain the drooping courage of his countrymen, scarcely allowing himself time for sleep ; present everywhere, providing with promptness and decision for every emergency, and constantly impress- ing on the minds of his companions in distress how preferable it was to die nobly in the breach, than to expire in lingering torment. After consuming all the horses, dogs, cats, rats, frogs, snakes, reptiles, and the miserable remnant of such food as desperation suggests or chance supplies, Firley, seeing that his garrison was 38 THE COSSACKS reduced to the very last extremity, ordered all the bodies of the young Cossacks recently killed to be col- lected, had them cut up and salted with gunpowder, and then distributed amongst his famishing troops. Some of these, indeed, testified an insurmountable re- pugnance to taste of this fare so novel and revolting ; but the rest, impelled by the imperious rage of hunger, were fain to follow the example set them by their chief himself. Monks, artizans, and priests, crowded to die in the breach. Occasionally, the Cossacks speculated on the chances of an assault : every day, towards even- ing, and at sunrise, whilst the Polish flag waved at the summit of the castle, was chaunted, to the sound of martial music, the solemn hymn to the Blessed Virgin, queen and patroness of Poland, to the intent that she might deliver the remnant of her brave people from their hapless fate : and many a time did the strains of this pious and warlike hymn revive the courage of the dying, and pour into the despairing soul the balm of cheering hope and the quietude of resignation. The Cossacks, having heard of the misery that pre- vailed in the Polish camp, made, in the middle of the night, a last and desperate effort to surprise it. They forced the first, second, and third intrenchments ; they were already on the point of butchering the womided ; already had they raised their cry of triumph ; when, at a given signal, the report of fire-arms was heard in their rear : they fell by hundreds, and these incessant and murderous discharges fully impressed them with the OF THE UKRAINE. 89 belief that they were being attacked by some new enemy, whereupon they turned about and fled, the garrison making a sortie and pursuing them. The day broke, and an arrow, shot by some unknown hand, fell in the centre of the Polish camp : it bore an inscrip- tion announcing the arrival of the king with reinforce- ments. The arrow and its tidings were, at first, looked upon as a stratagem of the enemy, but soon the con- tinued movements perceptible amongst the hostile troops, and the evident symptoms of disorder in the Cossack and Tatar armies, left no further doubt as to something of the kind having happened. The arrow had been sent by a Polish noble, who, in resentment of an affront, had joined the standard of Khmielnitski : but the important intelligence he had forwarded to Firley, and the good service he had rendered the king by trans- mitting to him news of the fearful state to which the garrison of Zbaraz was reduced,, procured him a free pardon for his desertion to the enemy. Firley had completely exhausted his stock of gunpowder and ball, so that his garrison could not possibly have held out longer. The king of Poland, John Kasimir, was now actually advancing to its relief, and had already reached Zborof, a small town not far from Leopold. Khmielnitski and the Tatar khan having learned that the army of the Polish king consisted of but barely 20,000 men, imagined that this was a new prey for them to devour ; the more easily too as the royal army did not occupy any fortified position. Leav- 40 THE COSSACKS ing, therefore, 45,000 Tatars and 200,000 Cossacks before the intrenchments of Zbaraz, they marched upon Zborof with 60,000 Tatars, and 100,000 Cossacks, the elite of both armies, and a strong force of artillery. They soon arrived, under cover of a thick fog, close upon the royal army, before the latter had warning of their approach. Scarcely had they sufficient time to form into battalion, when they found themselves assailed on every side. A canal, confined by a high bank, pro- tected their rear; but this embankment having been broken through, the rear-guard, violently attacked, lost their baggage trains. The moment was critical for the fate of Poland. Neither the Tatars nor the Cossacks were able to force the centre and the right wing, where they were repulsed with immense loss; but the left wing, raked by the artillery and attacked by over- whelming numbers, after losing all its officers, was ex- posed to the greatest danger. Thither the king hastened, and his presence revived the spirit of the soldiers, who performed prodigies of valour. Nightfall brought no cessation to the fury of the assailants : during the construction of a rampart with the heaped-up bodies of the slain, the Polish generals convoked a council of war, wherein a resolution was come to, confirmed by an oath, either to conquer or die. Further, it was decided, that measures should be taken to detach the khan from the Cossack alliance. When daylight dawned on this terrible night, the battle was renewed with increased determination on OF THE UKRAINE. 41 either side. AVhilst a hand-to-hand conflict, sustained by all the rancour of mutual hate and animosity, was raging with deadly force amongst the combatants, whole ranks were swept away at once by the fearful discharges of artillery. Ultimately, however, the im- mense superiority in numbers was forced to yield to the steady power of military tactics, and the resistless courage of despair. The Poles were victorious on all points. Khmielnitski having received unfavourable news from Lithuania, where Prince Radziwill was everywhere defeating the Cossacks with terrific energy, and having reason, from hour to hour, to expect the arrival of that victorious general with 15,000 troops to reinforce the royal army; finding, moreover, that the khan of the Tatars had withdrawn his support from the Cossack cause, and had actually concluded an armistice with the Polish king ; Khmielnitski, thus hampered and thwarted in his plans, found himself under the necessity of likewise agreeing to a suspension of hostilities, and of soliciting, in person, his pardon from the king ; an event which afforded some tempo- rary respite to unhappy Poland. The convention of Zborof (17th August, 1649,) was by no means favour- able to Khmielnitski himself. He was therein treated as a rebellious subject, compelled to disband his army, and forbidden for the future to receive deserters or refugees ; he was to be permitted to retain no greater number than 40,000 registered Cossacks — and these merely for the defence of the frontiers, conformably 42 THE COSSACKS to the ancient stipulations settled by King Batory. But on the other hand, an amnesty was granted to all the Cossacks, who were to be permitted in future to elect their own attamans and to distil brandy : they were also to have the right of hunting and fishing throughout the south of the Ukraine; they were to enjoy the free exercise of their religion ; and a pro- mise was even made them to admit to the Senate and to the Diet a Cossack, with the title of Palatine of Kiow, as likewise a metropolitan of the Greek religion. Further, there was accorded to each re- gistered Cossack, a ducat in money, together with sufficient cloth for his dress. Scarcely had the Tatars and Khmielnitski retreated, when the king's troops made their appearance before Firley's camp. At the aspect of the national banners waving in the air, near Zbaraz, all attempts to preserve order and discipline in the garrison became useless. A crowd of living spectres rushed into the embraces of their brethren in arms. Some, exhausted by long suffering and privation, e:8:pi«:ed with excess of joy. Shortly afterwards, masses were performed, to render thanksgiving to Heaven for the miraculous deliverance of this band of heroes ; but many of the inhabitants of Zbaraz never more were blessed with the sight of wife, mother, sisters, or children. This celebrated defence, one of the most obstinate and determined of its kind in the seventeenth century, earned for its leader, Firlev, immortal fame ; afforded time to the OF THE UKRAINE. king of Poland to detach, by means of skilfully directed intrigues, the Tatar troops from the Cossack alliance ; reawakened the energies of the Polish nation ; and thereby, most probably saved all Europe from a terrible invasion on the part of the barbarian tribes, not less dangerous than had been formerly that of Attila or of Ghengiz-Khan. Khmielnitski and the Tatars lost in twenty-nine attacks on Zbaraz, and in the battle of Zborof, upwards of 50,000 of their best troops, and the best part of their artillery. There was in Firley's camp a priest, Mucheveski, stationed at the gate of the castle, who, with his single carabine, shot down upwards of two hundred Cossacks, according to Pastorius ; himself receiving several wounds. Firley was presented with a starosty, as a reward for his signal exploit; but, beyond this, history is silent as regards his subsequent career. It is only by such another man that Poland can once i^ore be freed. The Firley family is of British origin; ranking, however, amongst the most illustrious of the Polish nobility. It has produced several warriors, a few statesmen, and a host of beautiful women. There were yet remaining, in Austrian Gallicia, a few surviving descendants of this distinguished family; and there may still be found, if indeed they have not been massacred by the peasantry in the late insurrection of the latter against the nobles. Many historians con- sider the defence of Zbaraz by Firley one of the most surprising military achievements upon record. 44 THE COSSACKS The convention of Zbaraz was highly displeasing to the Polish nobility, as being too favourable to the Cossacks. Complaints on the subject were in conse- quence made to the Diet ; but the king, unshaken in his purpose, appeared more obstinately bent than ever on having it observed. In a short time, however, Khmielnitski, still protesting his good intentions, fanned anew the embers of discord : setting on foot a variety of intrigues, now with Turkey, now with the Court of Russia, on his own account ; and after promising the Sultan to yield him up the Ukraine, on certain conditions — amongst others, that he might expel the hospodar of Moldavia, as being too favourably dis- posed towards Poland — he openly and without any previous declaration of war invaded the latter province, of which he made himself master. Scarcely had the hospodar sufficient time to take refuge, with a few troops, in those vast forests which had so often been the tomb of an invading foe. From this retreat, however, he shortly afterwards emerged, after paying a heavy ransom to Khmielnitski, to whose son, moreover, he promised to give his daughter in marriage. This invasion spread alarm once more throughout Poland ; more especially as Khmielnitski, under the pretext of aiding the khan of the Tatars in an invasion against the Circassians, was levying fresh troops ; and as one of his subaltern chiefs, Nitchai, about this time made an irruption into Podolia ; where however, beaten, pursued, and his forces cut to pieces, he perished, OP THE UKRAINE. together with his adherents. Although these irrup- tions were disavowed by Khmiebiitski, two Polish divisions, one of them under the orders of Kalinowski, and the other under Potocki, advanced upon the Ukraine and Podolia. There existed, moreover, another ground of quarrel. The disbanded Cossacks would not allow t the peasants to cultivate the soil, nor the seigneurs to reside on the estates of these districts. A deputation of Cossacks sent to negociate with the king, made such extravagant demands and proposals so insolent, that John Kasimir himself changed his mind regarding them ; and having learned that the Cossacks were about voluntarily to submit themselves to Turkey, he immediately raised 50,000 fresh troops, convoked the Pospolite ruszenie, or general muster of the nobles, and marched against Khmielnitski ; whilst Radziwill, almost invariably successful against the Cossacks, guarded Lithuania. The royal troops thought to take Khmielnitski by surprise ; when, to their astonishment, that chief, having collected immense forces, suddenly made his appearance within a thousand paces of the Polish army. On making this discovery, the king fell back and took up his position near Beresteczko, on the bank of the river Styr, in Volhynia ; having on the one hand that river as his point-d'appui, and on the other, a hilly ground, which he bristled with infantry. He had all the bridges destroyed, in order to leave no possibility of retreat. 46 THE COSSACKS As this battle would decide the fate of the Cossacks, and as Khmielnitski, during the two days' skirmishing which preceded it, had become convinced that the Polish army was more numerous than usual, he seemed inclined to avoid the chances of a general engagement. The king, who penetrated his design, thereupon ordered his army to form in line of battle — a manoeuvre which was effected under cover of a dense fog. The right wing was commanded by the Grand-Hetman Po- totski, who had under him the illustrious Sobieski, just arrived from his recent journey into France, and who was shortly to adorn the Polish crown with the added glories of his immortal fame. The left wing was confided to the command of General Kalinowski, supported by the Princes Ostrogoki and V'isniovietski, two noblemen of approved bravery serving under him, the king taking charge of the centre, and having in front of his line the Polish and German infantry, as likewise the artillery under the direc- tion of Przyiemski, a veteran Swedish general. The second line was composed of a superb body of cavalry, amongst whom was the king in person. The third portion of the line formed a reserve, under the orders of Prince Charles, brother to the king, and of a French colonel, Duplessis, whose skill and daring had become proverbial. In the rear of these main bodies were posted a few regiments of light infantry, whilst the whole was hedged in with a forest of lances, the floating pennants from OF THE UKRAINE. 47 which spread farther than the eye could reach, and fonned a spectacle at once imposing and fantastic. The Polish army numbered 100,000 men. The enemy's force consisted of 350,000 men: its numbers were lost in the distance, and presented the appearance of living waves, tossing to and fro on the agitated surface of a tempest-torn ocean. The Cos- sacks drawn up facing the left wing of the Polish army were intermixed with Turkish troops. Several rows of chariots, linked firmly together by iron chains, called tabor, and defended by picked men, formed their centre; on both wings and on all the neighbouring heights were the innumerable Tatar squadrons, ranged in the form of a half-moon or single crescent. The fog had just dispersed, and the rays of a bright sun dis- closed to mutual view the two armies, surprised and motionless, in front of each other. Since the days of Timur-lenkh never had the like for importance and extent been seen. After a few seconds of deep and solemn silence had elapsed, forty-eight pieces of field- artillery, under Przyiemski, opened a deadly fire ; the ranks of the enemy were visibly thinned by the dis- charge, and the entire Polish army rushed upon the Cossacks, who were the principal object of attack; these, after a vigorous defence, broken at last by the fury of the Polish charge, took refuge behind their iron-bound chariots, leaving their Tatar allies openly exposed to the murderous fire of the artiUery, beneath which they fell by whole squadrons at a time. Com- ■ 48 THE COSSACKS pelled to regain the heights from which they had des- cended, the Tatars rallied again at first, but when all around the khan had been either killed or wounded, that chief gave way : his best squadrons dispersed, and towards nightfall took to flight, pursued by the Polish cavalry; leaving behind them their camp, their bag- gage, and their prisoners, as also an immense booty, the whole of which fell into the hands of the victorious Poles. Khmielnitski strove in vain to arrest their retreat, and with this view rode after the Tatars ; but the khan, after reproaching him with his deception in having given him a false report of the strength of the Polish army, had him arrested, and even threatened to deliver him up to the Polish king, unless he con- sented to indemnify him, the khan, for the losses he had sustained in consequence, by delivering to him one half of all the booty which the Cossack chief had realized in the immediately preceding campaign against Poland. The absence of Khmielnitski threw the Cos- sack army, still 200,000 strong, into a state of para- lysing uncertainty. Batteries were erected all around them and they fell by hundreds. After making some unsuccessful sorties, the Cossacks, weakened by two days' fighting, were as a body completely dispersed: the small remnant of their but lately innumerable forces, entrenched themselves on a neighbouring island, where, obstinately refusing to surrender, they were ex- terminated to the very last man. In this brilliant action, which lasted three successive OF THE XTKRAINE. 49 days, and which destroyed the Cossack power in Po- land, the Poles sustained but very trifling loss. Forty thousand Cossacks and Tatars were left dead on the field of battle ; sixty pieces of cannon, all their baggage trains and banners, together with an immense collection of booty, fell into the hands of the conquerors, as trophies of their victory. The king committed a great oversight in not following up to the very last in pursuit of the flying enemy. The Cossacks were allowed to eflfect their retreat comparatively unmo- lested, and the victor was content with a mere restric- tion of their privileges. Khmielnitski, however, soon made his re-appearance in arms, raised once more the standard of revolt, and even with some partial success at first : but was again defeated, after having in vain soHcited the protection of Turkey and Sweden, who, at the same time that they refused him their support, advised him to place no reliance whatever on Kussia. He tdtimately changed his line of policy as regarded the establishment of the Cossacks as an independent state : and having received information that Prince Radziwill had just at this period annihilated his best troops in Lithuania, and that the Tatar khan had entered into a treaty with the king of Poland, whereby he undertook to pursue the Cossacks in every direction and to break up their settlements, on condition of his Polish majesty's aiding him to reconquer the Khanat in the kingdom of Astrakhan, subjugated a century before by the Czar Ivan IV., — conscious, moreover, £ 50 THE COSSACKS that he was in no condition to struggle single-handed against Poland, Khmielnitski, on the 6th January, 1654, concluded at Pereaslav a convention with the Czar Alexy Michalovitch, by the terms of which a portion of the Ukrania, together with its Cossack population, submitted under certain conditions to the dominion of Russia. The conformity of creed in matters of religion existing between the t^^ nations, the desire to furnish, elsewhere, employment for the turbulent activity and restless enterprise of the Cossack hordes, joined to an inclination to enjoy at his ease the sweets of power — by no means an object of easy attainment in Poland — would seem to have been the principal motives for his taking this rash and impru- dent step, in direct opposition to the advice of Charles Gustavus, king of Sweden, and against the wish and opinion of many of the Cossacks themselves. It may be as well here to remark, that when Khmiel- nitski advised the czar to attack Poland, the latter, willing at the same time both to play upon the super- stitious feelings of the common people, and to have his still wavering decision confirmed by some favour- able omen, had a couple of wild bulls brought before him ; one of these bore the name of Poland the other Muscovy: the larger and more powerful of the two was the champion of Eussia. The bulls were then let loose upon each other : in the event of the Polish bull being crushed by his adversary, then Alexy was to be considered as fulfilling orders from on high. At OF THE UKRAINE. 51 first the superior activity of the Polish bull gave him some advantage over his more ponderous assailant, and he parried the attack of the Russian bull ; but the latter, infuriated by resistance, redoubled his efforts, and by dint of his overwhelming strength overthrew the former, and was on the point of being proclaimed the conqueror, when suddenly the Polish bull, whom every one supposed to be nearly dead, started up again on his legs, rushed with resistless fury on his anta- gonist, buried his horns in his flank, and stretched him lifeless on the arena. This circumstance, related by several writers, made such an impression on the mind of Alexy, that it became necessary to set in motion the intrigues of the courtiers, and even of the metro- politan himself, in order to force him to invade Poland. As for the Cossacks, naturally a superstitious race, it was for them an infallible prognostic of the ultimate victory that must one day be achieved by Poland over Russia. As Khmielnitski had not the right of dispo- sing of the Ukraine, a war with Russia ensued, and, after much bloodshed, and the loss by the Cossacks of several battles, a portion of Ukrania was restored to Poland. Although, in accordance with the convention of Pe- reaslav, between the czar and Khmielnitski, the latter took possession of the Russian Ukraine, as a fief of Muscovy, yet on behalf of the Cossacks, whom, as his proteges, he erected into a species of separate nation, they were in reality much less independent than ft 52 THE COSSACKS they had formerly been whilst under the dominion of Poland. The Russians personified despotism itself; the Cossacks, on the contrary, the essence of freedom : their customs, their character, their Magdeburg code of laws, under which their government was carried on, all gave umbrage to the Russians. When we reflect on the conduct of Khmielnitski, we cannot but admit that he possessed in an eminent de- gree the talent of adapting his measures to the peculiar disposition and manners of the Cossacks ; that he pos- sessed over them a great ascendancy and controlling influence ; but it is nevertheless equally evident that he never intended definitely to separate himself from Po- land, either because he still secretly cherished in his bosom a remnant of affection towards his native land, or that he foresaw that a race of men, who exist but for rapine and plunder, and who seem to have a decided repugnance to establishing themselves anywhere as a settled community, do not possess within themselves the requisite elements for constituting a separate nation. Khmielnitski, it is true, took signal vengeance for his wrongs, but he dealt an almost mortal blow to Poland, and would appear subscquenj:ly to have bitterly repented his conduct in so doing ; since, on his death-bed, after having summoned together the principal Cossack leaders, and returned them thanks for their devotion to his cause, he uttered these memorable words : " / have committed towards God a grievous sin, in having betrayed the Cossack people to the Czar Alexy : it were better that OF THE UKRAINE. OO they should confide in the Turks, or even in the Tatars themselves, than in the good faith of Russia, Return back then, Cossacks, to Poland, and continue for ever united to her.'' After pronouncing this address he ex- pired, on the I5th of August, 1656. After his death the Cossacks alternately, as occasion offered, returned to their allegiance to Poland, or sub- mitted to the Turks; now allying themselves once more with Russia, now breaking out into fresh revolts, which deluged the country with torrents of blood. All the efforts of an historian would be unequal to the task of describing the endless intrigues and convulsions by which they were incessantly agitated. Although Russia held out to them the hope of something like indepen- dence, she never in reality entertained the slightest idea of fulfilling her promises to the Cossacks in this respect. 8he on the contrary abrogated their privileges, and suppressed the Cossack settlements in Lesser Russia. Outrages similar to those perpetrated by Czaplinski could not be tolerated anywhere. Had he been punished with death in Khmielnitski's presence the terrible rebellion of the Cossacks under his sway would never have happened. On the other side, had Khmiel- nitski's father not shamefully illtreated Czaplinski, the latter would probably never have committed such enor- mities at Khmielnitski's house, and never avenged on the son the insults to which he had been subjected by the father. Those also who are acquainted with the recesses of the human heart, are well aware, that a 54 THE COSSACKS proud man may forgive many things, but scorn never ; and that there are offences which are never forgiven. More than once we have seen that private quarrels often exercised a fatal influence on the destiny of large empires. Such things produce generally a terrible commotion when the offender is too powerful to be dealt with openly; and the more powerful he is, the more his injuries are resented. Even time, instead of diminishing, only increases the thirst for revenge. Khmielnitski, after his defection from Poland, usurped the Polish title of hetman, which nowhere now exists but among the Cossacks. The dignity of grand hetman, which corresponds to that of field-marshal, or general-in-chief, existed till the last partition of Poland. The supreme military title among the Cos- sacks, granted to the latter by the Polish kings, and known among the Cossacks themselves, was Attaman Koshovy, or only Koshovy; Attaman Kourenny, or Kourenny only, corresponding with the title of colonel, with some higher distinctions. After the defection of Khmielnitski from Poland and his death, a Cossack chief, Samoilovitch, taking advan- tage of a disastrous treaty between Poland and Russia in 1686, by which not only the Polish territory at the east of the Dnieper, but even the important town of K'iof was given up to the latter power, prevailed, by Russian intrigues, on great numbers of Polish Cossacks settled on the western bank of that river to emigrate with him to Russia in 1675, under the plea of OF THE UKRAINE. 55 finding great advantages for them in the Russian Ukraine, where lands were actually distributed to them in the Steppes, and high-sounding promises made them by order of the czar. This emigration, which may be considered as one of the most important after the death of Khmielnitskij was undertaken more from religious than from political motives, as the Cossacks on all im- portant occasions have invariably shown a greater predilection to Poland than to Russia, on account of their attachment to liberty and democracy. AVars between Poland and Russia on account of the Cossacks have been incessant. The continual emigra- tion of the Cossacks to both countries became an apple of discord between Poland and Russia till the complete suppression of the Zaporogues before the par- tition of Poland : though some of the Polish Cossacks were still to be found in the Ukraine. If, on one side, during the beginning of their political existence the Cossacks were useful to Poland; on the other, their piratical expeditions and rapine in Turkey were chiefly the cause of many wars with the Ottomans ; while their numerous rebellions cost rivers of blood. The perse- cution of their religious creed, chiefly attributed to the bigotry of the Jesuits who governed the weak Sigis- mund III., and the oppression to which they were sub- jected by the Polish grandees, sapped the political existence of Poland. As there was a time when all the Cossacks were inclined to be incorporated completely with Poland, it was as necessary to invest them cau- 56 THE COSSACKS OF THE UKRAINE. tiously with the privileges of the Polish nobles as to exterminate them completely. The general characteristics of the Cossacks appear to be their predilection for a wandering life, love of rapine, a wild passion for democracy, and a liberty they know not how to use. A Cossack will endure any climate, and is remarkable for the instinct by which he finds his way in the wildest tracts. With noisy demon- strations of joy in successes, they combine sudden depression of spirits in reverses, and their passions ai'e easily excited, being governed rather by impulse than by reason. The generality of the Cossacks are of middle size but of robust constitution, enduring hun- ger, thirst, fatigue, and want of sleep, with astonishing hardihood. They have mostly auburn or red hair, blue sunken eyes, and Asiatic features : cunning and patient in stratagem, they are at the same time proud and hospitable. They are rather a peculiar race than a distinct nation, whose ultimate destiny, assigned them by Providence, is, probably, not yet fulfilled. See Lessur's Histoire des Cosaques; Chevalier's Guerre des Cosaques ; Pastorius ; Niemcevitch ; Beau- plan; Sherer Annales de le Petite Russie; Pologne Pittoresque ; Brown on the Cossacks ; Pamietniki ; Hetmana Zulkiewskiego, &c., &c. See on Pazin, L'Eveque ; Lessur ; Kelation of the rebellion of Eazin, British Museum, &c., &c. See on Mazeppa, Life of Peter the Great, Charles XII., Nurymberg, &c. &c. CHAPTEE II. REBELLION OF STENKO RAZIN. Stenko Eazin— Obscurity of his early History— His Oath of Ven- geance against Russia — His Eetreat at the Mouth of the laik— Amnesty with Russia — Again RevoUs — His Popularity— Attack on Astrakhan— Its Capture— Stenko Razin's ambitious Design — His Stratagem and Successes — Head-quarters of Prince Dolgorouki — Horrible Execution of the Rebels — Stenko betrayed by Yakolof — — His Execution, and extraordinary Firmness — Restoration of Tranquillity. The very first act of the Russian supremacy over the Cossacks of the Ukraine was by no means of good augury for the future, as we shaU prove by a descrip- tion of the rebellion. The origin of Stenko Razin, and the manner in which he spent his youthful days, are by no means well known, and seem to be enveloped in mystery. In almost aU the books written concerning him he is de- scribed as a Don Cossack, but the termination of his surname is purely foreign : stiU, as neither the place of his birth, nor the name of Cossack Stanitza (com- mune) to which he belonged, is mentioned, it is pos- sible that either he emigrated with Khmielnitski from Poland to Russia, in his childhood, or joined his Cossacks from more distant regions. 58 REBELLION OF Prince Dolgorouki, who commanded in the Russian Ukraine, was desirous of retaining a Cossack regiment for some time longer that he was warranted in doing by the stipulations agreed upon with the Cossacks, who had just previously thrown themselves into the arms of E/Ussia, and which stipulations had been formally rati- fied by the Czar Alexy. The soldiers refused to re- main, and with their colonel, Razin, at their head, marched ofi" home. The Russian general had the colonel seized, brought privately back to the Russian camp, and there hanged under his own eyes. This colonel had a brother, named Stenko Razin, a simple Cossack soldier in the ranks, but whose lofty and enter- prising character, uncommon courage, strength of body, and skill in military affairs, greatly distinguished him above all the rest of his companions. Indignant at the infamous treatment experienced by his brother, he swore an oath of vengeance for the injury, and to ex- tend that vengeance to all that bore the name of Rus- sian. For the moment, however, he managed to re- strain his feelings, and, under the appearance of sub- mission, to gain the favour of his superiors, whilst at the very time he was secretly nourishing the flames of discord, and spreading the seeds of revolt. Under the pretext of avenging their outraged religion, he assem- bled a body of his companions, and proceeded privately with them towards the Don, in order, as he gave out, to free all the Cossacks from the Muscovite yoke. Pursued by superior forces, he pushed forward to the STENKO RAZIN. 59 Volga, and, after having taken the command of all the robbers and banditti there congregated, and of as many Cossacks as he could gather together, he attacked and took possession of a rich caravanne, which the czar was sending to Persia, escorted by one of his favourites ; enrolled such of the soldiers as were willing to enter his service, and had all the rest massacred without pity, together with their officers. He then descended the Volga, gained the shores of the Caspian Sea, and sur- prised the town of Goui-ief, at the mouth of the laik (now Ouralsek). The fame of his robberies and his vic- tories brought him a numerous accession of partisans and of vagabonds attracted by the hope of plunder. Prince Khilkuf, the governor of Astrakhan, alarmed at his success, sent him a deputation of officers to offer him a free pardon, on condition of his returning to his allegiance to the czar. Razin received these officers at first with great politeness, and then had them all put to death in his presence. The governor, having some misgiving as to their fate, despatched a regular divi- sion of the army, under Siverof, against Stenko Razin ; but the latter, still retreating, enticed his pur- suer into a disadvantageous position, and cut his army to pieces. He then attacked and took by surprise the town of latskoy (Ouralsk), where he had all the officers hanged, and all the soldiers who refused to submit to his orders massacred. In this fortified position, at the -extremity of Russia, surrounded by fearful deserts, and by savage hordes impatient of the Muscovite yoke. 60 REBELLION OF he used every possible means to attach the half-savage Cossacks of the laik to his cause. He organised and disciplined his troops, increased his flotilla, and, antici- pating that he must very shortly be attacked, des- patched emissaries in all directions to rouse the spirit of insurrection. He descended the Volga, seized upon all the merchant-vessels, and annihilated the Russian fleet, that had just been sent out against him. He attacked Persia, after having augmented his forces by the incorporation with them of another famous band of Cossack corsairs, led by Krivoy, who came voluntarily to place himself and followers under his orders. In the course of a very short time they, together, sacked seve- ral towns, and beat the Persian army, giving out that they so did by order of the czar. As, however, the united force of Persia threatened to crush them at once, they retreated towards the mouth of the laik, amongst the islands, or rather forests, of reeds and osier-beds, which there formed an asylum inaccessible to any other vessels save their own light barks, and where they made provision of food, ammunition, and military stores, previously to recommencing their piracies and excursions for propagating rebellion. But the Russian court having by this time received information of their robber-like exploits, deposed Khilkuf, and ordered the governor of Astrakhan, Prince Prozorowskoi to set out immediately in pursuit of the two chiefs ; and to hunt them down without mercy or intermission. Aware of their place of STENKO RAZIN*. 61 Tetreat, he had the river closed up in the narrow parts with strong iron chains, and landed a body of troops in the rear of the Cossacks ; he likewise sent forward a squadron of well-armed ships of war, manned by his best sailors, to exterminate the Cossack pirates. Stenko Razin, thus suddenly enclosed as in a trap — • destitute, moreover, of sufficient stores and ammuni- tion to enable him to hold out for any continuance — despatched confidential envoys to Prince Prozorowskoi, with proposals of surrender, and of consecrating, like a second Yermak, his talents and the remainder of his life to the service of the czar, provided he was assured of pardon for his past acts of rebelHon. But at the same time that he was making these proposals, which he had every reason to anticipate would be rejected, he took every possible measure within liis power, to either conquer or perish in the struggle. Whether it was that Prozorowskoi hoped to turn his submission to some account, or that the chances of a sea-fight with such experienced corsairs as Razin and his followers, so often victorious, and now reduced to despair, appeared to him somewhat too doubtful ; the result was, that he accepted the latter's ofier of submission. Stenko Razin was amnestied ; and after he had renewed his oath of allegiance to the czar, was confirmed in the command of his troop of Cossacks, which were distributed along the banks of the Don. But what appears still more extraordinary, is the fact of the Czar Alexy never o:(5 REBELLION OF having in the sequel violated this amnesty. The thirst for vengeance, however, still raged in the bosom of Stenko Razin; the dead body of his brother was incessantly before his eyes ; he renewed his intrigues ; he was now observed to make a great display of his riches, — to be prodigal of his money to his friends and partizans, whom he confidentially gave to understand, by mysterious hints, that he would shortly be in a condition to renew with them the former course of profitable expeditions. By all these manoeuvres, joined to their natural impatience of an inactive life, and craving for booty, the eyes of all the Cossacks of the Don were gradually directed towards Stenko, who completely eclipsed the influence of Kernel Yakolof, their attaman. Seeing that the time had now arrived for throwing aside the mask of submission, and for taking an attitude of independence, Razin gave the signal for action. From the banks of the Don to those of the laik, nothing was now heard but one unanimous cry of " Long live Stenko ! down with the Russians !" All the officers who had been set to watch the Cossacks disappeared. Stenko started up once more on the Volga. In possession of a new flotilla, he destroyed the merchant vessels, ravaged both banks of the river, and massacred all those who hesitated or refused to attach themselves to his fortunes. A regular body of Strelitzes, sent against him, instead of opposing his troops, introduced them STENKO RAZIN. 63 into the town of Tzaritch.ine, where all the Russians were put to the sword ; whereupon adherents flocked from every direction to join his cause, and his forces thenceforward rapidly increased in numbers. A division of the Russian army, under Livof, despatched against him, revolted ; massacred their oiEcers, and enlisted under his orders. Another division, sent from Moscow, proved more faithful, but less fortunate ; overpowered and cut to pieces, scarcely three men escaped. Tchernoiar opened its gates to the rebels. Prozorowskoi, shut up in Astrakhan, and anticipating a speedy attack, laid in a store of provisions, repaired the fortifications, took all possible measures to repel the assailants, and despatched courier after courier to Moscow, to solicit reinforcements. But symptoms of sedition already began to manifest themselves in the place ; the soldiers mutinied, and demanded their pay, and the metropolitan opened his treasures in order to appease them. In this state of things it was that Stenko Razin, dragging after him the scum and refuse of various robber nations, made his appearance before Astrakhan, and, assuming the mask of humanity, summoned the governor to throw open to him the gates of the city, in order to avoid pillage and massacre. The governor, by way of reply, had his messenger hanged from the battlements on the rampart. The bravest of the troops were now posted at the weakest points, and volleys of musketry were returned in answer to the insolent pro- 64 REBELLION OF position. In a short time, however, thousands of scaling-ladders were applied to the walls : the Cossacks mounted them with surprising audacity : instead of resisting them, the Russian soldiers received them as brethren. The result may be easily foreseen. Some of the officers, who wished to recall the troops to their duty, were instantly set upon, and, together with all those who were most interested in the defence of the town, overpowered and put to the sword, their houses pillaged, their wives maltreated, and their chil- dren thrown out of the windows. Stenko himself, drunk with brandy and carnage, and covered all over with blood, ran through all the streets, poniard in hand, in search of Prozorowskoi, whom he at last dis- covered lying wounded in a church. He ordered him to be thrown, in his presence, from the top of a high tower. By a singular accident, his body, crushed and mutilated, fell close by that of his brother, who also was mortally wounded and expiring. He then had Prozorowskoi's two boys hanged by the heels, under the pretext that, after repeated questions put to them on the subject, they refused to discover where the govern- ment chest was deposited. The metropolitan, who endeavoured to protect them, was put to death. The mother of the two boys was spared. A general pillage wound up this eventful day, ever memorable for Astra- khan, wherein all the Tatars were spared, as being victims of Muscovite tyranny. Now it was that, master of a city renowned for its STENKO RAZIN. 66 commerce, and of several fortresses, with a fleet and an army at the extremity of Russia, Stenko Razin medi- tated the overthrow of the Romanow dynasty, their expulsion from the Muscovite throne, the abolition of serfdom, the extermination of the noblesse of the em- pire, and the erection into independent principalities of all those provinces which Russia had recently and per- fidiously seized from the Tatars and theii* allies, as likewise from other nations. A YSLiiety of singular circumstances existing at the period seemed to favour this project; amongst others the quarrel between the Czar Alexy and the patriarch Nickon, whom he had just deposed, and the recent death of his eldest son and heir to the throne, against whom it was generally supposed his father had con- ceived a deeply-rooted hatred. Stenko Razin resolved to turn these incidents to account, and to excite the Cossacks and other superstitious subjects of the czar to rebellion by an appeal to their feelings of religious fanaticism. To this end he caused a rumour to be circulated that both the patriarch and the czarewicz, (the heir apparent) having escaped, by miracle, from their oppressor, had fled to him for protection and ven- geance for their wrongs. In order to give confirmation to this rumour, he had two barks constructed, the one covered with red, and the other with black velvet. In the former was understood to be concealed the fugitive czarewicz,* and in the latter the injured patriarch. The ruse succeeded to admiration. From this moment F 66 REBELLION OF Stenko was regarded by the multitude in no other light than as the guardian angel of religion and the champion of outraged liberty. All the fanatics, adventurers, and brigands, far and near, flocked to his standard, and his army already amounted to 100,000 men. In a short time he quitted Astrakhan, where he left 25,000 of his troops, and advanced up the Volga, to establish his head-quarters at Kazan, the ancient metropolis of the Tatars. On his way thither he took Saratof and Sa- marra, seizing on all the money he could find there, and putting all the E-ussian inhabitants to the sword. The whole of the Cossack and Tatar populations on his route, including the various scattered and bar- barian hordes, inflamed by his proclamations, and headed by their respective chiefs, declared for him. All the country, from Astrakhan to Nizny Novograd, was sacked and pillaged; the nobles were massacred, their wives dishonoured, and their dwellings set on fire, till at last Sineberik succeeded in arresting their san- guinary and devastating march. A division of the Russian army, under the orders of Miloflaskoy, who was instructed to retake Astrakhan, met with the rebels, whom they defeated; the latter retreated into the town, resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity, under the orders of Krivoy. Stenko Razin, after having gained several victories over the Russians, began at last to meet with nothing but reverses: defeated by Prince Boratynskoy, and pursued by the very same Dolgorouki who had caused STENKO RAZIX. 67 his brother to be hanged in the Ukraine, he was over- taken by him just as he was, with his Cossacks, at the gates of Moscow, which would have been thrown open to him, had he not lost too much time in pillaging the provinces — a fatal delay, as the result proved, for Stenko, who, not having sufficient time to concentrate his army against Dolgorouki, was by that general surprised, and 15,000 men, the elite of his Cossack soldiers, suddenly fallen upon by superior numbers, were cut to pieces. Three times broken, three times they recovered the battle, but, panic-stricken at this unlooked-for disaster, the rebels fell from the height of confidence to the extremity of discouragement. The peasants returned to their several homes, the barbarian hordes fell off one after the other, and disappeared in the deserts, whilst the Cossacks, incessantly pursued by their victorious and implacable foes, who gave them no quarter, opposed but an inefiectual resistance. All the roads, towns, villages, passes, rivers, lakes, ponds, barns, and houses, were full of their mutilated bodies. In the ancient town of Arsamas, in the country of the Morduates, the terrible Prince Sergue Dolgorouki established his head-quarters. In the suburbs of that town, on a level ground, was a large square field, where was established the merciless tribunal which pro- nounced judgment and immediate execution on the rebels. There was a tent, and some clergy of the Greco-Russian church, where mass was daily celebrated. Before the chapel was the likeness of the czar, before 68 REBELLION OF whom every one was compelled to kneel. Behind the chapel was a rack, and on both sides of the rack were several rows of gallows, some miles in length, and in- struments of torture ready for the unfortunate victims. The punishments were in accordance with the degree of culpability and station in society of the rebels. In the first row of gallows the most guilty were exe- cuted; after being subjected to the rack they were quartered alive. The leaders had their right hand and left leg cut off, and were afterwards impaled on long spikes, and left to their horrible fate. Their groans were heard for miles, and their bodies feasted the eyes of the panic-stricken population. In the second row of gallows they were only quartered, and their sufferings were at least shorter. In the third row, the parties were simply beheaded. In the fourth row, they were merely hanged. In the fifth, they ran the gauntlet and the knout. All the ecclesiastics were burned. There were separate gallows for women, married and maiden. Even children, from thirteen years, were subjected to great cruelty. Married couples were occasionally hanged on the same gallows, as well as whole families. During the space of three months 13,000 human beings were executed in the presence of Dolgorouki. Stenko Razin''s nephew and his parti- cular friend were quartered. Among the female prisoners there was a handsome nun, who over her female garments had a male attire. She commanded a corps of 7000 men, gave more than STENKO RAZIN. 69 once proofs of extraordinary courage and great ability in the field, and inflicted terrible losses on the Russians. When summoned before Dolgorouki, she displayed a presence of mind and a firmness diflicult to describe, and said, if every one under her command had done his duty in such a manner as she had done, Dolgorouki, instead of erecting the gallows, would have taken to his heels. As for a nun in Russia to run away from a monastery is a capital oflTence, she lay down quietly on a funeral pile, and was burned to ashes. The dangling dead bodies of so many thousand veterans brought many crows and ravens, which devoured the corpses. From that time that suburb is called the suburb of hell.'* The likeness of the czar, the artificial church, the Greco-Russian priests in their black dresses with their long beards, the inquisitive auricular confession, the rack, the gallows, the instruments of torture, and the executioners, bring involuntarily to mind the dark ages of Muscovite tyranny, which, partly subdued by the spirit of our more fortunate age and the rising star of western liberty, is not yet completely vanquished. Stenko Razin, persecuted, chased and hunted without a moment's repose upon the Volga, through the Steppes, through the wildest tracks, trying in vain to recall and rally the fugitives, who were not less frightened at the ignominious death of their comrades, than at the danger of that merciless struggle ; seeing them partly disposed to deliver him up ; daring not to enter Astrakhan ; 70 REBELLION OF arrived at the Don, requesting the hospitality of the Hetman Yakolof, and hinting at the possibility of plan- ning new expeditions. But the latter, secretly offended against him, indignant at his cruelties, and wishing to take all possible advantage of that opportunity for ingratiating himself in the czar''s favour, betrayed him, put him in irons, and delivered him to the Russians, with his brother Frolko. The latter, being well aware of the terrible torments reserved for them both, re- proached him with all his misfortunes, shed abundant tears, and gave up his mind to despair. Stenko, whose spirit was not yet subdued, comforted him as well as he could, and said that the whole population of Moscow might yet liberate him, and hail him as their benefactor. The czar, having been apprised of their conversation, and wishing to make a public example of him, ordered that he should enter the city in a mock triumph. A spacious cart, drawn by three mules, was accordingly sent to meet Stenko E-azin a mile from the city. Here he was stripped of his fine silk clothes, put in rags, and chained by his neck and his two hands and feet to the hinder part of the cart, in which was a gallow, without being able to move, and attended by two executioners with their long axes. Thus, with his brother, who, chained by the neck, followed on foot, the cart entered at noon the metropolitan city. He was publicly exe- cuted in the citadel of Moscow, the 6th of June, 1671, having been quartered. To the last moment he never lost his firmness, but comforting his brother, mocked the STENKO RAZIN. 71 executioners ; invoking the ghost of his brother, whose death he avenged, as he said, and to whom he seems to have been most tenderly attached. When one of his legs and one of his hands were cut off, he was whistling, and died without manifesting the slightest sign of pain. When his brother Frolko was going to be executed, he showed great contrition, and requested to see the czar, to reveal to him only a secret of great importance. His execution was postponed, and he apprized the czar of hidden treasures, buried by his late brother in a particular spot. As the information was found to be correct he was reprieved. After Stenko Razin's death, Astrakhan opened its gates to the Russians, and Krivoy, alias Devil's-feast, who wished longer to disturb the public peace, was poisoned by his own soldiers for his tyranny. The other attamans of the Cossacks were betrayed and de- livered up by a Circassian prince to the Russians, and some adventurers who intended to follow Stenko's ex- ample in the neighbourhood were quartered. Prince Dolgorouki, who destroyed above 115,000 rebels in- cluding his executions, was recalled, and Prince Tcher- niskif ultimately quelled to a great extent the serious rebellion, respecting which there are some contradic- tions. Some authors assert it was quelled in 1671, some in 1673, and others that peace and tranquillity were not restored till 1679. There is not the slightest doubt that had Stenko Razin, instead of spending a month in pillaging the 72 KEBELLION OF STENKO RAZIN. provinces, marched directly to Moscow, he would have dethroned the czar. According to L'Eveque and some Russian authors, that rebellion cost the lives of 800,000 human beings ; according to others of more, as anarchy, murder, and pillage reigned for several years after Razin's execution in distant provinces of the Russian empire, especially amongst the barbarous and predatory hordes and the serfs, in consequence of his proclama- tions. 73 CHAPTER III. THE ZAPOROGUES. Origin of the Zaporogues — Description of the Country formerly In- habited by them— Their Numbers, Customs, Laws, and Conditions of admission — Their Robberies by Sea and Land — Their Mode of Life, and Manner of Electing Chiefs — Wars with Turkey, Russia, and the Tatars— Their Independence— Cruelty of Peter the Great towards them — Their Treaty with Mazeppa — Surrender to Turkey — Submission to Russia, and afterwards to Poland — Massacre organised by Catherine — Their Incursion into the Polish Ukraine — Complete Suppression. It is extremely difficult to assign any fixed epoch as being that of the true origin and first establishment of the Zaporogues, whom many authors appear altogether to confound with the Polish Cossacks, of which race they were in some degree the parent stock. As, how- ever, they must not be entirely confounded together, it may be as well to give some of the reasons for our assertion, which, based as they are upon facts, in themselves indisputable, may give some approximate idea of the diflference which existed between the two, without attempting, however, to enumerate all these points of dissimilarity, a task which would involve too wide a digression from the main object of the present work. 74 THE ZAPOROGUES. The Polish Cossacks did not, from the outset, con- stitute a body separate from the rest. The Zaporogues appear to date only from the 17th century: they were, originally, nothing but a militia corps, chosen from amongst the very bravest, the most expert, and the most active of the Cossack race — they were called prcB- sidiarii, and may be regarded as the first Zaporogues — especially appointed to guard the islands of the Dnieper (on which were situated the dockyard, the arsenal, and the treasury of the Cossacks,) during the absence of the latter on their piratical excursions. At a later period, this militia was reorganised by king Stephen Batory, in 1578, being registered and paid expressly for the defence of the southern frontier of Poland against the incursions of the Tatars, the Russians, and the Turks : they were always under arms, and upon active service, either on the islands or along the banks of the Dnieper ; and were to be changed or relieved in rotation. Sub- sequently, as we shall prove, this same militia separated from the main Cossack body, and formed a distinct community, retaining to the last moment of its existence the impress of its primitive descent. The Zaporogues were so named from the Polish words, za, beyond, and porog, cataracts ; that is to say, ''the inhabitants or dwellers beyond the cataracts." One of their earliest stations was the island of Khor- chitza (forty miles to the south of Kiof), in lat. 50 deg. and long. 40 deg.^ In order to obtain admission as a member of the THE ZAPOROGUES. 75 Zaporogue community at their first establishment, the candidate was required to pass, in his boat, the thirteen cataracts of the Dnieper; and this too against the current ; a feat which might well seem impracticable, even to a Hercules himself, were not the fact averred and attested by a host of eye-witnesses, and by several of the earlier historians, amongst others by Boauplan, Starovolski, Sherer, and many others. Further, he must have killed ten of the enemy; have made a success- ful excursion on the Black Sea ; profess the Greek faith, and be unmarried : to all which qualities he was to unite the minor recommendations of being able to hit a mark at a considerable distance with the ball from his carabine ; to transfix with an arrow a bird on the wing ; and to swim, several times in succession, across the Dnieper. At a later period, however, any robust and desperate brigand was eligible as a Zaporogue. Essen- tially free, in the enjoyment of the highest consideration, and of great privileges amongst the general mass of Cossacks, over whom they considered themselves to have, as they indeed possessed, a marked superiority, the Zaporogues appear to have entertained a sovereign contempt for all those who cultivated the soil, or addicted themselves to commerce. The country formerly occupied by the Zaporogues as their peculiar place of abode, extended on either bank of the Dnieper (including the islands formed by that river), over wide-spreading marshes and frightful deserts, rendered almost inaccessible by rocks and 76 THE ZAPOROGUES. precipices, and eternally beaten by the raging waters of the cataracts, whose ceaseless roar might be heard for many miles round : a dwelling-place, rugged, dismal, wild, romantic, and solitary ; well fitted to its savage tenants, and capable of hardening men of even the mildest habits. Their head-quarters were shifted occa- sionally, but always so as to be safe from the attack of the Ottoman galleys, or of foreign cavalry. According to Sherer, they had three principal establishments on the islets ; namely, those of Khortchitza, Sednef, and Kaniof : these strongholds were surrounded by a pali- sade, a ring of chariots bound together with iron chains, and by a deep trench or ditch : occasionally they were defended by artillery, and by a species of embrasures for musketry or cannon. These war-establishments, plentifully supplied with arms, provisions, stores, and ammunition, were termed sicz^ from the Polish or Russian word, siec od siec — divide, cut up. It would be difficult to estimate the numbers of the Zaporogues with any approach to certainty, as they varied according to circumstances : in the time of their prosperity they may, according to Starovolski, have numbered forty thousand men, capable at all times of bearing arms : an assemblage of banditti more than sufficient fearfully to disturb the tranquillity of their neighbours. At first, the Zaporogues made their incursions con- jointly with other Cossack hordes, or obeyed the orders of the kings of Poland : subsequently, however, when THE ZAPOROGUES. 77 they had formed themselves into a separate community, they acted on their own account. Their organisation resembled that which they had formerly received from King Batory, a few slight changes or modifications excepted. The Zaporogues formed a species of military order or association ; or, rather, they may be compared, as regards the general features of their combination, to their contemporaries, the famous Flibustiers of the 17th century. They were governed by a supreme chief {attaman koshovy), whom they elected and deposed according to their own caprice. He had under him a secretary-general, pisar ; an auditor-general, a stafi*- major, assavula ; a lieutenant-general of artillery and engineers, and some other subaltern assistants. Besides the officers in question, nominated by themselves, as the country of the Zaporogues was subdivided into nume- rous districts or kourenes, each kourene had its own particular chief, invested likewise with the title of atta- man, whose rank corresponded as nearly as possible to that of colonel of a regiment ; and who exercised moreover a kind of civil magistracy in the administra- tion of the lands pertaining to his individual kourene. On the 1st of January, in each year, the Zaporogues assembled, with great pomp and bustle, in order to distribute their lands into as many portions as there were kourenes. Each individual of a district had, throughout the year, the right of hunting and fishing on his own kourene exclusively ; or, in other words, no 78 THE ZAPOROGUES. Zaporogue belonging to any other kourene was per- mitted to interfere with his local privileges or to tres- pass on the grounds of his neighbour's kourene. After this partition, they deliberated on the fate of the chiefs of the preceding year, whom they either confirmed in office or deposed at pleasure. The latter awaited their sentence, standing. If the Zaporogues happened to be satisfied with the conduct of their chiefs, the latter bowed to the assembly and retired : if, on the contrary, the attamans had displeased the midtitude, they laid down the insignia of their dignity, and re- turned back as simple Cossacks to their respective kourenes. The mob, by this time completely drunk, then pro- ceeded to the choice of the particular kourene from which should be selected the new koshovy; whom, having nominated and duly elected, the most sturdy of the drinkers and vociferators waited upon at his own dwelling, if he had been absent from the assembly, in order to announce to him his elevation. If he thrice positively refused to accept the proflfered dignity, they in the olden time killed him there and then. At a later period, they merely abused and maimed him. When, after the two formal refusals required by etiquette, he accepted the appointment, they announced, by sound of kettle-drum, his accession to the dignity of attaman ; and the most aged of the Zaporogues, taking up a quantity of earth, moistened with water or melted snow, plastered over therewith the face of the newly-elected THE ZAPOROGUES. chief, amidst the shouts and joyful acclamations of his companions. This rude and barbarous ceremony had allusion to his perilous and often short-lived dignity, seeing that if he might not happen to be killed in an expedition against the enemy, the Zaporogues usually massacred him themselves should he chance to be un- successful in war. It may be here remarked that, during a period of seventeen years passed by Boauplan in the Ukraine, there was not one single chief or attaman of the Zaporogues but who came to an untimely end. In addition to the ceremony of besmearing the face of the new attaman with mud, they stuck a crane's feather in his bonnet, and placed in his hands the baton of command : further, they forced him to swallow a mouth- ful of tar, giving him, however, a glass of water to wash his mouth withal ; and then they comforted him with a a glass of excellent hydromel (mead), which he was to gulp down at a single draught. There was also, occasionally, a second meeting held on Easter-day, for the purpose of renewing the koshovy, and the other principal officers under him. But for this convocation the assent of thirteen kourenes at the very least was required. Now and then, too, it hap- pened that party differences and squabbles arose, either respecting the kourenes or the relative characters and capacities of the various chiefs. Then it was that quarrels ran high, and disputes waxed hot; assuming the character of a domestic war, wherein the victor made the law, laid waste the kourenes of the vanquished^ 80 THE ZAPOROGUES. and spread havoc and bloodshed. But this kind of intestine outbreak was not a normal condition of the Zaporogue confederation : such quarrels were by no means of very frequent occurrence, and were usually of short duration.'' The koshovy, all-powerful during war, had no great authority in time of peace within the sitche, where nothing could be done without the Starszyzna, or Council of Ancients. It must likwise be remarked, that neither the koshovy nor the principal officers under him received any salary whatever ; but, on the other hand, enjoyed certain emoluments, which varied accord- ing to circumstances and the success of the war in- cursions. A more frequent subject of tumult and disorder arose during the distribution of the booty, or of the pay granted to the Zaporogues by the kings of Poland. The meetings held for these purposes were called szodka, schodka, or mala kromada, i. e. minor assem- blies ; and they ended frequently with a fight. They were all lodged in vast barns, or wooden barracks. The members of each kourene ate with their attamans at one common table, supplied at the general expense. Their usual food consisted of every- thing calculated to render men strong and vigorous. But, out of the sitche, they ate whatever they pleased, and did whatever they listed. They were also at full liberty to quit their community whenever they chose ; but, whilst in the sitche, they were bound to conform THE ZAPOROGUES. 81 to its regulations and usages. The most ancient of all their laws, and one which was ever enforced with the most extreme rigour, was that enacted for the utter exclusion of women from the sitche. Every woman who might happen to be caught therein was stoned to death, or, occasionally, after receiving one hundred blows from the kanczuk, or short whip, to the thong of which is appended a leaden buUet, she was hung up by the feet; a fire was then lighted under her, so that she was suffocated by the smoke. If, how- ever, as it sometimes chanced, a foreign young girl, altogether innocent, arrived in the sitche, they buried her in the ground up to her neck, a fire was lighted at a few paces before her, and she was shot at from a considerable distance. As the smoke from the fire did not allow of a steady aim being taken at her, the marks- man generally managed to miss her ; not unfrequently, too, by design. After three shots from the carabine she was released, without being subjected to any further outrage, and escorted outside the limits of the sitche. If she was wounded, she was not fired upon again ; but the whole kourene was called together, and the heroine, whose wounds had in the meantime received every possible care and attention, was set at liberty, with the now acquired privilege moreover of selecting from amongst the gallant Zaporogues whomsoever she pleased as her husband. All the Cossacks of the sitche made her a present ; by which means her support for life was secured, and she retired with her husband 025 THE ZAPOROGUES. to establish herself in the Ukraine. Even the women carried oiF in their piratical expeditions and retained were not suffered to live in the sitche. The barbarous treatment experienced by several women at their hands sufficed not, however, to deter others from secretly visiting these Flibustiers, and from incurring all the threatened dangers of the attempt, in order to satisfy their inclinations or their curiosity. As to the pretended secret, or love-charm, of which some of the Zaporogues are by several authors related to have been in possession for attracting the fair sex, it may be considered in the light of a mere fable invented for the lovers of the marvellous, inasmuch as it is notorious that cases of the kind in ques- tion form an exception only amongst the generality of mankind, having no sort of relation either with the islets of the Dnieper, or with the banks of the Boh ; in point of fact, with no particular spot on the face of the globe.*" There existed, however, several strange peculiarities amongst the Zaporogues ; such, for instance, as a species of duel or single combat with the kanczuh, or loaded whip, before alluded to. The two combatants stripped off their upper garments down to the waist, after the fashion of the English boxers, and grasped each other by the left hand, whilst with the right they mutually dealt most terrific blows with their whips to the sound of military music, or of a kettle-drum, which beat time to their movements. These duels took place THE ZAPAROGUES. 66 in the presence of tlieir companions. He wlio first fell exhausted, or who relinquished the further continuance of the conflict, was declared the vanquished party. Something of the kind existed amongst the ancient Tartaro-Kalmouques. The Zaporogues governed them- selves according to the laws of Magdeburg, which passed from Poland into their community. Although they professed generally the Greek reli- gion, and attended whilst in the sitche the celebration of divine service according to that ritual as there per- formed by priests sent thither from Kiof, yet they would not listen to sermons or religious exhortations of any kind ; and the diversity of faith amongst them was not productive of any serious dispute. Every Zaporogue Cossack was bound to be provided with a gun, a lance, a pennant, a crooked sabre, and a brace of pistols. His dress consisted of very loose trowsers, a sheep-skin vest confined by a girdle, and a felt bonnet trimmed with fur. Their heads were close shaven, with the exception of a long tuft of hair which hung down over the forehead. Their chief strength as a military force consisted at first in their infantry, armed with long, carabines, so indispensable in their corsair-like expeditions on the Czayki, and of which notice has already been taken : subsequently, however, they were by no means deficient in excellent cavalry. The Zaporogues presented a. strange mixture of virtues and vices difficult to be described. Merciless and cruel destroyers in their predatory incursions 84 THE ZAPOROGUES. abroad, they were nevertheless just, hospitable, and humane at home. They possessed everything in com- mon ; the doors of their huts were never kept locked, and any stranger, without distinction, excepting a Jew, was in the day-time at full liberty to enter them unnoticed, and to help himself freely to whatever he might require, money excepted. Lost money and other articles of value were by the finder openly exposed in places of public resort, in order to be reclaimed by the proper owners. A thief, when apprehended, and his guilt clearly established, was fastened to a post erected in the centre of the sitche ; near him were placed a bottle of brandy and a stick, and every passer-by had a right to taste of the brandy and to beat the culprit. Amongst these ferocious banditti, who spared no one in war, the murderer of one of his companions in arms was buried alive, stretched out upon the body of his victim. A punishment no less terrible was reserved for that nameless crime, for the commission of which, as may well be supposed, the law already noticed enact- ing the rigid exclusion of women from the sitche would naturally furnish a fatal inducement. A Zaporogue was never permitted to remain for three consecutive days inactive : if no warlike afiairs were for the moment on hand, he must busy himself in the chase of the bear or the wolf, or in the fisheries, which were carried on in all seasons throughout the year. This isolated community of brigands and roving corsairs might have passed unheeded down the great THE ZAPOROGUES. 85 stream of human events into oblivion, had it not been for the fact of their being entrusted with the duty of keeping watch and guard over the great frontier of Poland ; and were it not that their maritime expeditions had been fraught to surrounding states with very considerable danger/ When the Cossacks under Khmielnitski separated from Poland, the Zaporogues did not follow their example, but formed themselves into a distinct commu- nity, nominally indeed apart from and independent of the others ; but, in reality, never properly entitled to the rank of an independent state : for living as they did under the nominal protection of Poland, Russia, or of Turkey, and constantly changing masters, they in point of fact subsisted only upon the produce of their inroads upon their neighbours, by whom, consequently, and justly too, they were looked upon in no other light than that of pirates, lawless adventurers, and common robbers. The Zaporogues were in constant correspondence with all the other Cossack races, even with those at the remotest distance ; forming the nucleus or central point of every plundering expedition, and exercising over all the other tribes a marked influence and ascendancy. In the wars of Charles XII. against Russia, alter- nately cajoled and horribly maltreated by Peter the Great, they appeared to incline in favour of the czar's adversaries : they even, by the good offices of Mazeppa, concluded a treaty with the Swedish king at Dykanka. 86 THE ZAPOROGUES. The details of this treaty are curious. The attaman of the Zaporogues, Horodynski, noted for the hatred he bore the Russians, placed himself voluntarily under the orders of Mazeppa. In order to celebrate this happy alliance with becoming splendour, a magnificent repast was provided for the entertainment of the Zaporogue deputies; Mazeppa, for the occasion, was obliged to borrow a quantity of plate from a nobleman of the Ukraine with whom he was lodging : and, as a further mark of his high consideration for his guests, he pro- mised that they should be introduced to the Swedish king, and have the honour of kissing his majesty's hand. Their koshovy, Horodynski, as likewise Mazeppa, having duly expatiated on the merits and extolled the glory of the royal warrior of the north, exhorted their subaltern chiefs to observe some kind of decorum : the latter swore on the Evangelists not to get drunk until after dinner, and received instructions as to the manner in which they were to comport themselves in the presence of his majesty and his suite. At the con- clusion of the dinner, however, and of the ceremony of kissing hands, they gave loose to the wildest demon- strations of gaiety after their own peculiar fashion, and began to make off with all the plate within reach, and on which their dinner had been served up. The maitre d'hotel hastened to reclaim it. According to their code of politeness, the Zaporogues regarded this interference in the light of an insult, and demanded reparation at the hands of their koshovy, more especially as they THE ZAPOROGUES. 87 had fulfilled the conditions exacted from them as regarded their conduct during dinner : they threatened to break off the alliance, and to pass over on the instant to the side of the Russians, if the maitre d'hotel was not given up to them to be punished according to their summary mode of procedure. As it was to be apprehended that some of the Russian agents might take advantage of this untoward incident, the unhappy maitre d'hotel was delivered up to them. After they had jostled and pitched him about for some time from one to the other, he was ultimately despatched by a stab with a knife through the heart. Charles arrived too late to save him. According to the Zaporogue custom, a guest, provided he be not a Jew, invited to a dinner-party, is entitled to carry off with him whatever he may take a fancy to, with the exception of money or arms. The reader must pardon this slight digression illustrative of Zaporogue manners. After the battle of Pultawa, in which a great num- ber of them fell, the rest of the Zaporogues followed Mazeppa into Turkey, which they quitted however after his death. At a subsequent period, the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, flattered the Zaporogues by having 'her name inscribed in letters of gold in their public regis- ters, and employed them during the rebellion of 1768, under Zelezniak, against the Polish nobles. After the suppression of this revolt, partly by the aid of the Russian troops (Catherine's policy having in the mean- 88 THE ZAPOROGUES. time changed as regarded this insurrection), a portion of the Zaporogues perished on the scaffold : another portion, faithful to Poland, took refuge in Turkey under !N ekrassa, whilst the remainder fled to their fast- nesses. But Catherine, uneasy at their existence, sud- denly despatched General Tekeli with considerable forces to crush them in their retreats. Surprised, sur- rounded, and attacked at all points, the Zaporogues, after a determined but ineffectual resistance, were com- pelled to surrender : the sitche was declared from thenceforth broken up ; the ancient Zaporogue territory incorporated with Russia (where it now forms the modern governments of Ekaterinoslav, Kharkof, and Tauride) ; and the very existence of the Zaporogues themselves, as a separate community, annihilated. A considerable body of them dispersed themselves in various directions. Amongst the remarkable incidents to which this obstinate, although ultimately fruitless resistance of the Zaporogues gave rise, and which characterised their last struggles for existence as a nation, may be particularized the heroic exploits of the last of the Zaporogue chieftains, Sava. Amongst other grave accusations laid to the charge of the Zaporogues, the chaste Czarina Catherine reproached them with leading a debauched and licen- tious life ! At a later period, those amongst them who made their submission to Russia, and declared them- selves willing to marry, received, by virtue of the Ukase of the 30th June, 179^, the right of territory over the THE ZAPOROGUES. 89 island of Taman and all the country situated to the east of the Black Sea, between Kuban and the sea of Azof, as far as Labinskay Krepost, occupying in all a space of 1700 geographical miles. They are now no longer known under the name of the Zaporogues, or Cossacks of the Lesser Russia, but under the designation of the Cossacks of the Black Sea (Tsharnomortscy). They form twenty- six regiments constantly attached to the army of the Caucasus, and scarcely ever make their appearance on the left banks of the Dnieper. A single river separates them from the Cossacks of the Don, but there is a proverb extant among the Rus- sians, that a Cossack of the Black Sea is equal to three Cossacks of the Don; nor is there the least doubt that in point of ferociousness, of indomitable courage, and bodily strength, they are, as they themselves believe, infinitely superior to the latter. Proud, independent by nature, and waging eternal warfare in the neigh- bourhood of the Caucasus, they look with contempt on the Cossacks of the Don. In their songs they make frequent allusions to Poland and to the town of Kiof. Their favourite colour is that of Poland, namely, crim- son ; they detest the Russians ; they bear for the most part Polish names ; and there are still some vestiges of the Polish character amongst them. They are distin- guished from the rest of the Cossacks by the peculiar symbol of their tribe, and to which they formerly appeared to attach a sort of religious veneration, viz.. 90 THE ZAPOROGUES. by a lock of hair, which rising from the top of the head falls down behind the right ear. Their lances too are much shorter than those of the Cossacks of the Don. The other branch of this famous race, which took refuge in Turkey under Nekrassa, and received a grant of lands on the Danube, was known under the name of the Cossacks of Nekrassa. During the last war of the Russians against Turkey, in 18^8, they remained faith- ful to Turkey, and testified by the horrible carnage they made of the Russian troops, several cavalry regi- ments of which they exterminated to the last man, their hatred towards Russia. Occasionally they took the Russian Cossacks by surprise by imitating their language and assuming their dress. They spread great terror amongst the Don Cossacks, upon whom they would likewise also fall by surprise, and whom they succeeded sometimes in deceiving by a similar strata- gem. They never gave them quarter. The Emperor Nicholas oiFered them very advantageous conditions to induce them to return to Russia, but they have hitherto rejected every proposition to this eifect. By the treaty of Adrianople the designation of '^Cossacks of Ne- krassa" is suppressed : they constitute at present a species of Ottoman militia, and may one day prove a powerful element of aggression against Russia. Such was this singular community of Zaporogues; unique, perhaps, in its kind, and concerning which we have gathered all the information possible, and con- sulted every accessible authority. Amongst others. THE ZAPOROGUES. 91 Sherer, Annales de la Petite Russie, Memoires Secretes de la Russie, Miller, Bushing, Boauplan, Chevalier, Lessur, Neemeevicz, the Memoirs of Colonel Lagawski, Norberg, &c. The time perhaps is not far distant which may once more bring this remarkable race of warlike adventurers upon the scene of northern Asiatic, if not of European, affairs. As regards Russia more especially, their existence is fraught with considerations of the most serious importance. 92 CHAPTER IV. MAZEPPA. Mazeppa — His Extraction— Intrigue with the wife of Kontsky disco- vered — His Punishment — Preservation— Appointed Aide-de-camp to Doroszenko and Samoilovitch — Ingratitude towards his Benefactor — His Election— Shameful Conduct to his Sons— His successful Intrigues against Sofia, hated sister of Peter the Great, never clearly explamed— His Inroads against the Tatars of Otchokaf— His Successes cheering to Peter the Great in his Check at Azof— The taking of that Place chiefly attributed to Mazeppa — Favours lavished on his Cossacks — The leading Idea of Mazeppa against Peter the Great and the Kussians — His Intention to return to Poland with his Cossacks — Stratagem to escape — Correspondence with Charles XIL and Turkey— His skill in deceiving the Czar— His Stratagem for getting rid of his Enemies— His Danger— Blind Confidence of the Czar in his Fidelity— His Precautions before joining the Swedish King— His Deputation to the Czar, and his Intention discovered— His Speech to the Cossacks— Its Efiect— Sack of Baturin by Menzikof — Mazeppa's Effigy — Torture of Thirty Prussian Officers — The Czar's offers to Mazeppa rejected — Treaty with the Zaporogues — His advice to besiege Pultawa — Accidental Success of the Kussians— Unfortimate Position of the Cossacks— Danger of Mazeppa and the King of Sweden— Arrival in Turkey — Mazeppa's Remorse, and Death at Bender. Mazeppa was the son of a Polish gentleman esta- blished in Podolia/ and by one of those fortunate circumstances which often exercise a great influence on human destiny, and also by his family connexions. MAZEPPA. 93 attracted the attention of John Kazimer, king of Poland, who spared no expense in giving him an excellent education, and made him page at his court. The beauty, accomplishments, and enterprising spirit of the young page did not fail of making a deep im- pression on many a fair lady in fashionable circles. He was introduced to the wife of Martin Kontsky, grand general of artillery ; and felt inspired at the first sight with a passion which, by frequent opportu- nities of seeing the beloved object, and the difficulty of gratifying its fancy, became every day stronger, more dangerous, and daring. For a while the passion of the two lovers by their mutual prudence and care- fulness was not known; and its secret gratification added new charms to its existence. Such a thing, how- ever, could not possibly be long concealed at a court, where jealous and watchful eyes were constantly directed on both parties. A lady, whose advances Mazeppa received with coldness, soon discovered the true object of the latter 's afiection, and indirectly apprised the husband of the conduct of his beautiful and guilty spouse. Mazeppa, watched secretly, was caught by the out- raged husband, who, indignant at the extent of his domestic misfortune, and excited by the thirst of revenge, ordered his men to scourge him unmercifully till he lost his consciousness, to pour a sort of salt liquid on his body, and cover it with tar. The young 94 MAZEPPA. page was then tied by cutting strings to the back of a wild and indomitable Ukrainian horse, sought and pre- pared beforehand for that purpose, and was thus left to his destiny. The horse suddenly liberated after being tormented, and unable to shake the weight oiF its back, dashed at a furious speed into the deserts of his native steppes. Hunted by wolves, as well as by some Cos- sacks, who thought it an apparition of an evil spirit, the horse traversed torrents, ravines, rivers, crossed the Dnieper, and gallopped with incredible speed into a small town in the Eastern Ukraine on the market day ; and there, excited by hunger, fear, and fatigue, fell dead. Mazeppa, restored to life, and hospitably taken care of by the Cossacks, adopted their manners and religion, and became the favourite aide-de-camp of Doroszenko ; on the retirement of the latter, he became the aide-de-camp of Samoilovitch, an able Cossack chief, by whom he was treated in the most friendly manner ; an ungrateful return for which, however, was subsequently manifested by Mazeppa ; who, taking advantage of the unfortunate expedition of Samoilo- vitch into the Crimea, became his principal accuser, deposed him, and was unanimously chosen their leader in his stead. Not satisfied with his new position, which he owef' to his craft and ingratitude, and dreading the influence and revenge of the two sons of Samoilovitch, his bene- factor, he unjustly ordered one of them to be slain^ MAZEPPA. 95 and sent the other through his intrigues to Siberia. These acts displeasing even his own partisans did him much harm and thwarted some of his mighty projects. Mazeppa, being well aware that only warlike suc- cesses could secure his authority among the Cossacks, in 1689 attacked the Tatars of Oczakaf, and vanquished them in several engagements. The following year he accompanied the expedition of Galiczyn into the Crimea with his Cossacks, which ended in the discomfiture of the Tatars. Mazeppa was rewarded by rich pre- sents and decorations. Soon after, by some means men- tioned by several historians but never well explained, he attracted the eye of Peter the Great, by hinting to him a dark intrigue, secretly put in motion, by which his sister Sofia and her favourite Galiczyn were humbled for ever. After the defection of Khmielnitski with his Cos- sacks from Poland to Russia, there were for a long time a certain part of the Polish Cossacks whose chiefs (attamans) were nominated by the kings of Poland. One of them, Paley, after defeating his rival Samuel, and exciting the jealousy of the Polish lords by his intrigues and wealth, passed over with numerous partisans to the Russians and acknowledged the supre- macy of Mazeppa, who at that time was the sole chief or attaman of all the Cossacks, but that act of sub- mission did not satisfy the daring adventurer. Paley was soon sent by his intrigues to Siberia, where he mained till the battle of Pultawa, and Mazeppa I 96 MAZEPPA. obtained some advantages in several minor military- expeditions, which gratified the vanity of Peter the Great, who, in spite of the loss of 30,000 men, could not master the town of Azof at first. When, however, that crafty prince, obstinate in his views for the con- quest of the Crimea, pressed that town with great vigour, Mazeppa, who got by accident secret intelligence in that town, requested his master to allow his Cossacks to storm it, which was accepted. The Cossacks, ani- mated by the thirst of plunder and encouraged by the presence of their chief, had already climbed its walls, when its commander surrendered the fortress at dis- cretion. Peter the Great, well aware of the importance of that town, which he attributed to Mazeppa's strata- gem, did not fail to consider him as his best friend, and never failed to show him marks of his consideration ; but as that prince had a sagacious eye, and was more than once frustrated in his views by the Cossacks, he ordered his generals to watch them closely, and did all he could to humble them, and, dividing them, quelled their insurrections by great atrocities. Though Mazeppa left Poland with revengeful feelings, and greatly contributed to the victories of Peter the Great, it seems he never lost completely the memory of Poland. In his heart he desired to be an independent sovereign, but he never wished to be under the Russian I yoke, and was besides this infinitely superior, by his education, to the generality of the Russian generals, who cast on him a jealous eye, and he was more than once MAZEPPA. 97 obliged to submit tamely to great insults from his haughty master. Once, when the latter openly avowed the project either of exterminating the Cossacks, or of bend- ing them to the same obedience as his Russian subjects, Mazeppa ventured to remonstrate; when Peter the Great, excited by wine, threatened to punish his remark by a cruel death. From that time the hetman was more pru- dent, and adapted his language, his conduct, and even his dress, to his master's taste ; the better to deceive him, and so escape the watchful eyes of his numerous ene- mies, he feigned sudden illness, went to bed, displayed signs of sinking life, spake often of God, frequently con- fessed, and in his confessions more than once hinted into the ear of the priest that his services were not sufficiently great for repaying his master's favours, for whom he was always ready to sacrifice his life. He bequeathed part of his wealth to the priests, purchased indulgences, kissed their hands, showing them humi- liating submission, and though of vigorous health, he manifested all the signs of a speedy departure to the other world. During his dreams he often pronounced some words favourable to the czar, to whom everything was reported. In the meantime the hetman was secretly preparing the insurrection among the Cossacks ; his friends were hinting to them that the czar intended to make them slaves, to govern them as peasants, and transport them to Siberia, and that unmistakable documents were found on that subject; that those who were faithful to the Russians were traitors ; and some of H 98 MAZEPPA. them who were suspected to be so, were skilfully ex- posed to great dangers in their conflicts with the Turks and Tatars, where they perished. He found means to establish a correspondence with the sultan of Turkey in the most secret manner, as well as with Charles XII. For the latter he professed the greatest admiration, and promised to join him with all his men, to exterminate the Russian corps scattered in the Ukraine, provided he might have the duchy of Severy ceded to him as a principality, and also the title of hetman of all the Cossacks, whom he wished to bring back to the Polish domination. Charles XII., however, seems to have been very careless about Mazeppa's promises, and had not much reliance on the Cossacks. Thanking Mazeppa for his offers, he advised him to postpone his defection. This unlucky delay placed the Cossack chief in a very dangerous position. Already alarming rumours re- specting his projects were propagated, and even the czar was apprised of them ; but Mazeppa played his cards so well, that the czar, considering as traitors all who suspected Mazeppa's fidelity, sent him, under a strong escort, his two principal accusers, Iskra and Kotczubey. Mazeppa was obliged to sacrifice them for his safety, and they were both kiUed by three strokes of sharp hammers on their heads in his presence (a punish- ment reserved to traitors among the Cossacks). The czar also, wishing to give him a more decided mark of his imperial favour, invited him to proceed to Kiof, MAZEPPA. 99 to lay with him the first stone of the fortress of that town. Mazeppa, who had left his bed, convoked all the subordinate chiefs, and sent his own nephew Woy- naroski to the czar, requesting him to govern the Cossacks with more liberality. Before, however, that deputation reached Moscow, one of his letters was in- tercepted: the czar ordered Woynaroski to be imme- diately put in irons, and gave peremptory orders to all his generals to forcibly prevent the junction of the Cossacks with the king of Sweden. He liberated from Siberia all persons sent there by Mazeppa's influence. He also put in circulation the rumour that all the defeats of the Cossacks by the Swedes were attributable to the treason of their own hetman, who wished to reduce the Greek church to the caprices of the Pope and Luther- anian court. In fact, nothing was spared to blacken his character, and to lower him in their estimation. Mazeppa saw that the time was come for action. He therefore marched towards the Dnieper, collected pro- visions, put in a good state of defence the towns of Gotchi, Tchernigof, and especially Baturin, and joined the king of Sweden with 15,000 Cossacks in the vicinity of the river Desna. He soon after made a favourable treaty with the Zaporogues, renewed the correspondence with the Turks favourable to his cause, and neglected nothing that could improve the situation of the Swedish army, and contribute to the success of his projects. Peter the Great being well aware of the importance 100 MAZEPPA. of the defection of the Cossacks in favour of Charles, did all he could to stop it ; and having been apprised that the Swedish king had forgotten to secure the post of Starodub, which could thwart all the efforts of the Russians to master the fortress of Baturin, where large stores of ammunition and provisions were amassed for the Swedes, he detached his favourite, Menzikof, with a large body of troops, to storm it. The latter marched with great haste through difficult tracts, took the town by surprise, burned and sacked it, and after putting the inhabitants to the sword, sent thirty Prussian officers as prisoners, with their general Koenigseck, grand master of the artillery in Mazeppa's service, to the czar ; who, after ordering his clergy to excommunicate Mazeppa, and to attach his likeness to the gibbet, sent them to the scaffold, where they perished by the most horrible tortures. The taking of this fortress by Menzikof was, per- haps, the most important step towards the ultimate victory of the Russians. Peter the Great, however, having heard that Mazeppa was indefatigable in victual- ling the Swedish army, offered him a complete oblivion of the past should he return to him again; but the hetman, well aware of his true disposition, and indig- nant at the atrocities which the czar had inflicted on his partisans, refused the offer, and wisely continued to be faithful to his new friend. Charles XII., after passing the most terrible winter of 1709 almost without shelter, advanced into the wilds MAZEPPA. 101 of the eastern Ukraine ; and after several successful skirmishes besieged the town of Pultawa, situated on the right bank of the river Worskla, whei:e Peter the Grea^t soon arrived with 80,000 men and a^ouiac-rous'train of artillery. Without entering into the p^Jiicnl^ais. of; the- battle of Pultawa, it may be sufficient to ^tate, that it saved the Russian empire from a revolution, lowered the political importance of Sweden for centuries, and was gained over Charles XII., chiefly by a mistake of the Swedish general Kreutz, and the king''s illness. One portion of the Cossacks under Peter the Great fought with the others under Mazeppa. After the loss of that battle, Charles XII., attended by some Cossacks and the wreck of his army, retreated towards the Dnieper, constantly harassed by General Menzikof, who pressed them closely and gave no quarter to any Cossack; though several thousands of the Swedish veterans, so often victorious, whose very name struck terror in the heart of the Russians, surrendered. Charles XII., beaten, attended by Poniatowski, Ma- zeppa, and some of his most faithful friends, sick, and carried on a litter, reached at last with great difficulty the Dnieper, where some boats were prepared for transporting him to the other shore, and facilitating his progress to Turkey. Scarcely had Mazeppa and the king leaped into a boat when a terrible storm arose, and the angry waves dashed with such fury from the west that the greater part of the boats were broken, the boatmen drowned, and the hetman was obliged for his 102 MAZEPPA. own safety to throw immense treasures into the river, which proved a watery grave to all those who attempted to swim through it. AfteralQUg, painful, and harassing journey, during .five days> with scanty provisions, without water, without shelter, without any visible track, through the romantic deserts of the mighty Ukraine, Charles XII., with his suite, and Mazeppa watching constantly the guides that they might not betray them, directing their steps by the stars, by the gusts of moaning winds, and the flocks of screaming birds, reached at last in safety the Turkish town of Otchakof, where they were most hospi- tably received by the Turkish pasha. Mazeppa was attended by the remainder of those celebrated Zaporogues, under the command of Horo- dynski their chief, who acknowledged his superiority before the battle of Pultawa. They received some lands by order of the grand seignor near the river Ka- mionka, and at first were allowed to govern themselves according to their own laws, and found, in their misfor- tunes, benefactors in those very Turks, whose land they formerly plundered and sacked so many times in their expeditions. In consequence of the great annoyance of the Russians, the scattered remains of the Zaporogues were obliged to retreat further towards the Crimea, which they did always governed by Mazeppa, who remained by the express wish of the king of Sweden near his royal person at Bender. There the aged, vigorous, and unfortunate hetman, who had passed through so many MAZEPPA. 103 extraordinary scenes, whose long life resembled more an Ukranian tale than reality ; whose counsels, not well appreciated by the northern hero, were perhaps the principal cause of his downfall, charmed more than once the Swedish king by his flowing eloquence and brilliant conversation, always pertinent, and adapted to the meanest understanding. It is to be remarked, that in all the negotiations which Peter the Great attempted to make, either with the king of Sweden or with the Turkish government, he always requested the delivery of Mazeppa, for whose person he ofiered large sums of money. But the Turks, who never broke the sacred laws of hospitality, whose noble feelings and generosity are universally acknow- ledged, constantly rejected such proposals. And Charles, barbarous once only in his life towards Patkul, too proud to complain, and having a generous heart, attached to Mazeppa by the bonds of common misfortune, and judging men according to their real value, never dreamed of committing such a wrong. Soon, however, grief, imeasiness, inactive life, mingled probably with cutting reproaches of conscience and disappointed hopes, undermined Mazeppa's constitution and spirit, and he took poison, and died in the eighty-first year of his age. In carefully investigating the adventures of Mazeppa, we must acknowledge there is something mysterious, wild, and romantic in them, -^hich cannot fail to in- terest the fair sex, and which have been turned to such good account by the fervid genius of Byron. 104 MAZEPPA. Without refusing the homage due to the great ability, accomplishments, and manly qualities of Ma- zeppa, we cannot, as an historian, refrain from pointing out also his ambition, ingratitude, and crimes, which can only be exceeded by the misfortunes of his early days. Under the cloak of sincerity and indifference, the crafty Mazeppa, whose features and words never be- trayed the secret thoughts of his heart, and whose dis- position was rather adapted to form an eastern tyrant than a ruler of the civilised world, was a perfect master in the art of dissimulation, and never failed to sacrifice, without any visible emotion, even the lives of his best friends for the gratification of his ambition. Liberal and impenetrable by nature, of abstemious habits, he easily wrested the secrets of another by a jest, a smile, or a word. His conduct towards Samoilovicz, his benefactor, whose innocent son he murdered ; his conduct towards Paley, and many other murders and crimes, are stains on his memory which cannot be washed away. He passed through the world like a gust of moaning wind in the desert, and to this hour the Ukranian people preserve his memory in their national songs. See Life of Peter the Great, Hist, de Charles XIL par Voltaire, see Voyage de la Motraye, Poiogne Pittoresque, Ncemcevicz, Lettres de Charles XII., rapportees par Norberg; Roulliere, Anarchic de Poiogne; Leclerc, Pufendorf, John Perry, Present State of Russia ; and Lesur, on the Cossacks. 105 CHAPTER V. ZELEZNIAK. Zelezniaque — His Parentage unknown — Retires to a Monastery — Stanislaus Poniatowski — A Confederation of Nobles to expel the Russians from Poland — They attack Souvaroff— The King takes no part in the Insurrection — Wretched Means used by the Russian Ambassador to corrupt the Youth of Warsaw — Induces the King to withdraw his Troops from the Ukraine — Russian Priests excite a Rebellion against the Nobles in that province — The Empress Catherine encourages the Zaporoguian Cossacks to rise in arms — Zelezniaque leaves his Retreat, and is made their Attaman — He commits the most horrible Excesses through the Ukraine — Most of the Nobles destroyed, but a remnant take Refuge in Houmagne — Zelezniaque enters the town by Treachery, and butchers the Inhabitants — Polish Troops sent against him— Catherine disavows the Insurrection, and sends an Army to queU it — The Russian Colonel Goloriva pretends Friendship to the Rebel Chiefs — Zelez- niaque, after being Defeated by the Poles, seeks Protection in the Russian camp — Is made Prisoner, and the Outbreak is suppressed— Supposed end of Zelezniaque — His Person, Talents, and Character. Maximus Zelezniaque, whose very name inspires still a feeling of horror in the Ukraine, was a Zapo- roguian Cossack by birth. Traditional records fur- nish but few particulars of his origin and early life. After the commission of crimes, or, to say the least, of glaring irregularities, which his conscience 106 ZELEZNIAK. disapproved, he retired as a penitent to the secluded schismatic^ monastery of Medvedovka. Catherine II., empress of Russia, had just placed upon the throne of Poland, one of her discarded lovers, Stanislaus Poniatowski, a Polish nobleman, whose weakness of mind, coupled with his debauchery and lascivious manners, drew down upon him the indignation of the Polish nobles. The mere puppet of Russia, he quietly crouched under the domination of Prince Rep- nin, the Russian ambassador at the court of "Warsaw ; Repnin, whose prodigality, licentiousness, and un- qualified effrontery, added to his craftiness, arrogance, and malevolence, proved a dreadful scourge to Poland. The majority of the Polish nobles, exasperated at the pusillanimity of their king, at a period when the greatest firmness and the most energetic measures would scarcely have been able to rescue Poland from ruin, at length began to entertain serious thoughts of either rousing him from his debasement, or hurling him from the throne. Universal indignation prevailed. Poland at that time was already governed as a Russian province, and a confederation was forthwith formed at Bar^ (a little town in Podolia, a southern Polish province), by Adam Count Krasinski, bishop of Kamienietz, his brother Michael, Pulawski, with his sons and nephew, and a few other leading Polish patriots, in 1768, in the month of February. The object of this confederation was the expulsion of the Moscovite party from the kingdom, and the elevation of Poland from the humiliation to ZELEZNIAK. 107 which she had been reduced. Ere long, without arms, ammunition, regular troops, or pecuniary resources, they commenced a series of attacks against the Russian armies commanded by Souvarof, one of the ablest of the Russian generals. This daring and desperate enterprise gradually re- kindled the energy of the Polish nation, and menaced Russia with no inconsiderable danger. The initiatory acts of hostility were confined to a desultory warfare, which, unimportant as it first appeared, harassed the Russians greatly, allowing them no rest either by night or by day, and altogether demoralizing their soldiery. The regular troops of Poland, with their king, at first took no part in this war, appearing to favour it the more, in proportion as the alarm which it gave to the Russians, increased. Battles were fought in rapid suc- cession, and scarcely a day passed without some bloody conflict ; the combatants on both sides contending with the most savage fury. The Polish insurgents, dis- ciplined by daily experience, became, with every new conflict, more formidable to Russia ; and Poland might have been delivered from the Moscovite yoke, if more decisive measures had been taken in regard to the king, who formed one of the greatest obstacles to the success of this glorious struggle for independence. Repnin was commanded to employ every possible means for suppressing the insurrection ; and was enjoined to neglect no measures, open or underhand, for crushing it. The plans he adopted for accomplishing this object were 108 ZELEZNIAK. indeed very extraordinary ; and they were successful to a certain extent, through one of those contingencies which bid defiance to all preconcerted schemes and previous calculations. It was known that many females of the higher orders of society were favourable to the insurgents; and, accordingly, he sent for twenty-eight young and handsome citizens of Moscow and St. Peters- burgh, and many other foreigners, all men in the bloom of life, whose elegance of person, pleasing manners, and splendid attire, could not fail to captivate the softer sex and thus to gain possession of family secrets. A bevy also of syren Pompadours came into Poland with similar intentions. Such attractive personages, sur- rounded with Asiatic magnificence, easily gained ad- mission into the highest circles ; while their numerous retinue, acting as inferior agents, endeavoured, accord- ing to the instructions they had received, to gain the good graces of the domestic menials by every art of captivation. Kewards and distinctions were not wanting to crown the fortunate. Those, indeed, of the male sex, who were commissioned thus to use their influence, were ordered likewise in secret, to tarnish the reputation of virtuous females, to turn them into ridicule, to dissemi- nate discord, to foment disunion, and to excite the Polish aristocracy to a violation of all sumptuary re- strictions. It was not long before Repnin was apprised that the insurgents were supplied with money and pro- visions by certain of the nobles. The Russian generals, ZELEZNIAK. 109 however, acted with unceasing vigilance, and their con- sequent proceedings inflicted a greater amount of in- jury upon the confederates, than the often doubtful results of actual conflict. The second plan adopted for crushing the insurgents was dictated by the following circumstance. The Turks, having apparently afibrded secret assistance to the insurrection, which derived its principal resources from the Ukraine, and from whence, on the part of the nobles, the principal opposition to the king emanated, Repnin artfully contrived to persuade King Poniatowski to cause the Polish troops under Branetzki to be with- drawn from that province. After this had been done, two hundred priests of the Greco-Russian creed, with Basil, bishop of Tchegrine, at their head, an ecclesiastic of ability, but of unparalleled cruelty, craftiness, and hypocrisy, were sent into the Ukraine, for the purpose of exciting a rehgious rebeUion against the nobles. In every commune these vile emissaries secretly distributed in the night large casks filled with daggers for mas- sacreing, without distinction, all who did not profess the Russian faith. These murderous priests, not content with pronouncing blessings upon these daggers, thus consecrating them to the cruel purpose for which they were intended, gave complete and unlimited absolution from all their sins, to those who with lavish hand should spread abroad, carnage, conflagration, mourning and despair. The Zaporoguian Cossacks were persuaded to become the agents of similar horrors. All the monaste- 110 ZELEZNIAK. ries of the schismatics that were in the Ukraine became so many strongholds for the rebellion, and this the more easily, as the country was at that time destitute of troops, and as the common people were for the most part under an impression (so effectually had the priests worked upon them) that the outbreak had been made in obedience to the mandates of the king of Poland. Proclamations were likewise disseminated throughout the Ukraine and amongst the Zaporogues, that the confederates of Bar, principally composed of nobles, were desirous to enforce the conversion of the population to the Church of Rome, or exterminate them without mercy: but that the Empress of Russia, holding the same religious tenets as themselves, would despatch 50,000 men to guard their liberties against the encroachments of their Polish masters. Then she raised Zelezniaque to the rank of Brigadier of Lesser Zaporoguia. The Zapo- roguians were at that time living, nominally, under the protection of Russia, Turkey, and Poland, but in reality they formed a distinct caste, maintaining relations with other Cossacks, and committing excesses wherever they were able. Catherine caused her own name to be in- scribed on their public register, in letters of gold, and took every opportunity of flattering them. In thus acting, she had a twofold object in view — to weaken Poland, and to lessen the numbers of a body she wished to ex- terminate. The Zaporoguians, as if blindfolded, fell into the snare she laid for them, lost all remembrance of their benefactor Stephen Bator y, forgot their mother ZELEZNIAK. Ill country, were blind to their own interests, and seemed to have banished from their memory the cruelties of Peter the Great, and the terrible lessons they had re- ceived from that barbarous potentate. Intelligence of the prevailing consternation did not fail to reach the ears of Zelezniaque in his monastic retreat; a glorious spoil seemed to glisten before his eyes ; fr-om an ascetic he became a chief, and was pro- claimed attaman koshovy of the Zaporoguians. He began by secretly organising, in the dense and gloomy forests on both banks of the Tasmina, bands of incen- diaries and brigands, seconded by schismatic clergy and Russian officers. PoKsh Ukraine was soon overrun by these human demons.*^ The dark, fanatical Zelezniaque, surnamed the Hyena of the Ukraine, whose great strength of body, whose iron will, and tiger-like ferocity fitted him for the most daring enterprises, dashed at once into the career of crime ; uplifting the crucifix, and invoking the holy name of Christ, while he inflicted the most cruel punishment for the least disobedience of his commands. AU who were not of the Greek religion, aged men, women, children, nobles, serfs, monks, tillers of the soil, Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, aU were slaughtered indiscriminately. The entire province presented the spectacle of a town taken by storm. Cossack and rebel-serf vied with each other in acts of merciless cruelty : deep weUs were filled up with the dead bodies of infants ; nobles, females, and priests, were buried in 112 ZELEZNIAK. the ground up to the chin, while the assassin torturers danced around them to the sound of music, amusing themselves at intervals with mowing off the heads of their victims, like the grass of the field. On the same gibbet were seen mothers and their children. Other details of the barbarous cruelty practised on females, and related by historians, are of too horrid and revolt- ing a character, to bear more minute description. They hanged likewise upon the same tree on the public high- way, a Polish nobleman, a priest, a protestant, and a dog, with the inscription " one and the same,^^ Children of tender years were fastened alive to other sufferers, thus to perish by a slow and dreadful death ; or, being incapable of resistance, while they were firmly held, they were poinarded or deprived of their eyes by Cossack boys not more than ten years of age. But here we must pause, the pen shrinks from tracing such inhuman deeds. The Jews, abominated more than others on account of their religion, were almost all burned alive ; nor did even the abjuration of their religion secure them from the stake. In the villages lay murdered women, and the mutilated trunks of adults and children crushed by the iron- bound hoofs of the horses.^ All to whom flight was possible, sought a doubtful safety in remote places ; while the whole of the nobles scattered throughout the Ukraine, fell. Examples were not wanting of serfs defending their masters with the utmost devotedness and bravery; most of the villages were taken by assault and burned to ashes; the inhabitants being ZELEZNIAK. 113 slaughtered. A remnant of the Polish nobility took refuge at Houmagne, the principal fortified town of the southern part of the Ukraine, in which were stationed some Polish Cossacks under Gonta, and a few other soldiers. A dark plot was formed for taking it by sur- prise, and the undertaking unhappily succeeded through the treachery of Gonta. Under pretext of revictual- ling the town, Zelezniaque, with his ferocious bands, was introduced into it, at nightfall, by his agents; and, after a short resistance, eighteen thousand inhabitants were put to the sword. The slaughter lasted three days : atrocities which no power of language can describe were committed ; and while the massacre was being accomplished, the Russian priests pronounced blessings and chaunted h}Tnns of triumph. As the rebellion, daily increasing in intensity and extent, began to assume a very alarming aspect, some Polish troops, under Brigadier Stempkowski, in con- junction with a corps of faithful Cossacks under Ne- krassa, came up and gave successful battle to the rebels in several encounters. The general terror arising from this appalling outbreak at length arose to so high a pitch, that the court of St. Petersburgh was obHged to discountenance by an overt disavowal, the rebellion excited by its own instrumentality ; and to punish those who had taken a part in it. (See Lesur.) The main body of the Haidamaques still maintained their encampment at Houmagne under Gonta ; while Zelez- niaque was constantly sending out detachments to I 114 ZELEZNIAK. overrun the country, when a body of infantry and Russian Cossacks of the Don, under the command of Nolkin and Goloriva, suddenly showed themselves before the town. As the Poles under Nekrassa, who had cut up to the last man some troops of rebels, were advancing to engage in battle, the Russian general Kretchetnikoff despatched Colonel Goloriva to apprise the rebel chiefs of the impending danger. This step was crowned with complete success. Goloriva spoke in friendly terms, approved everything that had been done in the name of the czarina, drew up an ulterior plan of military operations, assisted in regulating the discipline, visited the chief officers, assured them that they would be defended in case of any sudden attack by the Poles, and completely won their confidence. The rebel confederates shortly after, while reconnoitring for information, fell in with the Polish vanguard. Beaten by this force and pursued by Nekrassa, they took refuge in the Russian camp, but Goloriva then adopted an opposite line of conduct, and after having hemmed them in on all sides, he ordered them to be thrown into irons, together with Zelezniaque and other chiefs. He then attacked and routed the rest of the Haidamaques conjointly with the Poles ; and having surrounded them, caused them to be sent back, to the number of eighteen hundred, together with Gonta, to General Branetzki, while he reserved to himself Zelez- niaque with a smaller number of Russian prisoners. The accounts relative to the death of Zelezniaque are ZELEZNIAK. 115 contradictory. The end of his earthly career has never been altogether cleared of mystery, although no doubts remain touching the concluding scene of the life of Gonta. Some say that Zelezniaque, after the dispersion of the Ha'idamaques, was punished with the knout, and transported for life with all his family into Siberia : others assert that he succeeded in effect- ing his escape, and that he fell in a skirmish at the head of one of his detachments. Again, it is main- tained by others that he died at a very advanced age, a -voluntary recluse in a monastery at Moscow. This last statement appears to me to rest on an apparently good foundation, as I very distinctly remember having heard it on several occasions during my stay in the Ukraine. It is also confirmed by some of my fellow- exiles and countrymen, natives of that district. Zelez- niaque may have survived the punishment of the knout, though instances of this are very rare; he may also have been left for dead upon the field of battle, and there have returned to consciousness. The historical notices that have been published respecting him, agree in describing him as a man of middle stature and of extraordinary physical strength ; that he was fierce in aspect and sombre in disposition ; that his energies were inexhaustible, and that his very name excited an involuntary shudder ; that he was a religious fanatic, guided by the sincere impulses of a misdirected enthusiasm, and that he was neither crafty nor ambitious. He was at that time (in 1768) in the 116 ZELEZNIAK. fortieth year of his age. He appeared to cherish an in- surmountable antipathy to the Jews, an antipathy which suffered no diminution to the end of his career ; and which was ascribable perhaps to the false notion mali- ciously propagated by the Russian peasants against them. During his meals, he often feasted his eyes with their dying agonies; he invented for these, his most hated victims, tortures which surpass all belief, and of which the bare idea makes the blood run cold. He was superstitious, and had a peculiar aversion for females of dark complexion ; and if they bore the least symbol of manhood upon their chins he burnt them as witches. In his features were combined the bold- ness of the lion and the fierceness of the tiger. His eyes glared with a fiery but sullen redness, which was quite in keeping with the solitary life he had passed, within hearing of the roar of the cataracts of the Dnieper. He had an enthusiastic veneration for the priesthood of his own creed ; and seemed to have a remarkable predilection for prophets so called, and astrologers. His voice was like the bellowing of a bull. His portrait, which I saw several times in my early boyhood, did not belie the execrable historical character of the prototype. See Lesur, Histoire des Cosaques; Tuczapski, Madame Crebs, fille de Mado- novicz. Description de la Rebellion des Haidamaques, Lelevel, Colonel Logoski, Swientski, Ferrand les trois Demembremens, Niemcevictz, and Czaykoski. 117 CHAPTER VI. GONTA. Born a Serf of Cpunt Pototski — Raised from his station, and made Chief of the Cossacks— Houmagne— The Empress Catherine foments discord in the Ukraine — Mladanovicz sends him to relieve Houmagne — A Polish Deputation make him large offers to secure his co-operation — Is persuaded to desert the cause of his Country — Joins Zelezniaque, and opens Houmagne to his ferocious bands — Assists at the dreadful Carnage perpetrated there — Assumes the command of the Rebel Army — Is defeated by Nekrassa and the Polish troops — Takes refuge in the Russian Camp, and is made prisoner with Zelezniaque, by Goloriva, who was sent by the Empress to queU the Rebellion — Gonta is condemned to a cruel death, and his family exiled to Siberia— Branetzki the Polish General — Many Polish Families driven from their homes— Induced to return, they are massacred — Dreadful state of the Ukraine — Its desolations, and awful sacrifice of human life — Gonta's Character — The present Count Pototski and his sister the Countess Kieseleff emigrants from the country. If the guiltiest deeds that darken the annals of the past, if the savage ferocity of the tiger^ and the subtlest wiliness of the fox, if great versatility of mind and unexampled perfidy, united to the loftiest ambition, have at any time rendered a brigand chief notorious, no one has better deserved so detestable a renown, than the man who is the subject of this biographical memoir. 118 GOKTA. Gonta was originally a serf, professing the Greco- Kussian religion, and was born at Rosuszl^i, a small village belonging to Szczesny Pototski, palatine of Kiow, the capital of the Ukraine. This nobleman was possessed of immense riches, and was the owner of the town of Houmagne with all its dependencies. Since the year 1760 he had confided this property to the care of a skilful steward named Raphael Mladanovicz. This man, seeing that the greatest portion of the land about Houmagne was lying uncultivated, and that with proper agricultural attention its value might be increased, erected farm-houses in convenient localities, and assigned them to industrious tenants at a very moderate rent, on condition of their making good roads, and using every means to augment the revenue of his master. At the same time he endeavoured to secure the well-being of the palatine's subjects and dependents. He then improved and ornamented the town of Houmagne, repaired the houses and streets, and established schools, which he placed under the direction of men esteemed for the excellence of their character. For the security of the town and its vicinity, in addition to a certain number of regular troops, there were some regiments of militia formed from the relics of the ancient Polish Cossacks. Houmagne soon became a flourishing place, and its liches and prosperity rapidly increased. As its inhabi- tants were composed of a mixture of Roman Catholics, members of the Greek catholic church, and of the Greek GONTA. 119 non-united schismatic church, several priests of the Koman and Greek churches came hither for the pur- poses of education and proselytism. This caused some alarm among the clergy of the Greek church.* An ill- feeling was engendered, and mutual calumnies and recriminations, with the various bickerings of religious animosity, followed in their train. Gonta, living under the protection of Mladanovicz, a courtier by nature, and gifted with much acuteness of intellect, contrived to insinuate himself into the good graces of his master, the Palatine Pototski; who, highly appreciating the valour and abilities of his vassal, gave him the command of his Cossack troops. He also ameliorated his condition, enabled him to con- tract an advantageous marriage, and placed him in the proprietary tenure of two villages for a rent almost nominal. Gonta did not at first show himself unworthy of his master's bounty, and appeared to be actuated by a devoted attachment to his benefactor. As he at all times lived in perfect harmony with Mladanovicz, to whom he confided his two sons ; and as the palatine's high opinion of him was daily increasing, Gonta was entrusted with the command of all the baronial or seignoral troops in the neighbourhood ; and was cajoled, humoured, and flattered, as always happens in similar circumstances. Availing himself of all the advantages he enjoyed, he gained extensive influence and great consideration in the Ukraine ; and became the favourite 120 GONTA. of all the Cossacks, over whose minds he had obtained a powerful ascendancy. In the meanwhile the empress of Russia, alarmed at the progress of the confederates of Bar, and having been apprised that there was a misunderstanding between Felicyan Volodkovicz, the metropolitan bishop of the united Greek church, and Melchisedeck Javorski, the superior of a schismatic monastery of the Greco-Russian faith, resolved to take advantage of this circumstance in order to bring about a definitive and permanent disunion, and thus facilitate the rebellion of the common people against the nobles. She accord- ingly despatched her emissaries into all the Greco- Russian monasteries, situated for the most part in isolated places in the depths of the forests of Tasmina, as well as on the confines of the steppes of the Ukraine. These delegates, by their insidious counsels, as we have already mentioned, were the original authors and abettors of the rebellion of Zelezniaque. But it appeared to her of the utmost importance to gain pos- session of the town of Houmagne, in which great num- bers of the nobles had taken refuge, in order that she might have a point of support for giving an eflfectual impulse to the revolt ; and this it seemed impossible to do without the concurrence and co-operation of Gonta. Zelezniaque, at the head of the Haidamaques, made himself master of Medvedovka, Zabatine, Smila, Zvinigrod, and captured the castle of Lysianka by stratagem, as well as several other places. He then GONTA. 121 pursued his march at the head of his bands, distributing arms to the peasants as he passed along, and, preceded by numerous schismatic priests, arrived near to Hou- magne. Gonta, the chief of the Cossacks, ha%dng incurred suspicion, Mladanovicz apprised him of the fact, and accused him of tampering with the fidelity of the troops under his command. Gonta exculpated himself by protestations of gratitude, and renewed his oath of fidelity at the front of his Cossacks, drawn up in array. The confidence formerly reposed in him by Mladanovicz was, by this public declaration, renewed ; and he sent him with one of his friends to convey provisions into the town, at that time crowded with fugitives, and to give battle to the bands of Zelezniaque. During this time General Nisse, then holding the chief command in this country, withdrew his forces from the town, in conformity with secret orders he had received. He also clandestinely induced a Prussian major, who happened to be in the neighbour- hood for the purpose of making a purchase of horses, to follow his example ; so that there remained in the town but a very small number of soldiers, for the most part invalided, who could not be openly withdrawn at so short a notice, without causing alarm to the inhabi- tants. These soldiers were sacrificed. A political problem had to be solved, and the blood of a few infirm men was not to be spared under the working of the Machiavellian councils of the cabinet of St. Petersburgh. After the retreat of the confederates, and the with- 122 GONTA. dravv^al of the regular troops, and the departure of Gonta, a sudden horror, a dark presentiment of coming ruin, seized every heart. In this phase of events, the arrival of Nekrassa was expected. Nekrassa was a young chief of Polish Cos- sacks, whose known valour, high military talents, and implacable hatred to all that was Russian, gained him the utmost confidence and esteem. He was to effect a junction with the troops of Gonta, after having gained some recent advantages over the Haidamaques as well as the Russians. No breath of suspicion had tarnished the high principles of patriotism and honour by which he was actuated, and it was asserted he was in possession of such knowledge as would unmask the dark perfidy of the Moscovite cabinet. Gonta was near Sakolovka, when Nekrassa joined him, at the head of a small depu- tation of Polish nobles, in order to concert measures for saving the town of Houniagne, which could only be done by immediately attacking the Haidamaques under Zelezniaque. To secure the co-operation of Gonta, a large sum was offered him by this deputation, in the name of the Polish nobles, an equal sum from the Pa- latinate Pototski, together with the property of two villages as an heir-loom to his family, to be selected at Gonta's own choice, from his vast domains. To these gifts were also to be added a high commission in his troops, a,nd Mladanovicz was to arrive with the legal documents of the cession of the two villages, the names of which were to be inserted in the title deeds, accord- GONTA 123 iiig to the direction of. Gonta. Having listened to and discussed the proposals of Nekrassa, Gonta accepted them, and a final arrangement seemed thus to have been efiected. By a strange fatality, however, Mladanovicz did not make his appearance with the expected papers. Gonta, perhaps not without reason, attributed his absence to an evasion on the part of the palatine, relative to the dona- tion of the villages. Mladanovicz, who was no stranger to the intended enrichment of Gonta, might have been jealous of losing even a small part of his master's pos- sessions, and his bhnd devotedness might have made him forget that it is sometimes the soundest policy to be generous from interested motives. Nekrassa and the ortier members of the deputation had no sooner taken leave of Gonta with a favourable reply, than Basil, bishop of Tchegrine, of the Greco-Russian faith, sud- denly came into the presence of the wavering chief- This ecclesiastic was the principal organiser of the re- bellion, and he was aided in his godless design by two hundred priests, who were then sanctioning bloodshed and murder by their blasphemous preachings thi'ough- out the Ukraine. Basil was the bearer of titles and presents for Gonta, and by high-sounding promises on the part of the Empress of Russia, he endeavoured to prevail upon him to declare himself against the Poles, to join Zelezniaque, and to deliver -up the town of Houmagne. He represented to him that the king of Poland was secretly favourable to the rebellion, and 124 GONTA. that he was borne out in this assertion by the conduct of Branetzki. Still all the insidious persuasions of this infamous prelate seemed incapable of alienating Gonta, who, in expressing his refusal, dwelt upon the bounty of the palatine his benefactor. At these words the Rus- sian prelate, with Satanic joy beaming in his looks, in- formed Gonta that the palatine, whom he till now had deemed his benefactor, had been guilty of criminal conversation with his wife ; and he placed before Gonta's eyes written evidences of the truth of his allegation. It is not known, and perhaps it never will be known, whether the letters which he exhibited to him, and which Gonta believed to be in the handwriting of his wife, were authentic or fabricated. That fac-similes of writing are sometimes undistinguishable from the genuine copy is well known. Authors vary in their statements relative to the production of the letters: we have heard the fact averred by many persons, and have read it in the Memoirs of Colonel Lagowski, who spent a part of his life in the Ukraine. After reading the letters, Gonta's countenance betrayed the anger that was raging in his heart: the inward struggle escaped not the scrutinising eye of the wily delegate, who scarce had time to renew his subtle persuasions, when Gonta declared against his country. The Cossacks under his command fraternised with the Haidamaques under Ze- lezniaque, in a small wood called Grekhova-lasek, ren- dered famous by this event. When the junction had been effected, the army of the rebels confessed them- GONTA. 125 selves, with their chiefs, on this spot, and received abso- lution firom the Greco-E-ussian priests, arrayed in their sacerdotal robes, to carry on a war of extermination against their unoflfending fellow-creatures. Gonta, by the abominable stratagem of pretending to re-victual the town, succeeded in taking possession of Houmagne at the close of day, and so artfuUy did he concert his plans, that Zelezniaque's forces gradually advanced, and seized the most important posts, while the inhabitants still believed themselves in safety. Mladanovicz had an interview with Gonta, whose treachery now became apparent, and to endeavour to soften his heart, he conducted to him, his (Gonta's) two sons, who had been confided to his care. The people flocked to the churches, in which mass was celebrated, that they might be prepared to meet the fearful doom which now appeared to be inevitable. We have before observed that the garrison was com- posed of a few feeble and infirm soldiers. All resis- tance was therefore vain. The inhabitants were or- dered to bring out all their efiects into the public squares and open places, to ransom their lives with all the property they possessed. These orders had not been fully executed, when Gonta murdered his two sons with his own hand. He then commanded that Mladanovicz should, in his presence, be transfixed with pikes through his body, and borne along by a party of the soldiers. Thus perished Mladanovicz in the most horrible agonies. The inhabitants, to 126 GONTA. the number of eighteen thousand, were put to the sword ; and although the greater number of the nobles defended themselves with the courage of lions, all were massacred. The bloody orgies lasted three days. A few young females, on their conversion to the Greco-Russian faith, were saved, being purified with holy-water, and assigned by lot to the Hai'damaques.'' After this terrible event, Gonta, who took the command of all the rebels, pursued the work of carnage. Detach- ments of troops pillaged Granof, Toplik, Daszof, Tul- czyn, Monasterzyska, Haysyn, Bossovka, and Ladiszyn, while the inferior chiefs carried desolation as far as Balta, on the banks of the Dniester, in the Pobereze, and even to Turkey, as well as to the environs of K'low. Soon after, however, some bands of the Haida- maques were completely exterminated by Nekrassa with his Polish troops. The communes of Ositna, Kuzminogrobla, Subska, Siennitsa, and Podwysokie, signalized themselves by an heroic resistance and an unalterable attachment to their masters, who nobly recompensed them. The main body of the Haidamaques still remained at Houmagne under Gonta and Zelezniaque, when a detachment of Don Cossacks under Goloriva, and a body of Russian infantry under KretchetnikofiT, appear- ed in the vicinity of the town. Both these officers had received secret instructions to observe the Haida- maques, and to gain the confidence of their chiefs. Goloriva visited these officers, gave them counsel. GONTA. 127 and performed his mission with considerable ability. When the troops headed by Nekrassa began to defeat and pursue the Haidamaques in every direction, Gonta with his chiefs went to visit Goloriva, who received them with courtesy and marked politeness. Then, having secured their horses so as to prevent their escape, he suddenly changed his tone, and threw them into irons. He then attacked and routed the Haidamaques conjointly with the Poles, who sur- rounded them on all sides, and delivered up Gonta with eighteen hundred of the rebels to General Branet- zki by the orders of Kretchetnikoff. Branetzki found means to convey a secret message to Gonta, to assure him that if he would observe strict silence and make no oral declaration, he would save him from impending death ; but the same messenger was charged with an especial order to Goloriva that he should command hia Cossacks to cut out the tongue and chop off the right hand of Gonta, under some frivolous pretext, in order to prevent him divulging state secrets. It is to be remarked, that after the murder of his two boys, Gonta's mind was partly deranged. He could never sleep nor take any rest ; he constantly fancied he saw the ghosts of his children and of his mother cursing him. He spoke often to them in the dead of the night; and before his execution, which took place in Novem- ber, he bore already all the weight of the punishment of his horrible crimes. When one of the Haidamaques K covered the son of Mladanovicz, a boy of ten years to GONTA. of age^ who escaped death by accident, and conducted him to Gonta, the latter, moved by pity, not only saved his life but took care of him, paid him the greatest possible attention, and seems to have been particularly fond of that child, who, well acquainted with him, con- stantly asked what became of his father with tears and lamentations. He twice escaped almost certain death, and was only wrested from Gonta's arms half-an-hour before his execution. It is also to be remarked that, after the rout of the Haidamaques, when Gonta entered a small cottage near Serby, he discovered in it a female whom he had seduced in his youth, and who had pre- dicted to him, captivity and a terrible death. She was a natural daughter of a Turkish prisoner, and a Bohe- mian woman. She had received a good education and possessed great accomplishments, and was for a long time the acknowledged mistress of General Branetzki> who, even after his marriage with the niece of Potem- kin, secretly visited her. This woman (Marylka) had a tame fox which followed her everywhere and of which she was very fond. General Branetzki passing accidentally through the village saw the well-known fox entering the barn; he soon concluded that his mistress must be there, and followed it; but found Gonta kneeling at the feet of his former affection. From that time he felt for him an intense hatred, which was never abated. Marylka had a child, which was carried off by the Tatars, and not being able to recover it, she fell into deep melancholy, disappeared, and in- GONTA. 129 habited for many years tinder another name, an isolated dwelling on the banks of the Dniester. She had the reputation in the neighbourhood of having connexion with evil spirits. (See Memoirs of Colonel Lagawski) . Goloriva acted in strict conformity with the instructions he had received. Gonta was condemned at Serby, with every necessary formality, to undergo publicly the terrible punishment of the hooks, of mutilation, and death ; and he was executed in the presence of a great many eye-witnesses at the head-quarters of Branetski. The severity of the punishment he underwent was augmented by incredible barbarities, and the survivors of his family were sent into perpetual banishment in Siberia. The booty carried off by the Haidamaques (November, 1768), which amounted to a considerable sum, was divided for the most part between Branetski and Kretchetnikoff and some of the inferior officers. Although Branetski appeared to be devoted to Russia, and although he had married the niece of Potemkin, a marriage which brought him great riches, all accounts agree more or less in ascribing his apparent zeal to his desire to usurp the throne of Poniatowski, while he detested the Russians in his heart. For whenever intoxication un- locked the secrets of his breast, he rarely concealed the antipathy he had against them. Doubtless he was not free from dissimulation, but he was certainly endowed with considerable talent, and if he had ascended the throne of Poland he would likely have saved that un- happy country. But Russia well knew with what sort K 130 GONTA. of a man she would have had to deal, and Branetski remained without further promotion. After the death of Gonta, the Haidamaques being routed everywhere, were executed by thousands in all the southern parts of Poland. They were hanged, they were quartered, they were beheaded, during the space of several months. The greatest number of them suffered at Leopold, Lysianka, Berdyczew, Zytomirz, Kodnia. During the massacre of the rebellion, a great many Polish families, driven from their houses by fear, wandered shelterless in the plains of Moldavia. The hospodar, however, was ordered to cause them to with- draw from his province. They had then no asylum nor place of refuge whither they could betake themselves ; but as the Turks were favourable to Poland, it was suggested to them, that they shoiild proceed further into the heart of the country, to be more removed from the observation of the Russian agents. They accordingly retired into the interior of the province, when the Russians proclaimed the restoration of tranquillity in the Ukraine, and invited them to return, that they might repossess their estates, to prevent them falling into the hands of unauthorised occupants. This was a dark and infamous snare laid to entrap them ; and all those who returned during the year 1769 were put to the sword, by a new band of assassins organised by Ty- mienko. The dissolution of all social order was universal throughout the Ukraine. No one who was known to have signed the confederation of Bar escaped destruc- GONTA. 131 tion. Persecution, anarchy, and vengeance, exercised their direful sway during the space of several years, and the judicial executions did not cease till 1773. It is not possible to determine the exact number of those who were the victims of this terrible outbreak, more terrible, perhaps, than any which history records. In the space of a few months the Ukraine was changed from its flourishing and beautiful aspect into a vast desert, where " death and fire had altogether gorged the spoils of victory." Five towns, sixty boroughs, and a thousand villages were destroyed; more than two hundred thousand of the inhabitants, without reckoning those that were assassinated by Tymienko, lost their lives. The number of judicial executions amounted to six thousand ; a number more than sufficient to entail upon the authors of this sanguinary carnage the exe- crations of posterity to the remotest ages. The Russian agents doomed beforehand to the scaffold those whom they excited to revolt in the sacred name of religion, while Russian policy reaped in this expedition two advantages — the subjection of the Ukraine, and the weakening of the Zaporoguians. The most numerous body of Haidamaques, under Zelezniaque never amounted to more than fifty thousand men; but there were several other bands under dif- ferent leaders. At this time there lived in the Ukraine an aged Cossack, named Vernyhora, who by his in- fluence and humane feeling, often prevented the shed- ding of blood. He even predicted the fall of Poland, 132 GONTA. but also foretold its future regeneration. The con- federation of Bar was fraught with more danger to Russia, than any other insurrection hitherto directed against her. Gonta was a man of middle stature, and was thin, beardless, and feminine in his features. He had neither the ferocious look nor the vigorous frame of Zelezniaque, but he surpassed him in quickness of in- vention, and in the arts of dissimulation. There was an evident perfidiousness lurking in his cat-like eyes ; but he seldom looked his interlocutor in the face, while the honied words of persuasion flowed from his lips. He paid the penalty of his fiendish career in the very prime of his life. The town of Houmagne still exists ; its ancient fortifications were razed by the orders of the Russian government in 1812, and a wooden palisade now only surrounds it. Its owner. Count Alexander Pototski, is amongst the emigrants from his country. He was a colonel in the Russian army, and only a few weeks before the conclusion of the last fruitless irrup- tion against the Russians he put on the Polish uniform, which cost him a little kingdom. This nobleman is passionately fond of music ; he is a genuine lover of the fine arts, and is remarkable for the suavity and amenity of his manners, as well as for his many excellent qualities. His features and look are Ukrainian. He often resides in Paris, and appears to attract the admiration of the ladies of high rank by his elegant conversation and dignified manners. It is said that he GONTA. 133 refused to avail himself of the amnesty in which the emperor of Russia intended to include him. He is the brother of the amiable Countess Kisielef, whose charm- ing disposition, united to a romantic turn of mind and distinguished elegance, were,'a few years ago, the theme of admiration in the high circles of Parisian society. This it is said excited the jealousy of the czar. In sketching the political events of the Ukraine, and the fate of the two principal Moloch-destroyers of its in- habitants, during the sanguinary rebellion which has been the subject of our narrative, we may for a moment em- ploy our imaginations, while thinking of that soil which has imbibed the gore of so many of the unhappy sons of men. "We may contemplate the cupolas of the churches, reflecting the red rays like waves of blood from the broad crimson disk of the setting sun, and we may console ourselves with the reflection that blood barbarously shed cries to Heaven for vengeance; thousands of accusing voices will be raised to the foot- stool of mercy, and Heaven is just. See Anarchic dePologne; Pamietniki XiedzaMlada- nowicza; the works of Lesur, sur les Cosaques; Life of Catherine II.; L'Histoire de Pologne, by Lelevel; La Pologne Pittoresque; W. Took; Les trois De- membremens de Pologne, par Ferrand ; Cox's Travels ; Swientski, &c. 134 CHAPTER VII. SAVA (kALINSKi). Origin not well known — The last among the Cossack chiefs faithful to Poland before her ultimate partition — Celebrated among the Cos- sacks — Comes late to the Confederation of Bar — His deadly hatred to the Russians — Raised by the sole ascendency of his character and his military talents to a command of small Corps composed of the Polish Nobles and the Polish chosen Cossacks — Performs extraor- dinary feats of valour — Beats successively several Russian Gene- rals — Seldom gives Quarter — Takes in five months fifteen pieces of cannon, one hundred waggons, and two chests — Is the terror of the Russians — Advises to make an Insurrection among the Cos- sacks — Combines the Polish valour with the patience and cunning of the ancient Cossacks — Pressed by Sauvarof, fights a hard battle at Szrensk — Already victorious, receives a gun- shot in the leg — Deposed in the forest of Pszasnysz — Betrayed by a Jewish surgeon — Delivered to the Russians —Dies from ill-treatment— The ablest among the Confederate Chiefs. The exploits of this, the last of the Cossack chiefs who remained faithful to Poland, are of sufficient importance to merit particular notice. Weakened and disorganized as were the Cossack body by the defection to Turkey of Nekrassa and his adherents, the remnant still constituted a formidable power, at the head of whom Sava immortalized his name by prodigies of valour, and by his consummate skill in the art of partisan warfare. SAVA. 135 Sava was, originally, a Cossack of the Ukraine, but was animated by feelings of the most implacable hatred against all that bore the very name of Russian, and by a burning thirst for revenge against the barbarians who had murdered his relative and com- mitted unheard-of atrocities in Poland. He enlisted into the confederation of Bar, and, in a short time, without name, without influence or protection, and by the sole aid of his natural genius and the ascendancy of his firm and energetic character, he acquired the friendship and esteem of the confede- rated chiefs, and created for himself a position of superior command. Fighting after the manner of the ancient Cossacks, from whose traditions he had drawn the resources of his genius as a military tactician ; subtle, persevering, and impenetrable in his plan of operations ; at once cunning, daring, cautious, and intrepid; wary, active, and yet intangible to the enemy ; suffering near him neither rival nor confidant, he spread carnage and destruction amongst the Russians, to whom he scarcely ever gave quarter or respite. He defeated in succession a num- ber of Sauvarofs best lieutenants ; gaining over them a series of briUiant advantages ; seizing upon their baggage-trains, cutting off their communications ; exter- minating their detachments, and falling constantly either on the flanks or on the rear of their columns. He shifted about from place to place with almost fabu- lous rapidity, and allowed no rest, whether by day or 136 SAVA. night, to the Russian armies. All the expeditions attempted against him utterly failed one after the other, and Sauvarof himself, who by order of the Empress Catherine had put a price upon his head, could not refrain from testifying repeatedly his admiration of the outlawed Cossack chief. Amongst other unfortunate results of the failure of the confederates' plan of operations, badly concerted by the foreign general Dumouriez, who was defeated by Sauvarof, and which proved so disastrous in its consequences to the confederation of Bar, Sava, who from the first had disapproved of the arrangements in question, being suddenly pursued by the Mite of Sauvarof 's army, consisting of far superior forces and a numerous train of artillery, was driven on the night of the 25th April, (1771), between the defiles of Szrensk. Thus hemmed in within the narrow limits of two dykes, the intrepid partizan warrior faced about, and resolved either to die on the spot or to cut a free passage for himself and his troops over the bodies of his pursuers. The conflict was fierce and desperate on either side, and lasted the whole of the following day. Sava repeatedly rallied his cavalry under the murderous Russian fire of grape-shot and musketry ; he took, lost, and retook five times in suc- cession the fatal dyke : and having at last found a lateral passage towards Przasnysz, he succeeded in striking down all that opposed his exit at this point, and had mounted to the roof of a house, to give from y SAVA. 187 thence the last orders to his already victorious troops, when a gun-shot shattered his leg. Fearing that this accident might damp the ardour of his soldiers, he had himself carried amongst them on a litter, encouraging them by his presence, and directing their final attack. He had, indeed, the satisfaction of be- holding the Russians beaten and pursued, but unable longer to support the increasing agony of his wound, aggravated by the motion of the litter, he gave orders to his troops to continue their march, and had himself secretly conveyed into the interior of a neighbouring forest. But a Jewish surgeon who attended him gave information of his retreat ; he was delivered up to the Russian Colonel Salomon, whom Sava had often defeated ; and who, astonished at the capture he had thus made, treated, it is said, with aU possible kindness the unhappy chief, to whom he ordered that every attention should be paid. But Sava, exasperated by pain, and disdaining to owe any kind of obligation to a Russian, whom he never by any chance spared, tore the bandages from his wounds, opened them afresh, and enlarged them with his nails, pertinaciously refus- ing to accept of the projBfered aid. Subsequently he was claimed by Sauvarof, who, in revenge for the repeated discomfitures which his lieutenants had met with at the hands of the now helpless Sava, over- whelmed him with insult, treated him with cruelty, and finally, exasperated by his haughty answers, had him put to death. 138 SAVA. Such was the end of this terrible partizan chief, who, with his own hand, killed thirty-two Russians, defeated them several times in the field, and who contemplated raising the whole of the Cossacks in open insurrection against Russia. In order to form some idea of Sava's military capacity, it may be remarked that, in the short space of five months, having scarcely 1,800 men, he had destroyed three Russian divisions, had taken fif- teen pieces of cannon, two military chests, one hundred military waggons, eighty officers, and some standards : and all this at a period when the Russian army was in its highest state of efficiency and dis- cipline. His advice to the confederates had always been that king Poniatowski should be dethroned or killed without much ado, and that Repnin and Drevitch should, if possible, be caught alive, in order that they might be torn to pieces limb from limb. The latter had ordered the right hand to be severed from each of three hundred confederate prisoners, and it is said that he himself cut off the hands of nine of these unfortunate victims, whom he afterwards paraded through the streets of Warsaw. Sava, by way of retaliation, had the soldiers of this Russian man-butcher put to the sword without mercy. Kazimir Pulawski, Sava, and Zaremba were beyond all doubt the three most able chieftains of the Con- federation of Bar. Pulawsld defeated Sauvarof once, and was in his turn twice defeated, but rose again more SAVA. 139 formidable than ever. We have just mentioned the fate of Sava. Zaremba, formerly a major in the army, was never once beaten nor taken by surprise. Impatient of any superior command, he could never be brought to make his operations subservient to any combined or para- mount plan of attack ; consequently, he always acted individually, or in a manner on his own account. At a later period, nevertheless, losing all hope of ultimate success, he deserted the cause of the Confederation, abandoned his troops, and went over to the Prussians, by whom as well as by the Russians he allowed himself to be corrupted. In the course of the struggle against this famous Confederation, the Russians lost upwards of 65,000 of their best troops. The fate of the principal Confederates was singular. Krasinski, the Bishop of Kamienietz, succeeded by his extraordinary activity to make hostile treaties to Russia, with Turkey and Saxony, and died, with his brother and F. Pototski, a natural death. The old Pulawski, who was a lawyer of Prince Czartoryski, unjustly accused of treason, died in irons at Constantinople, and before his death gave his blessing to his sons provided they did not avenge his death. One of his sons was taken prisoner and sent to Siberia, where he fought under Pugatchef, the other and his nephew were killed at Lomazy, and Kazimir, the last, went to America, and was killed at Savannah. 140 SAVA. There arc still extant in the Ukraine a host of popu- lar songs or ballads commemorating with tolerable fidelity not only the tragical end of Sava, but likewise his victories over the Russians, his attachment to Poland, and the leading exploits of his adventurous life. They all bear, as did also the character of Sava himself, the easily perceptible impress of that bias for the sombre, the romantic, and darkly mysterious in poetry, which has ever been the peculiar mark of the inhabitants of the Ukraine. See Anarchic de Pologne, by E-oulhiere ; Les trois Demembremens de Pologne, by Ferrand; Life of Catherine II. ; the works of Lelevcl ; and Pologne Pittoresque. 141 CHAPTER VIII. ROZYCKI. An ancient Lieutenant of the Polish army — Resides near the borders of the Ukraine — Drills a detachment of the Polish insurgents in the middle of the Russian armies — Surrounded by the Russian Regulars, vanquishes them — Breaks several squares of the Russian infantry with yoimg men who had never been under fire — Pro- ceeds to Miendzyrzec, in Volhynia — Marches through the Russian armies in the night as Russian Cossacks— Orders to speak Russian — Destroys a Russian detachment — Marches towards Poland— Gal- lant afiair before the village of Novosilki — Cuts to pieces the Rus- sian infantry regiment of the Duke of Wellington — Makes his junction with . the Polish army near the fortress of Zamosc— Is made a Colonel— Gallant affair at Hza, where he kills the Colonel of the dragoon regiment of Kargopol, and routes superior forces — Rises in fame — Excites jealousy — Beats superior Russian forces — Intends to raise the whole of the Russian provinces against Russia — Dreaded and beloved by his soldiers, inspires great confidence — Is never vanquished, and maintains rigid discipline to the end of the war — Great military and administrative capacities — The only Partizan of note in the last War — Believes in the success of the Insurrection in the Ukraine on a large scale — Adventure of the Marquis of Douro and the Emperor of Russia— Their misimder- standing — Douro leaves Kalisz — Returns to England. In the late war by Poland against Russia in 1831, a war so badly conducted, and the disastrous results of which are to be attributed more to the incapacity of its directors than to any other cause, there shone forth. 142 ROZYCKI. nevertheless, some military characters well worthy of admiration and renown ; and amongst which must certainly be included Charles Rozycki, of whose vic- tories I shall now endeavour to trace a rapid but faithful sketch. Rozycki was at the time a retired officer, residing on the borders of the Ukraine. No sooner did he per- ceive that circumstances afforded him an opportunity of serving the cause of his native country, than he con- trived to form, to organize, and to animate with his own ardent spirit, in the midst of hostile Russian forces, and as we may say, indeed, in their very teeth, a detachment of light cavalry, mounted and armed according to the ancient Polish-Cossack fashion ; at the head of which, surrounded as he was by infinitely superior numbers of the enemy, he made good his escape, and, subsequently, performed a series of brilliant achievements. After surmounting the greatest difficulties, and the fatigues and hazards of a twenty- five days"* march, he succeeded in joining the Polish army near the fortress Zamosc. Promoted to the rank of colonel, he soon became conspicuous for his enterprising bravery; constantly breaking through their squares of infantry, and routing every squadron of cavalry he attacked, he became a terror to the Russians : and even towards the end of this war, and in the midst of the general anarchy and dis- order of the Polish army, he managed to maintain, in his own regiment, the strictest discipline; so that his ROZTCKI. 143 name spread consternation and dismay to such an extent, that the Russians, who well knew his detach- ments, more than once evidently avoided measuring their forces with them. The intrigues of petty rivalship, the mean and sordid machinations of jealousy, and more especially the miser- able incapacity of certain pretenders to miKtary talent, whose measures served but to engender mistrust and discouragement throughout the army, prevented the really splendid talents of Rozycki from being adequately and efficiently employed ; nay, on more than one occa- sion it was but too apparent that these very soi-disant patriots, who were incessantly blaming every thing, inventing nothing ; and who, in point of fact, at the most critical and important juncture, purposely checked or withheld the forces organized for the defence of the country ; were absolutely desirous of getting rid of him altogether. As Rozycki was the victor in several engagements^ and as I am unable, for the moment, to procure access to the details of all his military successes^ I shall here confine myself to a relation, and that too but cursory and incomplete, of such only of his principal military achievements as appear to me to contain the most striking points of interest. When Rozycki left his native district, he had with him but two hundred horsemen and fifty carabineers. Out of the two hundred troopers there were but seventy-three who might be properly said to have been 144 ROZYCKI. tolerably well armed ; that is to say, with regular lances, the rest had nothing save long wooden poles, tipped with large iron nails sharpened to a point. Amongst this little troop of insurgents, was here and there to be seen a sabre or a pistol; the carabineers, famous marksmen it is true, had neither much ammunition nor good carabines ; the whole troop, in fact, was wretchedly armed. Scarcely had Rozycki quitted his village, when seve- ral detachments of the Russian troops intercepted his road : other bodies of the enemy followed close upon his little band. In front of a wood on the road by which he must of necessity pass, three battalions of Russian infantry marched forward to meet him, and immediately formed into squares ; the enemy's cavalry was fast closing upon his rear. Rozycki saw plainly that there was no time to be lost. He gave instant orders to his troops to attack the first square of infantry; the attack succeeded; the young insurgents, who had never yet stood fiire, dashed upon the square, which they cut to pieces ; the second and third were in like manner broken and destroyed : a small number of the fugitives rallied in the wood. In the interval, the Russian cavalry had come up; had deployed, and were preparing to charge ; on perceiving which, Rozycki caused his own to retire slowly: the Russian horse kept following close upon their heels. Suddenly, Rozycki, finding that there was now a wall ROZYCKI. 145 covering one of his flanks, halted, faced about, and at a given signal, the insurgents being excellently mounted, fell like lightning upon the enemy's cavalry, to the cry of " Death to the Muscovites ! no quarter !" The Russians gave way, and were in an instant broken, defeated, and pursued with great slaughter ; but they were in great numbers ; they endeavoured to rally near a garden wall ; E-ozycki, however, had anticipated this manoeuvre, and had secretly posted aU his carabineers behind the waU, under favour of a dry ditch running behind it, and along which, at the commencement of the action, they had passed unnoticed, by creeping with their heads held down. For the moment, he delayed to harass the routed, but now rallying enemy, with his reserve ; waiting the favourable instant for augmenting their confusion and taking advantage of their disorder. On a sudden, at the word " paV (signifying «^ fire !'' in Polish), the carabineers, who had taken steady aim at nearly every Russian cavalier of note, making a simul- taneous discharge, brought down several of the Russian officers, as likewise a great number of men and horses. The most terrific disorder ensued ; Rozycki's reserve now made a desperate charge, and so scared the Russian cavalry, that they broke through and trampled down their own infantry. The latter, indeed, closing again, attempted to advance to renew the engagement ; but were cut to pieces and nearly exterminated. Rozycki, after having collected together all the muskets, sabres, cartridges, and sound horses, pushed forwards on his 146 ROZYCKI. march ; taking the precaution of breaking down all the bridges he left behind him on his road. In this brilliant action he lost but very few of his own troops, and did considerable damage to the Russians. Its result was, to raise the courage and greatly increase the confidence of his adherents, whose conduct on the occasion was indeed admirable. A few forced marches brought him to Miendzyrzec (Miandzirjetz), a town in Volhynia, now belonging to the Princess M. Radzivill, (by birth Countess Alex- andrina Stecka, ' Stetska,' ) a lady, whose intelli- gence, superior mind, and noble sentiments, joined to her many accomplishments, elegant manners, and various other advantages, both natural and acquired, might well render their possessor worthy to adorn a throne. Her husband had, from the commencement of the war of 1831, the nominal command of the entire Polish army ; a post in which he conducted himself in all respects as became a man of honour. After the fall of Warsaw, he was taken prisoner by the Russians, and sent in exile to Siberia; whence, after the lapse of a few years, he was, by the exertions of his wife, and the intercession in his behalf of the court of Prussia, per- mitted to return to Warsaw. The Miendzyrzec in question must not be confounded with another town of the same name, situated about fifty-eight miles (EngHsh) to the east of Warsaw, belonging to Prince C. Czar- toryski; and, in the neighbourhood of which there was a battle fought on the 29th of August, 1831, wherein ROZYCKI. 147 the Russians, although far superior in number to the Polish forces, were completely beaten; and at which battle the author was present. It was in this engage- ment that a single Polish regiment, the 5th of the line, led by Colonel E-ychlowski, exterminated, with the bayonet, three entire Russian regiments, in a cemetry. To return, however, to Rozycki. As the news of the remarkable victory he had just gained had already pre- ceded him, his arrival was welcomed by the ringing of all the church bells ; the whole population poured out of the town to receive him. Money, provisions, and horses, were furnished him in abundance; whilst a swarm of young schoolboys rushed into the street, kiss- ing the feet of the officers and soldiers, and conjuring them to lead them on to fight against the Russians. It was in vain that they were remonstrated with, and told to recollect that they were, as yet, but children ; that a time would come when they might prove them- selves of real service to their country ; whilst, by in- sisting upon following the insurgent troops, they would only incur the risk of being crueUy persecuted by the Russians for thus openly declaring their sentiments ; that they had far better, therefore, return back to their respective schools. The boys turned a deaf ear to all the reasoning that could be urged against them ; they wept, vociferated, and were absolutely bent on following Ro- zycki's detachment; and, better, indeed, had it been for them, as the sequel proved, if they had been allowed to have their own way, and to follow the regiment. In 148 ROZYCKI. order to appease them in some sort, they were permitted to tend upon the wounded ; and Rozycki, having re- inforced his small troop by the addition of a few good horsemen, and gathered all the information possible as to the whereabouts and movements of the enemy, left Miendzyrzec, and marched forward a few miles. Shortly afterwards, however, he received authentic warning from his faithful scouts, that several Russian columns, supported by artillery, were already waiting on his road to intercept his advance. He likewise received in- telligence that some detachments of Russian cavalry were following on his rear ; and that some of them had entered Miendzyrzec immediately on his quitting that town. After listening attentively to all these reports, and having well considered, scrutinized, and weighed them, he altered his plan of advance, and returned back by a side-road to the town. Here, upon re-entering, he heard cries of lamentation and hopeless distress : the Russians had just massacred all the schoolboys they could meet with in the streets ; and the bodies of the youthful victims were lying scattered in every direction bathed in blood. Fired with indignation at sight of this heartless butchery, he fell by surprise upon the Russian troops who were in the town , cut them to pieces, and exterminated nearly every Russian he could find in Miendzyrzec : then, profiting by the darkness of the night, and conducted by faithful guideS; he passed in safety the numerous columns of the enemy ; for as he ordered the Russian language to be spoken by his men. ROZYCKI. 149 and as his detachment was in the Cossack dress, and was armed after the Cossack fashion, it was easily- mistaken for a regular body of the Russo-Cossack troops. By forced marches, he arrived facing the village of Novosilki, in the full belief that he had now surmounted the chief of his difficulties, but here it was, precisely, that the very greatest difficulties of all, and the most imminent danger awaited him : for the enemy, having, by accident, now ascertained the true object and direc- tion of his line of march, all the Russian columns had concentrated their movements on this spot, in order to come up with him, and effectually prevent his further advance. In order that the reader may be enabled to form some idea of the extraordinary nature of the conflict I am about to describe, I consider it absolutely essential that he should previously be made acquainted with the peculiar local circumstances of the ground whereon it took place. Fronting the village of Novosilki, there is a marshy river, over which was a bridge in very good repair, and, as my readers will probably have already anticipated, in Rozycki's front. This bridge was guarded by a Russian infantry-battalion of the Duke of Wellington's regiment, and by some companies of sappers and miners posted at the entrance to the village, with several pieces of cannon : at some thousand paces from the village in question, there was a fordable passage over the river ; this spot was guarded by six hundred Russian Cossacks of the Don ; 160 ROZYCKI. facing the village there was a raised dyke or elongated mound, about a thousand feet (English) in length, and of considerable height, abutting on the bridge. Two roads, from opposite directions met on the embankment. The right side of this embankment was unapproachable, on account of the marshes ; the left side was somewhat more accessible. Rozycki, marching on the top of the embankment, at once perceived that his fate, one way or the other, must speedily be decided : he ordered one half of his horsemen slowly to descend the dyke, with a few cara- bineers ; and made a show of seriously intending an attack on the Cossacks ; but, in realit}'-, he wished to sound their dispositions, or at all events, to keep them oflf as far as possible, to avoid being placed between two fires. The Cossacks, who have an antipathy to serious attacks of every kind, began to fall back in visible alarm. Rozycki himself, now began to descend the dyke, whereupon the Cossacks moved off in full retreat. Immediately on perceiving this manoeuvre, the com- mander of the Russian infantry quitted the excellent position he occupied behind the bridge at the entrance of the village, and advanced rapidly on the dyke towards Rozycki; treating with contempt the advice of a veteran soldier, who conjured him not to stir a step forward, to have a little patience, and that, in less than an hour's time, the whole of the rebel detachment, as he termed it, would be annihilated. The commander replied to him with a sharp reprimand ; telling him to ROZTCKI. 151 remember " that soldiers who had the honour to bear the illustrious name of the Duke of Wellington, must not be content to lie in wait for the enemy, like mice in their holes, but must have courage enough to attack him, openly, wheresoever he may appear, as did the duke at Waterloo !" Rozycki seeing all this, and apprehensive that the least delay might prove fatal, suddenly reascended the dyke with his cavalry ; formed them into platoons for a charge, and posted his smaU infantry force, by way of guard, on the accessible side of the embankment, in order to protect himself from a surprise on the part of the Cossacks. The Russians, who were advancing in serried columns, now formed into squares ; here again a chance of the ground seemed to be greatly in favour of the Russian commander, as there was a small wooden bridge between him and Rozycki, by taking possession of which, or by destroying a few of its planks, he might greatly have embarrassed and impeded Rozycki's attack, and have thus materially aided his own defence : these precautions however he neglected. The insurgent Poles lowered their lances, and charged with impetuosity on the close ranks of the enemy : the Russian infantry reserved their fire, which commenced only when the Polish horsemen had arrived within ninety paces of their position. The foremost attacking platoons, however, were mounted on those choice and far-famed horses from the steppes of the Ukraine, the superior energy and spirit of which it would be 152 ROZYCKI. difficult to describe. Three of the insurgents rode down a few of the foot soldiers, and leaped into the square. This was the signal for the general disorder that ensued. A Russian infantryman cried out for quarter ; the commander, with a blow from his sword, killed him on the spot, at the same time shouting — *' niet pardon dery sia ! (no quarter, fight away I)" But in another instant three Polish lances lifted him aloft into the air, and he fell dead to the earth. The carnage now commenced ; the square once broken was speedily cut to pieces and all but exterminated : every officer perished, scarcely a soldier escaped. A second Rus- sian detachment, who essayed to close the road to the Polish troops, was instantly overthrown; and Rozycki entered Novosilki, passing over the bridge, which he immediately began to demolish. Whilst his orders to this effect were still being executed, and the last remnants of the bridge were being destroyed, several columns of Russian infantry and cavalry, a number of field-pieces, and a whole army of Cossacks, were already mounting the embankment ; but it was too late ; Rozycki escaped with all his men ; had the chains and fetters which had been prepared for him by the Russians, in anticipation of his capture, broken to pieces and thrown into the river, and ultimately made good his junction with the Polish army at Zamosc. In the conduct of this famous skirmish, which saved this little Polish band of patriots from apparentl}^ almost certain destruction, and in which he lost but verv y ROZYCKI. 153 few of his men, we cannot deny to Rozycki, the merit of great courage and ability. The Russian commander, although on his part perhaps equally brave, and worthy both of a better cause and of a better fate, was as clearly deficient in military tact and keenness of obser- vation ; he was, indeed, the cause of his own perdition : a daring and chivalrous courage, untempered by pru- dence, would appear to be far more serviceable to cavalry than to infantry, whose courage, especially in attacks from cavalry, should be of the tranquil and passive order. He forgot that the Duke of Wellington, whose name he invoked, and who fought seventy battles and gained seventy victories, never once omitted to turn to the best account all the advantages he might find to be available ; that he never left anything to chance ; never abused his power ; and, above all, never allowed his passions to interfere with nor to interrupt the cool exercise of his reason. At a later period, another of Rozycki's military exploits was the destruction of KargopoFs Russian dragoon regiment, near Ilza ; and the dispersion of an enemy's force five times more numerous than his own, and provided moreover with artillery. The leading facts of this brilliant, indeed, almost romantic afi^air, may be thus briefly stated. The colonel in question, seeing Rozycki's small troop advancing to attack him, made with his hand a gesture of contempt, and accepted the profiered engagement before the whole of his artil- lery and the rest of his forces had come up. The con- 164 ROZYCKI. ilict took place partly in a deep ravine. Rozycki, after he had beaten the dragoons, and with his own hand slain the Russian colonel, would not suffer the rest of the forces to deploy, keeping them blocked up in the ravine, and making repeated and incessant charges on the head of the enemy^s column. After a most obsti- nate, deadly fight, of several hours' duration, he turned the column by his carabineers, and forced the enemy to take to flight. Subsequently, and when Rozycki's military fame had begun to spread in all directions, a Russian colonel, who had distinguished himself in the preceding wars, experienced a vehement desire to measure his strength against him. As his forces were superior in number, and in the hope that he would prove victorious, his wish was complied with from head-quarters. At first they met together in a skirmish, but without any decided result. In the sequel, Rozycki affected to be afraid of him, and withdrew at his approach. Having by a few skilful manoeuvres succeeded in drawing his antagonist gradually into a disadvantageous position, Rozycki now in his turn became the assailant, and the Russian colonel was beaten, and forced to retreat with , the loss of nearly all his men. Colonel Rozycki, who is at present living in exile in France, maintains that without the aid of artillery, there is no infantry in the world capable of resisting a properly directed charge of cavalry, well mounted, composed of courageous men, and led by skilful and ROZYCKI. 155 experienced officers. In this opinion, I venture to differ from him most completely. The very contrary I maintain to be the case. The English squares have never yet been broken. A good infantry force, in fine weather, ought to bid defiance to any species of cavalry whatever that can be brought against it. Beyond all doubt, nevertheless, Rozycki, who was by no means destitute of administrative talent, who united in his own person all the requisite qualities of a partisan chief, who was not wanting in that admix- ture of persuasive eloquence and tact, so essential to the gaining over of zealous adherents to a cause ; who could contrive to render himself at the same time beloved and feared ; and who possessed, moreover, a profound and practical knowledge of the means and resources alike of Russian-Poland and of E-ussia itself : Rozycki was the only man of the period capable of organising those insurrections which have ever proved the most dangerous and effective weapon in a contest with Russia ; and which, although entirely neglected in the war of 1831, will, to a certainty, be found in- dispensably requisite, and a most powerful adjunct, in any future effort which may be made by Poland for the recovery of her independence. Unfortunately, and as a link, it would appear, in that chain of fatalities which has ever bound the Polish struggle for emancipation, Rozycki made his appear- ance only towards the close of the war. He was wont repeatedly to say, "give me but 3000 men, and I 156 ROZYCKI. will undertake to exterminate the corps of General Rudiger ! " and most assuredly he would have re- deemed his pledge. A great Polish noble, who is in the habit of listening only to the cool dictates of his reason, and not to the fervid suggestions of exalted sentimentality, and who had a thorough knowledge of Rozycki's capacity, used frequently to say, that provided only the chief military command in the Ukraine were given to the latter, and the civil govern- ment of that province to himself, the whole of the Russic provinces could be thrown into a state of revolt ; 50,000 excellent cavalry troops be raised with ease in six weeks ; and insurrectionary movements be everywhere so multiplied against Russia, that, in a couple of months, the Russians might be driven entirely from Poland ; notwithstanding all the errors, blunders, and oversights that had been committed at the com- mencement of the war of 1831. At the same time, he maintained that nowhere else than in Russian Poland did the same facilities exist for a general, and from thence wide-spreading insurrection in favour of the Polish cause. Rozycki has devoted himself, during his stay in Paris, to the assiduous study of military affairs. In person, he is above the usual height ; his complexion is dark ; and his face deeply pitted with the small- pox: although now passed the meridian of life, he being about sixty years of age, and his hair slightly turning grey, he is still strong and active, and in the I ROZYCKI. 157 enjoyment of excellent health. Those now living, who served under him during the war of 1831, say that he scarcely ever slept ; and that when on horse- back and giving his orders, there was so much of dignity in his manner and deportment, that he in- spired, apart from the circumstances of his position, a certain feeling of deferential regard in all that approached him. Rozycki says that the best officer can be sometimes beaten, but that it is an unpardonable blunder when he allows himself to be taken by surprise. It is to be remarked that most of the Polish nobles, and the Polish Ukranian Cossacks, seem to possess almost by natui'e a considerable talent for the cavalry partisan war. This talent, however, is not always ex- tended to the infantry. ^BOn the subject of individual exploits, I have here perhaps been somewhat too diffuse; if so, my only exculpation is the satisfaction I experience in making known to the world the glorious achievements of my fellow-countrymen, when their authenticity, as in the , present case, is founded not upon the hollow preten- sions of would-be heroes, vaunted and bruited forth by subservient tools and artful intriguers, but upon actually accomplished facts and talents, proved and undisputed. As I have just mentioned, indirectly, the Duke of Wellington's glorious name, a name which not only in the present age, but also in future ages, will 1 158 ROZYCKI. always be dear to every British heart, and will not cease to excite the admiration of the world, it may not be amiss to give a sketch of a misunderstanding which took place between his son, the Marquis of Douro, and the present Russian emperor Nicholas. Some years ago, the Marquis of Douro visited Rus- sia, for the purpose of enjoying the pleasure of wild bear hunting. Just as he was returning from the Russian dominions, where he had been most hospitably received, having heard that there was to be a review of 100,000 Russian and Prussian combined troops at Kalisz, in Western Poland, he stopped in that town. The emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia were present at this review ; and the former, wishing to oblige all the foreign officers there present, in- vited them, collectively, to dine at the imperial table. Douro, in consideration of his title, his connec- tions, and in his quaHty of a British nobleman, re- commendations fully appreciated abroad, had the place d'honneur assigned him, and was seated at the right of the emperor. It was remarked, the first and second day, that the emperor conversed freely with all the foreign officers present at his table, but never addressed one single word to his British guest. The Marquis of Douro, who is un homme eoeille^ and who has the reputation of possessing strong perceptive powers, was somewhat piqued at this apparent slight on the part of his imperial entertainer ; and gave hints, indirectly, to General Count Bekendorf, the chief I ROZYCKI. 159 aide-de-camp of the emperor Nicholas, that it seemed to him as though he must, in some way or other, have incurred the displeasure of his imperial majesty ; but that he was wholly at a loss to know in what manner he could have deserved the emperor's anger. General Bekendorf immediately answered, that the emperor of Russia, his master, who rules over fifty millions of men, and who was always anxious to discharge faith- fully the duty imposed on him by Providence, was at times absent and pre-occupied in his mind, and might consequently appear careless about his guests ; though nothing in reality might be farther from his intention ; that his obliging disposition towards all foreigners, without exception, who did not meddle with politics in Russia, was so well known and fully acknowledged that it needed no comment; that he was sure that the next day his imperial majesty would redeem his unintentional neglect, and would not fail to open to the noble marquis the large stock of his know- ledge and the hidden treasures of his ever entertain- ing conversation: a mark of attention to which the marquis was fully entitled, not only by his birth, but by his amiabihty, numerous qualities, and unblemished character. The next day Douro was again present at the imperial table. The emperor never once looked at him ; entered into a long conversation with a person seated at the right of the marquis, but never ad- dressed one single word to the latter; it was even 160 ROZYCKI. remarked, that whenever the emperor accidentally turned his head towards Douro, the imperial features momentarily assumed that icy coldness and stern for- biddingness of expression, peculiar to the morose cha- racter which is often attributed to him. After the dinner, Douro again mentioned to General Bekendorf that he was now quite sure that the emperor was seriously angry with him ; but that of the existence of any probable cause of offence on his part, or of the reason for his having thus incurred the displeasure of his imperial majesty, he, the marquis, was as com- pletely ignorant, as of the hour and manner of his own death. Bekendorf, visibly embarrassed, answered, that, some time ago, it was reported to the emperor that the noble marquis had been present at a baU given for the relief of the Polish refugees in London. That the emperor was so much surprised at such a report, that he would not at first believe that the son of the Duke of Wel- lington could have attended at such a ball, and that it must have been a mistake ; but that the news of his being actually present was subsequently officially con- firmed to his imperial majesty : he thought, therefore, that this circumstance might probably have displeased the emperor, and that this might perhaps be the real cause of the latter not having manifested to him those marks of kindness uniformly extended by the emperor to aU foreigners of distinction. After this explanation, the Marquis of Douro, to the great regret of the ROZYCKI. 161 inhabitants of Kalisz, left Poland, and returned to England, Setting aside tlie paramount respect of right due to his illustrious birth, let it be also remembered that the marquis was not a Russian but a British subject ; and, consequently, that he was not obliged to adopt the political views of the Russian autocrat, or to partake of his imperial antipathies. Let it be remembered that the noble marquis was not at that time married to his splendid and virtuous spouse; and as he is a nobleman who undoubtedly possesses a certain amiability of character, with pleasing manners, and had not the reputation to be insensible to the fair sex, he might have appeared at the Polish ball, not for any political motive hostile to Russia, but for seeing either a lady of his acquaintance, or some of his brother officers ; or he might have had a whim of contributing to the support of those Polish exiles who, having fought for their country, oppressed beyond all power of description, claimed British hospitality, and were without the slightest means of existence. The emperor has never spoken to him since. It seems, however, that, on the last visit of the Emperor Nicholas to England, some sort of reconciliation must, indirectly, have taken place, as it is a well-known fact that, by the exertions of the Marquis of Douro, Count Mostowski, a Pole, received permission to return to his country, and was well received by the emperor, who at a levee shook hands with him, and bade him welcome M 162 ROZYCKI. back to Poland, where he remains to this time iinmo- lested. As soon as it was known at Kalisz that the Marquis of Douro was there, some persons attempted to bribe the waiter to give them the opportunity of catch- ing a sight of the son of the conqueror of Napoleon. I guarantee the veracity of all the particulars of the above anecdote, which was communicated to me by Lord Dudley Stuart, and by some persons well acquainted with the neighbourhood of Kalisz. I venture to men- tion it without thespecial authorisation of the marquis alluded to. I shall probably resume the history I have already commenced, of the life of the Duke of Wellington, in the PoUsh and English languages. Being neither an Enghshman nor a Frenchman, and consequently, in the position of an impartial observer, I shall treat the subject without bias towards either side ; and although I may perhaps diflfer in some particulars from the historians of the latter nations, who have given biographies of the noble duke, I shall conscientiously endeavour to dis- charge the task without favour or prejudice. I intend to dedicate the above work to the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Hardinge, who contributed so much to the glory of the British name in India. 163 CHAPTER IX. PRINCESS TARAKANOF. Her Birth — Rank and Claim to the Russian Throne as the lawful Daughter of the Empress Elizabeth and Grand-daughter of Peter the Great— Excites the jealousy of Catherine II.— Is advised to leave Russia without delay — Claims the Protection of Prince Charles Radzivill, the richest grandee in Poland — Is carried clan- destinely by him to Poland, and treated with the regard due to her illustrious rank— Her Danger— Sets out for Italy with Prince Radzivill— Stops at Rome — Lives in apparent Seclusion, attended by Masters — Intrigues— Infamous Propositions to Radzivill for be- traying the Princess rejected — Tricks of the Russian Agents on the latter in Italy — Devastation of Radzivill's Possessions in Po- land by the Russian Generals— His pecuniary difficulties— Sets out for Poland — Leaves the Princess under the care of a Governess — Arrives in Poland— Is duped — Count Alexy Orloflf's Stratagem in Italy — His artful Snare to entrap the Princess— Carlo Ribas — His acquaintance with the Princess — Introduces Orloff to her — Mock Marriage of OrlofF with her— Orloff leaves Rome, goes to Pisa, and ultimately to Leghorn — Treachery of the Russian Fleet — The Princess falls a Victim— Her real Lover — Indignation of the Inhabitants— The Princess arrives in Irons at Petersburg— Is put into a Dungeon, and treated with harshness and dies — Remarks. Before we proceed to a description of one of the darkest and most abominable intrigues that stained the reign of Catherine II., it may be proper to give some information to the reader about the early days of 164 PRINCESS TARAKANOF. its unfortunate victim ; and we must revert to the time of the Empress Elizabeth. Elizabeth Petrowna, empress of Russia, second daughter of Peter the Great, inherited from her fa- ther, neither his natural cruelty, his firmness, nor mental ability : she was more known by her personal attractions, by her love of good living, and fondness of pleasure, than by any briUiant quality suitable to her exalted position. Left a widow in the meridian of life, on the throne of one of the largest empires in the world, Elizabeth was often the dupe of the first court intriguer whom chance brought to her palace ; and who flattering her passions, and possessing a firmer mind, availed himself of any favourable opportunities for promoting his private aggrandisement ; a result not always favoui'able to the welfare of the country. Having a large field for the gratification of her caprices, and dreading no control, Elizabeth had many lovers, whom she changed according to her fancy, and to whom she refused nothing. She seems not to have been much inclined to share with any of them the yoke of matrimony. As she was, however, not exactly free from the clergy's influence, Count Alexy Grego- rovitch Razumoskoy, master of the buck-hounds, and one of her most favoured lovers, whom she had raised to the first dignities of the empire, taking skilful advantage of an expression which fell accidentally from her majesty's lips, prevailed on her (through the advice PRINCESS TARAKANOF. 165 of her confessor, who was in his pay,) to marry him privately. She left three children by this marriage ; namely, two sons and a daughter, the Princess Tara- kanof. No sooner had Catherine ascended the Russian throne, after the murder of her husband, Peter III., than being apprised of her existence, she became evi- dently jealous of her ; whereupon the friends of the youthful princess, dreading some sinister design against her, advised her to leave Russia without delay. Con- forming to their advice, the princess sought the pro- tection of Prince Charles Radzivill, who, having gained over one of her female attendants, brought the princess to his estate in Lithuania, where she was treated with regard and kindness. As, however, Poland at that time was full of Russian troops, and was already governed as a Russian pro- vince, Radzivill having accidentally discovered an in- trigue dangerous to the safety of his illustrious prote- gee^ took her suddenly with him to Rome, where, in comparative seclusion, she received instruction suitable to her birth and rank. Perhaps the prospect of being able to put a stop to the domestic, foreign, and rehgious war excited by Catherine II. in Poland, induced Radzivill to pro- tect a young lady who, under proper circumstances, and as the grand- daughter of Peter the Great, might become a formidable rival to Catherine's power. Her very name rendered her dear to the Russians ; perhaps 166 PRINCESS TARAKANOF. the loftier aim of mounting with her the Russian throne, secretly governed the conduct of the Polish grandee towards the fair object of his attention. However it may have been, the czarina, having been well apprised, by her spies, of what was going on at Rome in Radzivill's house, ordered her generals in Poland to pillage, destroy, and burn, under some pre- text or other, all the property of Radzivill; to arrest all his stewards, and not to allow them to send him any money abroad, under any circumstances. She even went so far as to make a liberal gratuitous offer, through her agents, to all the bankers at Rome, to induce them not to provide Prince Radzivill with any money. Radzivill, thus suddenly deprived of his immense revenue, was obliged to live in Italy on the produce of his diamonds ; and when these supplies, and the money borrowed by him from his friends were exhausted, he set out in order to gain some intelligence concerning his private affairs in Poland ; leaving the young lady under the care of a governess, to whom he gave proper in- structions to watch over her charge, and not to admit, during his absence, any stranger to the princess, with- out a previous knowledge of his character and princi- ples. Scarcely had Prince Radzivill returned to Poland, when the Russian ambassador stated that, if he would deliver the Princess Tarakanof to the empress of Russia, not only all his possessions should be in- stantly restored to him, and all his losses liberally paid. I PRINCESS TARAKANOF. 167 but that the prince would also thereby secure to himself for the future, her imperial majesty's favour, extended even to aU his relatives and friends. In the first burst of indignation, Radzivill intended to demand personal satisfaction from the Russian am- bassador for his insulting proposition ; but, acting on the advice of his friends, he answered, in writing, with great dignity, that whatever might happen, and how- ever eager he might be to secure her imperial majesty's favour, he would never betray the trust placed in his honour, and would never deliver Princess Tara- kanof into the hands of her enemies, as such an action would stain his noble name with eternal infamy, and would lower him in his own estimation. In this letter he threw all the blame on the over zeal of the Russian ambassador; and played so well on the generosity, nolle feelings, and magnanimity, of the czarina, that the insulting proposition was ne^er renewed to him ; and though he was not recompensed for his losses, his possessions were all restored to him, and his stewards, previously arrested by the Russian generals, liberated. The Russian ambassador added also, that if he, the prince, gave him his promise, as a gentleman, not to have any personal intercouse with the princess alluded to, not to encourage any ambitious dreams in her mind, directly or indirectly, and not to correspond with her, he could assure him, as a gentleman, that she should be left unmolested abroad. Should, however, anything happen to the contrary, Radzivill would thereby work 168 PRINCESS TARAKANOF. her misfortune and ruin. Radzivill, who was naturally of a chivakous disposition, thinking any man of high station incapable of breaking his word or of affirming a falsehood, and dreading, not without reason, the dark hints of the ambassador respecting the young lady's fate, sent her privately some money, which, however, never reached her; recommended her to some friends, and left her exposed, unprotected, and helpless, to the diabolical snares skilfully prepared for entrapping her, just at that very time when she re- quired protection more than anything else. The czarina, having been apprized that Radzivill had been duped, henceforth acted with more boldness. At that time Prince Gregory OrlofF was her principal and acknowledged favourite ; and it was said that his own brother, Count Alexy Orloff, who had gained some naval victories over the Turks, and who had come to Petersburg, to share with other Russian generals the honours and substantial rewards awaiting them at court, aspired also secretly to supplant his brother in her imperial majesty's heart. Catherine had a keen eye ; she soon suspected his concealed aim, and listening to the warm protestations of gratitude of Alexy OrloiF to her imperial person for the favours lavished on him, gave him hints that they would soon be put to the test ; and that the sacrifice of his passion for a young and beautiful lady, dangerous to the well-being of the em- press herself, might probably be required from him, as a condition for the future continuance of her imperial PRINCESS TARAKANOF. 169 majesty's kindness. In reality, however, thd czarina wished to turn to her own advantage the growing attach- ment of Orloff to her person, to prolong his stay abroad, and to induce him to commit a crime, the dis- grace of which (if committed) would fall heavier on him than on her. She was anxious, probably, also to be at liberty to gratify some new fancy, without the envious gaze of a too jealous and troublesome rival. Instruc- tions were given to Orloff respecting Princess Tai'aka- nof ; he promised to fulfil them, and was true to his word ; a part far more difficult than the promise itself. Orloff soon left Petersburg, and after stopping some days at Vienna, repaired to Leghorn, where the Russian squadron was already expecting him. He was also commissioned to find an artist to paint some pictures, representing the burning of the Turkish fleet by the Russians. Orloff soon found a painter of the name of Halkert, to whom he made liberal propositions to this effect ; but the artist told him he never saw the burning of a ship. Orloff immediately ordered one of his large ships to be blown up, for the purpose of satisfying com- pletely the painter's curiosity, and to enable him to finish his pictures with greater precision, though at the hazard of the ships lying in the port. As soon as Count Orloff had acquired from his agents all the necessary information about the young Russian lady, he sent to Rome Carlo Ribas, a convicted felon, a Neapolitan of foreign extraction, a young man of good address, whose dashing appearance, smoothness of 170 PRINCESS TARAKANOF. tongue, and insinuating manners, coupled with a pecu- liar fitness for intrigue, concealed a black and treache- rous heart, and rendered him a worthy associate of his infamous projects. After discovering, as if by accident, the lodging of the young princess, Eibas (who had re- ceived every necessary instruction from Orlofi",) in- troduced himself to her in a splendid uniform, under the name of an officer. He told her that he had ven- tured to call on her from the sole desire of paying due homage to a princess, whose fate and misfortunes, ac- complishments and virtues, were highly interesting to all her countrymen. He seemed very much affected and distressed at the state of destitution in which he found a young lady of her rank. He afforded her some pecuniary assistance ; beseeching her on his knees to accept it, as he would consider her so doing as a great honour paid to him ; and as he was well assured that she would not forget him as soon as she should be re- stored to her country, and to the lofty station in society to which her rank and birth entitled her. As his man- ner and behaviour were extremely respectful, and at the same time subdued and distant, and as the tone of his voice was sorrowful and tender, she requested him to rise, accepted his money with a slight blush, evidently grateful and flattered at his conduct: and the wily traitor soon appeared to his artless and unsuspecting victim in the light of a messenger whom heaven had sent for her deliverance. Henceforward, Ribas was occasionally admitted to PRINCESS TARAKANOF. 171 the society of the princess ; and when he thought he had sufficiently gained her confidence, he declared that he was commissioned from a far higher personage than himself, to apprise her of an intended visit connected with her private afiairs. And when she became eager to know the name and particulars of the intended visitor, after tantalizing for some time her curiosity, he apparently yielded to her entreaties, and told her respectfully, in a whisper, that Count Alexy OrlofF wished to offer to the daughter of Elizabeth, the throne that was lately filled by her mother. He said that the Russians were discontented with Catherine ; that Orloff especially could never forgive her ingratitude and tyranny ; and that if the young princess would accept the proposals and services of that general, and reward them with the grant of her hand, an outbreak would soon take place, which was already ripe for action and success. Such extraordinary and brilliant proposals ought na- turally to have opened the eyes of the Princess Taraka- nof, and to have raised her suspicions ; but her amiable and confiding soul, her inexperience of the world, com- pletely deceived her. Besides, the language of the emissary of Alexy Orloff was in harmony with some hints which she often heard about herself at Prince Rad- ziviU's house. She imagined herself destined to the throne ; and all the airy and poetical dreams floating in her head on that subject, could not but encourage the deceit. With a thankful heart she unhappily promised 17^ PRINCESS TARAKANOF. to receive the proposed visitor, and thus herself con- curred in the work of her destruction. Count Alexy Orloff shortly afterwards came to Rome, having been announced already by his agent; and hastened to pay his respects to the young Russian lady. He was received as a particular friend, as a benefactor. However, some persons to whom the princess and her governess communicated the good fortune that awaited them, advised them to be on their guard against the evident treachery of a man whose character for wicked- ness was well known ; and who, without doubt, had too much reason to remain faithful to his present sovereign to think of conspiring against her. Instead of paying due attention to such useful and timely advice, the princess was so imprudently frank as to repeat immediately, word for word, to OrloiF all she had heard. The latter, as a skilful courtier, soon con- trived to allay her apprehensions ; and thenceforth threw a deeper shade of dissimulation, address, and hypocrisy into his honied speeches and behaviour. Not satisfied with flattering the ambition of the young Russian, he contrived, by the usual arts of dissimulation and of feigned attachment, to assume the semblance of a passion for her, and succeeded so far as to inspire her with a true one. As soon as he was sure of it, he conjured her in the most urgent terms to marry him without delay ; she unhappily consented, and even with joy, thinking that the title of spouse to Count Alexy Orloff would shelter her powerfully from the imminent dangers and PRINCESS TARAKANOF. liS treacherous machinations which she was taught to ap- prehend. Feigning a desii'e that the marriage ceremony should be performed according to the rites of the Greek church, Orloff suborned some low villains to disguise themselves as lawyers and priests, and the mock marriage shortly afterwards took place. Thus profa- nation was combined with imposture, in the conspi- racy plotted against the unprotected and too confident Tarakanof. When Alexy OrlofF had become the husband of the unhappy princess, he represented to her that their stay in Rome exposed her to too close observation ; and that it would be better for her to proceed to some other city of Italy, to wait for the breaking out of the plot that was to call her to the tlirone. Believing this advice to be dictated by love and prudence, she answered that " she had married him, not out of ambition, but for affection ; and that as became her duty towards him as an obedient and devoted wife, she would willingly follow him where- ever he chose to conduct her, even to the end of the world." He brought her immediately to Pisa, where he had previously hired a magnificent palace. There he continued to treat her with unshaken marks of tenderness and respect ; but he permitted none to come near her, excepting persons completely devoted to him ; and when she went to the theatre, or to the public promenades, he himself always attended her. The division of the Russian squadron, under the 174 PRINCESS TARAKANOF. orders of Admiral Grieg, had just entered the port of Leghorn. Having been apprised of this, OrlofF told the princess that his presence was necessary at Leghorn, for the purpose of giving some orders; and he re- quested the latter to attend him there. To this she immediately consented, having previously heard of the magnificence of the Russian ships, and the beauty of the port of Leghorn. Imprudent creature, the nearer she approached the catastrophe of the plot, the more she trusted to her faithless betrayer. The princess departed from Pisa with her customary suite of attendants, and was greeted by the whole population, her aifability and obliging manners having rendered her a general favourite. On arriving at Leghorn, she landed at the house of the British consul, where suitable apartments had been already prepared for her, and where she was received with all the marks of the profoundest respect. The next day she was visited by all the ladies of rank, and was soon surrounded by a numerous court. Every one was preparing some new entertainment for her. Whenever she went out, the people lined the way as she passed along; and being pleased with her beauty, and having heard of her liberality and kindness, cheered her with repeated huzzas, with that southern enthusiam so difficult to describe, and which is seldom known in the northern countries. They called her, La hella e huena prin- cessa — " The good and beautiful princess." All circum- stances conspired to lull her into a fatal security. All I PRINCESS TARAKANOF. 175 tended to dispel the idea of any immediate danger at the very time when her days were already numbered. The young Russian princess was so far from apprehending any danger threatening her, that after having passed several days in a round of amusements with which she was pleased and delighted, she made of her own accord the proposition to visit the Russian fleet. The idea was applauded, the necessary orders were immediately given, and the next afternoon every- thing was ready at the water-side, for her reception. On her arrival at the port, the princess was handed into a boat with splendid awnings. Many ladies, with the British consul, seated themselves with her. A second boat conveyed Count Alexy Orloff and the admiral ; and a third, filled with Russian and British officers and sailors, closed the procession. The boats put from shore in sight of an immense multitude of people, and were received by the fleet with bands of music, salutes of artillery, and repeated huzzas. As the princess came alongside the ship on board of which she was to go, and when silence was restored, she could not help admiring the beautiful scenery of Leghorn, and the distant tops of the Appenine range drawn in the streams of crimson light of an Italian setting sun. A splendid chair was let down from the yard, in which being seated,* she was readily hoisted upon deck ; and it was observed to her that these were particular honours paid to her rank. OrlofF soon followed her, under the plea of helping 176 PRINCESS TARAKANOF. some ladies ; but no sooner was she on board with him than she was handcuffed. In vain she implored the pity of her cruel betrayer; in vain she called him by the most tender names ; in vain she threw herself at his feet, and bathed them with her tears. No answer even was given to her lamentation, she was carried down into the hold, put in irons, and the vessel set sail for Russia. The confusion, the shrieks of the ladies, and of all those who were present, may be better imagined than described. On arriving at St. Petersburg, the young victim was shut up in a fortress, placed in a dark dungeon, and treated with the greatest harshness and barbarity. What became of her afterwards was never precisely kno^vn, no one ever daring to inquire about her. It is said that Catherine once feasted her eyes with her torments. The author of the interesting Memoires Secretes sur I'ltalie, says, that the young victim was drowned on the 10th of September, 1777, when the waves, moved by a terrible gale, rose ten feet above their usual level. Others assert that the unfortunate princess fell in prison by the hands of the executioner. All agree that she died in the course of that year. The inhabitants of Leghorn, who saw the princess embark, heard shortly after with inexpressible horror that, instead of the grand entertainment which the princess was to have on board the fleet, she was put in irons. The grand Duke of Tuscany, whose territory was thus so shamefully violated, wrote immediately to Vienna and Petersburg, to complain of the outrage ; but PRINCESS TARAKANOF. 177 protestations without coercive measures are of little avail. All the British oiScers in the naval Russian ser- vice, indignant at the infamy perpetrated in their pre- sence on the Princess Tarakanof, returned to England. Such was the fate of the grand-daughter of Peter the Great, bom in wedlock : whose only crime was, that she raised the jealousy of Catherine II., and might have laid claim to the Russian throne. Nothing can possibly exculpate Catherine from her participation in this barbarous deed, however some of her admirers may partially justify her conduct in the matter : as for Alexy Orloff (in whose heart the rattle- snake, the foam of a mad cat, and the bile of seven jealous furies must have taken shelter), considering that Princess Tarakanof was an orphan, young, beauti- ful, unprotected, innocent ; that she never in any way offended him ; that she loved him ; that she lived with him for some months as his lawful wife; that she belonged to a family which ought to be dear to every Russian ; considering that she put perfect trust in him ; we must consider his action as an instance of the most abominable and blackest perfidy that ever stained the conscience and honour of any human being. See Histoire de Pierre III., et les Amours secretes de Catherine II.; Life of Catherine II. p. 61 ; Life of Catherine II., by Costera ; Memoirs of the reign of Catherine II. ; and Memoires secretes d'ltalie. 178 CHAPTER X. CATHERINE II. AND HER FAVOURITES. Catherine's Birth, Education, and Talents— Her early Gallantries and Dissimulation— Arrival at the Court of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia — Marriage with the Grand Duke Peter, afterwards Czar of Russia, under the name of Peter IH. — She concocts a Plot with her liorers to hurl him from the Throne, and conducts it with great skill and boldness— Is successful— Orders the Murder of her Hus- band, and becomes after his Death the absolute Sovereign of Russia — Her numerous Lovers — Prince Potemkin — The manner of Choosing and Dismissing the Favourites — Lontskoi — Momonof and his Lady — Catherine's Cruelty and Excesses— Her Death. As the reign of Catherine II. empress of Russia, her crafty intrigues, the caprice of her numerous favourites, and the enormities of her generals, greatly influenced the ultimate fate of unhappy Poland, it may not be improper to give a sketch of her early days ; to furnish the reader with the names of her principal lovers (the others are too insignificant and numerous to be men- tioned), and to narrate some of the dark villanies related by her most authentic biographers. Sophia Augusta Frederica, who, under the name of Catherine II., became the absolute empress of Russia after the murder of Peter III. in 1762, was the lawful daughter of Prince Augustus Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg CATHERINE II. AND HER FAVOURITES. 179 and the princess of Holstein ; and was bom May 2, 1729, at Stettin, in Prussian Pomerania. Catherine's mother was a remarkably clever woman, and gave her an excellent education. From her early days the youthful Princess Sophia was not less remark- able for her beauty, her eloquence, and her firm and sagacious mind, than for her ambition, her licentious- ness, and the extraordinary art with which she con- cealed her most secret thoughts. Even at the early age of fourteen she conducted her love affairs with no ordinary dissimulation. Brought to the court of the Empress Elizabeth, and married to the Grand Duke Peter, she attracted general admiration. Feigning an ardent passion for her husband, who became, after the death of his aunt Elizabeth, czar of Russia, under the title of Peter III., she planned with her lover an in- trigue for hurling him from the throne, and taking into her own hands the sceptre of the Russian empire. In this difficult undertaking, which she conducted with extraordinary skill, boldness, and dissimulation, under the most trying circumstances, she ultimately suc- ceeded. Without attempting to describe her life, which has been so well written by many distinguished authors, we proceed to the description of the czarina's favourites. It is a general remark, that when kings reign, women rule; and when women reign, men govern. Though some women may have possessed great strength of mind and talents; yet, on the whole, they never 180 CATHERINE II. equal in any science or undertaking eminent men; but they always govern them by the power of their charms. From a remote period of Russian history, and especially in the last century, the monarchs of Russia have always had favourites oiScially ; it is no wonder that a custom, so ancient and scrupulously observed by four empresses, namely, Catherine I., Anne, Elizabeth, and Catherine II., should be almost considered as the fundamental law of the empire, and as a concomitant of the imperial grandeur. As the reign of Catherine II. was longer than that of any of her predecessors, and as her passions were warmer, it was natural that the number of her favourites should be greater. Sovereigns are but mortal after all, and are governed by the same feelings as the rest of mankind; consequently, they are often slaves to the same caprices and weaknesses, and having a larger field wherein to gratify their fancies and propensities, and being obliged often for state reasons to sacrifice their affection to the paltry considerations of court policy, they have more claim to our indulgence than those whose sphere of life shelters them from similar sacri- fices. Infamy and crime, however, must not be com- mitted, nor the laws of public decency violated with impunity. It may not be uninteresting to give some idea of the ceremonies connected with the installation of Cathe- rine's favourites. When her imperial majesty had fixed her choice on a new favourite, she created him AND HER FAVOURITES. 181 her general aide-de-camp, in order that he might attend her everywhere, without creating scandal or attracting malicious observation. Thenceforward, the favourite occupied in the palace an apartment below that of the empress, to which it communicated by a private staircase. The first day of his installation, he received a present of £15,000, and every month he found £2500 on his dressing-table ; the chief steward of the court being commissioned to provide him with a daily table of twenty-five covers. The favourite at- tended the empress to all places of amusement ; was her constant companion at the opera, at balls, prome- nades, excursions of pleasure, and was not allowed to leave the palace without express permission. He was given to understand, that it would not be taken well if he conversed familiarly with other women ; and if he went to dine with any of his friends, the mistress of the house was not to be- present. Whenever the empress took a fancy to any one of her subjects, with the design of raising him to the post of favourite, she caused him to be invited to din- ner by some lady of her confidence, on whom she dropped in as if by chance. Then she would enter into familiar conversation with the new comer, with a view to discover whether or not he was worthy of the favour she intended to bestow on him. When the judgment she formed was favourable, the confidant, who was informed of it by a significant look from the empress, did not fail, on the departure of her imperial 182 CATHERINE II. visitor, to notify to the favourite the extent of his happiness. The day following, he received a visit from one of the principal physicians of the court, who came to inquire into the state of his health without ceremony ; and the same evening he met the empress at the hermitage, and took possession of the apart- ment that had been prepared for him. When the power of a favourite was on the wane, a hint of dismissal was given to him by ordering him to travel; and from that time he was debarred all access to her majesty. All his debts, however, were paid, his near relatives provided for, and he received a boon of an hereditary estate in recompense for his services. The first of Catherine's acknowledged lovers, after she came to Russia, was Count Soltykof — second, Stanislaus Poniatowski (the late king of Poland) — third, Prince Gregory Orloff— fourth, Vissensky — fifth, Vassiltchikof — sixth. Prince Potemkin — seventh, Za- vadosky — eighth, Zoritch — ninth, Rymski-Korsakof — tenth, Lontskoi — eleventh, Yermolof— twelfth, Momo- nof — thirteenth, Prince Platto Zubof — fourteenth. Valerian Zubof. It is to be remarked, that among all the above men- tioned lovers (though to Prince Gregory Orloflf she was chiefly indebted for her throne), the ablest man was undoubtedly Potemkin, who governed the Empress Catherine, her lovers and the whole Russian empire, to the end of his days. He was of Polish origin. AND HER FAVOURITES. 183 Lonskoi (Lonski) was the only one for whom she entertained, when already past the meridian of life, the most tender and devoted attachment ; which, it is said, was partly returned : he died in her arms, and left her his fortune, which she gave to his relatives. After his death, she was so completely absorbed in grief, that she wished to die of inanition, and for three months did not quit her apartment. During this time, she refused to see any one, excepting her ser- vants; and erected him a superb mausoleum in the garden opposite the windows of her bed-room ; bathing it for several years with her tears, and actually stating with sobs that she was unworthy of having such a lover. She often visited his grave at midnight. He was a native of the Polish province torn by Russia from Poland by the first partition ; his original name was Lonski, which was changed by Catherine into Lontskoi. After the death of Lontskoi, and shortly before her own death, Catherine seems to have much liked Momonof ; but he fell in love with one of her maids of honour, Princess Schteherbatof, and had private inter- views with her. This was soon reported to the em- press ; and she once, unperceived, caught him actually kneeling before her. The next day she suggested to Momonof a marriage with the rich Countess Bruce, as if to know what efiect such a proposal would make on him. Momonof, after some hesitation, threw himself at the empress's feet, and openly avowed his attach- 184 CATHERINE II. ment for the princess. The next day they were mar- ried, and set out for Moscow, with orders not to visit St. Petersburg. Catherine, however, never forgave Princess Schteherbatof for having deprived her of Momonof's society, and planned secretly a merciless vengeance. Momonof had the imprudence to relate some curious particulars of his love affair with the Empress Catherine ; and his lady, who hated Cathe- rine, divulged them immediately with a levity injurious to the sovereign, and amplifying, it is said, many things. Momonof and his lady had one night gone to rest, when the master of the police of Moscow entered their apartment with six men in women's attire, and a written order of the empress. They seized the babbling lady, and having stripped her entirely of her night- clothes, flogged her terribly with rods, in the presence of her husband, whom they compelled to kneel during the ceremony. Such a barbarous violation of domestic privacy could only happen in Russia, and gives some idea of the manner in which that country is governed. The choice of her imperial majesty was not always bestowed on educated men. Once a simple trumpeter attracted her attention, and speedily became a general. In the latter part of her life, the empress threw aside all restraint, and shortened her life by the most dis- gusting excesses. She died November 6, 1796. It is stated that Catherine lavished nearly fifty millions of pounds sterling on her love affairs, and demoralized for centuries the whole Russian nobility. AND HER FAVOURITES. 185 Some Eussians, however, refused the place of favourite, in spite of all the substantial advantages derivable from it. Among them was Prince S. Dolgoruki. Such was the woman on whom sordid writers have lavished their flatteries ; but if there have been women on the throne, who have disgraced it by their vices, there have been, as there are still, others, who are ex- amples of domestic virtue, and who have been orna- ments to their station. See Life of Catherine II., 3 vols. ; Authentic Me- moirs of Catherine II. ; Life of Catherine II., by Costera ; Pierre III. et les Amours de Catherine ; Dzieta Nie- meevioza, &c. 186 CHAPTER XI. REBELLION OF PUGATCHEF. Pugatchef— His Birth and Initiation in Warfare and Robbery— Bio- graphies of him difficult to be procured — His Flight into Poland — Adopts the religious Creed of Roskolniki (Starowiertzy Puritans) — Joins the Cossacks of the laik — His Expedition in Kuban — Is arrested at Malefolka, but escapes — Rebellion among the Cossacks of the laik on account of the Infringement of their Privileges — Pugatchef joins them — Uncertain when he assumed the title of Peter IH. — His Invasion of the newly -established Colonies at the Banks of the Irghis — Besieges the Town of laitzkai, and is re- pulsed — Attracts to his Party the Cossacks of the Betz — Takes Basyrnaya, Ossernaya, and Tateschtcheva — Cuts to pieces the Russian Corps under Colonel Bulof— Vanquishes General Tchemi- shef, and slays all who refuse to join him— Besieges the Town of Orenburg — His Successes and Extent of his Domination — His Hy- pocrisy — Inscription and Motto on his Standards — His unexpected Successes — His Court and Ministers — His Intention of extermi- nating the Russian Nobility — His Proclamations and Manifesto — Price offered for his Head — Partial Successes of Bibikof— Unsuc- cessful Siege of Orenburg— Battle with the main Army of General Bibikof— His Retreat into the Uralian Mountains and Re-appear- ance with an Army — Burning of Kazan, and Rejection in the Moim- tains by Michelson— Re-appearance with Proclamations and Mani- festos—Capture of the Towns of Pensa, Saratof, and Dymitrefsk — His SurpriseofDuboskai'a- Ultimately vanquished and routed near Tchernojar — His Flight to the Deserts on the Banks of the Ouzem — Is Betrayed and delivered to the Russians— His Punishment and Execution at Moscow — Consequences of his Rebellion — Compa- rison with Stenko Razin — Remarks. After the murder of Peter III. by Catherine's fa- vourite, at the imperial seat Ropscha, in 176^, though the body of that ill-fated monarch was publicly ex- REBELLION OF PTJGATCHEF. . 187 posed in the convent of Alexander Newski, a rumour was prevalent that the czar had escaped the snares of the assassins, and was living concealed in a distant pro- vince of the Russian empire, till more favourable circum- stances should allow him to regain his throne and punish the traitors. Several different impostors successively attempted to avail themselves of this popular delusion, and, by per- sonating the ill-fated emperor, to make good their claims to the Russian throne; but four of them were suppressed with more or less difficulty, and they expiated, by a cruel death on the scaffold, the crime of their mischievous imposture. Of these audacious pretenders, who were all more or less favoured indirectly by the Russian priests, the first was a shoemaker of Voronetz ; the second, a private deserter from the regiment of Orlof ; the third, Stefano Piccolo, an lUyrian, an Austrian deserter of good address, who practised surgery in Turkey ; the fourth, a serf of the illustrious family of Vorontzof ;* and the fifth, a malefactor escaped firom the prison of Irkutsk. One only of them, the third in rotation, Stefano Piccolo, more fortunate than the others, amassed some wealth and escaped, probably because he attempted his imposture, not in Russia, but in the country of the Montenegrinos, under the Turkish domination. In spite, however, of aU these repeated failures, and of the terrible example of retributive justice thus afforded, the elements of rebellion still existed; the 188 REBELLION OF discarded clergy, the Cossacks, and some disappointed Russian grandees, were busily engaged in preparing secretly a more serious and more formidable outbreak, and a terrible and unexpected storm was gathering. The man whose name made the whole of Russia trem- ble to her very foundation — the man whose courage, enterprise, ability, perseverance, as well as ferocity, hypocrisy, and disgusting excesses, are about to be narrated — deserves particular notice, though the extent of this work does not afford space to explain many interesting facts. Ikhmelian Pugatchef, son of a private Cossack, Izmailof, was bom in 17^6, at Simoveisk, on the banks of the Don, in the commune of the Kossack Stanitza Zinvilskaia, served under the command of Field- marshal Apraxyn, in the seven years"* war, and made the campaign of 1769 against the Turks. After the siege of Bender, where he distinguished himself by his gallantry, he resolved, for some reasons never yet clearly explained, to leave the military service; but, not having received on that subject a satisfactory an- swer, he deserted, went to Poland, and was hospitably received and taken care of by some clergy of the Greco- Russian church in Podolia. Concealed and sheltered in this retired spot, he adopted the religion of Roskolniki — the Russian puritan faith; an ancient community of the Greek Church, established by some fanatics in the twelfth century, who were to be the strict observants of the New Testament; PU&ATCHEF. 189 a community persecuted by Peter the Great and his ancestors, and scorned by the majority of the Russian people, not for trifling differences in the ceremonies of their rites, but for a singular custom, to this time, it is said, prevalent among them, which decency forbids me to mention. The rigorous persecutions of these fanatics, known by their great chastity and abste- mious habits, produced in Russia the same effect as everywhere else in similar circumstances: it greatly increased, instead of diminishing their number, espe- cially in the remote parts of the Russian empire. Pugatchef did not fail to turn these persecutions to his own account. Being obliged to leave his hospitable friends, he went to Dobrynka, where he lived on alms : thence he wandered some time in Lesser Russia, pro- vided for and well taken care of by the numerous vota- ries of his adopted creed; but having received timely warning of the danger to which he was exposed in dwelling among them, he proceeded through the coun- try of the Don, towards the land of the Cossacks of the laik, where religious persecution, combined with the growing impatience of the Russian yoke, were preparing a formidable rebellion. As soon as Pugatchef had assembled some of his partisans, he hinted that he was about to undertake a lucrative expedition; and went towards the river Kuban and the passes of the Caucasian mountains, where the commerce carried on between the Turks, the Persians,' and the Russians, afforded him excellent opportunities 190 REBELLION OF of satisfying the rapacious habits and cupidity of his followers. It is certainly not easy to imagine the exist- ence of such a band of organised robbers in western Europe; but nothing is more common than similar bands in eastern Russia, which have always existed somewhere, and are found even at the present time. During his successful and murderous excursions, Pugat- chef frequently complained of the cruelty and oppression of the Russian government, and never failed to impress the belief on the mind of his people that the time was not far distant when they would see better days. Similar expressions and promises, always artfully in- troduced at proper times and under favourable circum- stances, and seasoned, moreover, with the powerful stimulant of affected secrecy, augmented daily the number of his adherents, and attracted, at the same time, the attention of the Russian authorities. Pugat- chef was suddenly arrested at the small town of Male- folka, and sent in irons to Kazan to undergo his trial. This unlucky accident would have cut short all his mighty projects, had he not so skilfully assumed the character of a half idiot, as to baffle the vigilance of the governor, whose consequent delay in inflicting the punishment awarded to Pugatchef, enabled the latter, by means of certain money furnished him by the clergy- men of his community, to bribe his guards and to effect his escape. Thus liberated, almost by a miracle, from his dungeon, he lost no time in descending the Volga and the river PUGATCHEF. Irghis which flows in the desert; and reappearing on the banks of the laik under more favourable circum- stances, adopted fresh expedients for the furtherance of his projects. The Cossacks, who bear the name of that river, are the scattered remains of the ancient inhabit- ants of Kaptshak ; a curious mixture of Russians, Tatars, Kalmucks, and Kerghis. On the whole, they were more barbarous than their western brethren ; rather pagan than Christian, ignorant, superstitious, leading a wandering life, hating the culture of the soil, and sub- sisting chiefly on rapine, the produce of their fisheries, and the breeding of cattle, as well as extracting salt from their extensive marshes. The Russian govern- ment robbed them, inch by inch, not only of the vast tracts of fertile soil which they never touched, but also of the abundant pastures which fed their herds in these cold and dreary solitudes. Deprived of the scanty allowance which was due to them on the sacred faith of voluntary treaties with Russia ; deprived unjustly of all the comforts of existence ; obliged to sell almost for nothing their celebrated herds of beast, and denied redress from Petersburg, where their deputies were treated as rebels, they dispersed, partly in wilder tracts towards the Uralian mountains, and partly in other directions. Passionately attached to the creed of the Russian puritans (Roskolniki), to their barbarous cus- toms, to their laws, bearing a strange resemblance to the customs of the Zaporogues, they obstinately rejected all the changes and reforms intended for their civilisa- 192 REBELLION OF tion ; they were more attached to the conservation of their beards than of their lives. The Russians, agree- ably to the order transmitted to them by the czarina, endeavoured to transform them from regiments of Cossacks, into regiments of regular cavalry ; but they absolutely refused to allow their beards to be cut, and raised a rebellion. Major-General Trauenberg was sent against them with some regulars ; but he was beaten and massacred, together with their own attaman, who was suspected of being favourable to the Russians. The approach of winter, so terrible in these climates^ prevented a speedy quelling of their insurrection ; but in the following spring the Russian general Freyman, with a large body of troops, traversed their territory, routed them, and took laitzkay by storm. After putting to the sword their principal leaders and com- mitting great cruelties, he quelled their rebellion, and left the town to the care of a Russian colonel, who had under his command a large body of regulars. In spite of all this, many of the unfortunate Cossacks, and even some of their leaders, escaped into the wilds which surround the lakes of Kamish SamarsMe, where they lived on fish and some animals which frequent, occasionally, its bleak and inhospitable shores ; as well as on the scanty provisions which their families sent them secretly, with great difficulty and danger, till they found a skilful chief who terribly avenged the cruelties mercilessly inflicted on them. It is very difficult to fix on the correct time when PUGATCHEF. l93 Pugatchef assumed the name of Peter III. : before, however, he determined on the adoption of that dan- gerous character, he did not fail, during his stay in Podolia and elsewhere, to collect all the information possible relative to Stenko Razin, the celebrated rebel, and likewise respecting the peculiarities of character that had distinguished the ill-fated Peter. His friends hinted also to some of the Cossacks, that he was sent secretly by a few discontented Russian nobles in quest of the lost emperor ; others, that he wished to ascertain in what manner they would consider the idea of his assuming the character of the deceased czar. It is, however, a weU-known fact, that when Pugatchef was sent to his general with a despatch, during the siege of Bender in 1769, aU the officers of his staff were surprised at his extraordinary resemblance to the late emperor Peter III., in consequence of which, he was invited to dine at the table of General Tot- leben, where this resemblance was fully and unani- mously confirmed : it is also to be remarked that when Pugatchef, after deserting his ranks, was in Podolia, two clergymen knelt before him and ac- knowledged him as the Russian czar. In vain some authors deny this resemblance : the great majority of them, as well as some disinterested testimonials, and even the portraits of Peter III. and Pugatchef, to be found in the British Museum, and which we have care- fully examined, fully confirm it. All these things com- bined together made a deep impression on the mind of o 194 REBELLION OF Pugatchef, and he resolved to try his fortune in that capacity. His resemblance, even, to the late czar was not absolutely necessary for seducing the credulous, ignorant, and persecuted people living at a great distance from the capital. After his arrival, in the month of April 1773, in the town of laitzkoy, Pugatchef attended a secret meeting of discontented Cossacks ; and being well aware of their excitement and thirst of revenge, he industriously circulated a rumour that the late czar, supposed to be murdered, would not fail shortly to make his appear- ance amongst them; and soon after, having been apprised of the secret abode of their chiefs who had escaped from the late destruction of the town by General Freyman, he went boldly to them, asserting that he was the Czar Peter III. himself ; that he had escaped from the daggers of his paid assassins ; and that the news of his death was invented by his enemies ; he therefore claimed their protection. These savage and oppressed Cossacks had never seen Peter III. The crafty impostor flattered their vices ; adopted their creed; and promised to avenge their wrongs. They recognised him unanimously as their lawful sovereign ; swore blind obedience to him, and promised to sacrifice their lives in his cause: and numerous bands of their brethren enrolled themselves under his orders. Placing himself at their head, Pugatchef immediately attacked the newly-established colonies on the banks of the Irghis, composed chiefly PUGATCHEF. 195 of the Polish political exiles, as well as of men artfully entrapped into those cold and dreary regions. They yielded to the first caU, and some of them swelled the rebel ranks. He took their arms, horses, and provisions ; did them no harm ; and mastered his natural cruelty for a time. After this easy success, Pugatchef directed his steps towards laitzkoy. It seems to have been imprudent to attack, with savage and untrained bands, expe- rienced and victorious soldiers, commanded by skilful officers, well aware of their advantages, and especially interested in the defence of that place. Some defi- ciency in the fortifications however induced Pugatchef to turn his eyes towards it. Arrived under its walls, he summoned, officially, the governor to surrender the town to Peter III., czar of Russia ; and, after having re- ceived a peremptory refusal to comply with his demand, he issued immediate orders to take the place by storm. Repulsed everywhere, he converted the siege into a blockade, hoping to render himself master of the town by famine : but he was again disappointed by the extraordinary perseverance of the garrison. The inha- bitants, reduced to the last extremity, after consuming the most disgusting animals, were at last relieved by the arrival of some Russian troops ; which obliged Pugatchef to retreat. Checked, but not dispirited, by this slight reverse, he marched against the Cossacks of the Iletz, the greater part of whom joined his standard. Soon after, 196 REBELLION OF he made liimself master of two forts, Basyrnaya and Ossernaya, as well as of the important town of Tates- chtcheva; the wooden walls of which he destroyed by fire. The governor of Ossernaya, Major Charlof, was newly married to a young and beautiful woman, strongly attached to her husband. Her beauty made an impression on the daring Cossack, who, excited by her refusal to satisfy voluntarily his passion, ordered her husband to be hanged, the officers to be butchered; and then, after ravishing the lady, delivered her over to the brutality of his soldiers. As soon as the governor of Orenburg was apprised of the success of the rebellion, he despatched in great haste, a large body of troops, under Colonel Bulof, to fight the rebels. Bulof was expecting to be reinforced by the corps of General Tchernishef, sent from Simbirsk, but their movements w^ere badly managed. Pugatchef, possessing by nature military capacities improved by experience in warfare, prevented their junction, and marching against Bulof, cut him in pieces. He then, without losing an instant, attacked Tchernishef who, surrounded and entrapped by false rumour into a difficult position, surrendered and perished. Pugatchef in these two victorious battles ordered all who refused to join his ranks to be put to the sword. Being well aware that the most important part of a good general is not only to gain a victory, but to take the proper ad- vantage of it, he directed his steps toward Orenburg. PUGATCHEF. 197 That town, situated on the banks of the la'ik, on the verge of a bleak desert, and noted for some fine build- ings and extensive commerce with the most remote parts of Asia ; at a great distance from the centre of the Russian empire ; fortified also by art and nature, was an excellent place of defence, and well suited his purposes. He expected also to find money there and some parti- sans. He would have taken it by storm, stratagem, or bribery, had not the garrison of Krasno'iark cut its way through the rebel army. Soon afterwards the Baskirs and the Kirghis, the remainder of those fero- cious and barbarous hordes which followed the star of Bathu-Khan, and who were nominally subject to Russia, weary of the Russian yoke, and longing for pillage and rapine, joined the impostor's ranks. The Nogay Tatars, inhabiting formerly the deserts of Boodziak, not far from the ancient country of the Zaporogues, and whom Russia transplanted to the banks of the Volga, lost no time in following the army of one who ofiered them the opportunity of returning to their fatherland, and of taking signal revenge on the Russians. This example was quickly followed by the inhabitants of all the principal colonies in those inhospitable regions, and especially by the exiles condemned to work in the mines in the bowels of the Uralian mountains. Many Poles, who fought in the ranks of the Confederates of Bar, and who had been taken prisoners by the Rus- sians, sent to these wilds, deprived of their country, and torn from their homes and families, by the violence 198 REBELLION OF and injustice of the Empress Catherine, animated by the thirst of revenge against E-ussia, flocked from all parts of Siberia, to serve in the ranks of the rebels. Hitherto nothing seemed to have checked the gigantic projects of Pugatchef. His sway extended from the Uralian mountains to the banks of the Volga, about three thousand three hundred miles. The Russians, shut up in some of the towns, expected to be crushed and annihilated at any time, by the ever-increasing forces of the daring impostor. The troops sent from the interior of Russia, could scarcely defend the most important military points between Kazan and Oren- burg. The siege of Orenburg was followed up with great spirit and constancy by undisciplined bands, unac- quainted with the formidable means of prosecuting war adopted by regular armies, in spite of the gallant re- sistance of the Russian general, Reinsdorf, who vainly attempted to repulse the attack made by Pugatchef on the latter town. General Carr received orders to take the command of the Russian army, and to quell the rebellion of Pugatchef. He travelled by post from Moscow ; arrived in the neighbourhood of Orenburgh ; and sent a detachment of regulars against Pugatchef, who was besieging that town ; he was, however, not successful. One part of Pugatchef 's army attacked and so completely routed the detachment, that scarcely five men escaped. The general himself then advanced with a larger force ; but, contrary to the advice which he received PUGATCHEF. 199 fi:om some of his friends, to be extremely cautious in all his movements, he rashly attacked Pugatchef, fell into the snare laid for him, lost his forces, and, com- pletely beaten, seeing no chance of success with that celebrated rebel, he returned by post to Moscow, with as much haste as he came from that city. In the mean- time, whilst one part of the rebels were engaged near that town in the dead of winter, Pugatchef, always restless and enterprising, went to the mountains to take from the mines aU the silver and gold he could lay hands upon, and likewise the store of brass, far more necessary to him for casting cannon for the purpose of battering the walls of Orenburg. During this daring excursion, at the head of numerous bands, Pugatchef returned with rich spoil, but failed to take the fortress of Uffa : * soon after, a false rumour, pur- posely spread, of the march of a large Russian army, made him more cautious in his movements ; and gave time to some scattered regiments on the Siberian frontier, to prevent his taking Ecatherinendstat, where he would have found considerable sums of money. Duriag Pugatchef s absence in the Ural, the Polish exiles who had joined his standard, and whom he left behind near Orenburg, were specially entrusted by him with the organisation and drilling of his untrained troops : a task in which they succeeded to his entire satisfaction. At a latter period, Pugat- chef promised them a safe return to their country, gave them the command of his chosen cavalry. 200 REBELLION OF made Major Suchodolski (previously sent to Siberia by Catherine's order,) the chief of his staff, and ordered him to take particular care of his artillery. For a long time Pugatchef following strictly the rites of his adopted creed (Roskolniki Starowiertzy), assumed their abstinence and piety. Often he was seen in sacerdotal robes to bless, with humility, the fero- cious fanatics continually flocking to his presence. On his standards were written, in large letters of gold, the latin words, Redivivus et ultor (Re-arisen and avenged), a motto which, often repeated and explained, daily in- creased the number of his partisans. In order to stimu- late as far as possible the zeal of his people, Pugatchef, being well aware that one of their priests, Fuma, had been condemned to lose his right hand by fire and to be burned alive, in 1715, at Moscow, by the orders of Peter the Great, for having hewn to pieces, with an axe, the images of the Saints and of the Virgin, in the Russian church ; and having been also apprised that that religi- ous fanatic, when summoned before the Russian autho- rities and clergy for the recantation of his faith, was true to his creed, and possessed extraordinary firmness ; calmly preaching against the abuses of the Russian heresy, while his right hand was burned to ashes ; (for which he was worshipped by the Roskolniki, his image exhibited without a hand, and himself considered as a saint) ; the crafty Pugatchef not only procured the like- ness of the martyr without a hand as his standard, to which he showed publicly a religious veneration, but he PUGATCHEF. 201 also found an impostor without a hand of the name of Fuma. This fanatic, possessing great flow of language, assumed the character of a descendant of the celebrated martyr ; preached daily against the abuses of the Russian church and against Catherine's tyranny ; and with such effect, that crowds of people were always saluting him ■Nvith repeated huzzas, crying, " Long live Fuma ! " "Long live our beloved emperor; our great czar; our benefactor, the defender of our church ;"*' with a sort of phrenzy. Speaking of his resurrection and ven- geance, the pretended Peter III., openly declared that, having himself no longing for power,, he had decided to place the Muscovite crown on the brow of the grand duke his son; and, after accomplishing that laudable action, to spend the remainder of his days in retirement. This pretended disinterestedness, this resignation and piety, this deep and well sustained hypocrisy, admirably served his purposes. In the meantime, active, enterprising, indefatigable; always rea^y to take every possible advantage of the weakness of the Russians, and of the incapacity of their generals ; combining with superiority of information, a perfect knowledge of the country and of his numerical strength, Pugatchef soon inspired his army with that blind con- fidence in his genius, which Mahomet, in bygone ages, infused into the hearts of his warlike and conquering followers. Surprised and dazzled at his unexpected success, looking with pride at the niunerous tribes and immense REBELLION OF barbarian army devoted to him, Pugatchef believed himself really the mighty sovereign whose name he usurped ; forgot his engagements, ceased to be a hypo- crite, adopted the imperial insignia, established a court, named his ministers, instituted orders of knighthood, and distributed honours and dignities among his friends. In the delusion of his presumption and victories, he would never admit any undertaking, however unreasonable, to be impracticable, nor the existence of any obstacle, which the energy of his will might not overcome; but he failed, by miscalculation, to pick up scattered diamonds at his feet, which, according to Shakspere, are at some one period of every man's life within his reach. He lost undoubtedly some precious moments for action, which if promptly seized would have saved him, and changed the destiny of the Russian empire : he neg- lected, too, soon the means which served him so well ; cast off the mask, and showed himself such as he was in reality. Vexed and excited by the desperate re- sistance of Orenburg, instead of mastering his passions, he abandoned himself wantonly to all sorts of disgusting excesses and atrocious cruelty. There was an excellent opportunity for the accomplishment of his projects at that time. In consequence of the war with Turkey, the celebrated field-marshal, Romantzof, could not weaken his army on the Danube; and Moscow was without troops, and full of serfs hating their masters. They were all prepared to join heart and hand with Pugatchef, who certainly had at his disposal more means PUGATCHEF. 20S than any other impostor in bygone ages, for founding a new Russian dynasty. By an unpardonable blunder, or an unwise policy, he openly avowed the dangerous intention of exterminating the Russian nobility; and to convince his friends that his words were in harmony with his actions, he peremptorily ordered to be put to death, with their wives and children, all the nobles who fought against him. Being also well aware that Peter III. spoke, with great fluency, the German lan- guage; and dreading that it should be known that he did not understand a word of it, he summoned before him all the German officers who were taken prisoners by his army, and, at a preconcerted sign which he had made to his guard, they were all put to the sword without mercy. Pugatchef committed also a great imprudence, which, by giving rise to scandal in his army, was stiQ more dangerous than the loss of a battle, in espousing publicly a common woman from laitskoy, though he was actually married to Sophia, the daughter of a Cossack, and had three lawful children. In the midst of the pomp and re- joicings on that occasion, during which he lavished his favours and squandered immense sums, he was apprised that a regular army, of 45,000 Russian veterans, well pro- vided, was actually marching against him, under the command of General Prince Bibikof, and with a formid- able artillery. There was also no longer any doubt that the Empress Catherine had pubKshed a manifesto against him in the principal towns of the empire. For 204 REBELLION OF a long time, this formidable rebellion was considered, at Petersburg, as a mere rising of a band of robbers, so common among the wandering tribes of disaiFected Cossacks and Tatars in those regions ; and Pugatchef as their audacious chief. Catherine's policy was inter- ested in considering his efforts as unworthy for an in- stant of any serious alarm respecting the stability of her throne, just at the time when all the great military talents of Romantzof could scarcely prosecute the bloody war against the Turks, who fought with un- disputed bravery, and displayed in it more than ordinary spirit. Some enemies also of the ancient and powerful family of Orloff, ventured more than once to hint that Gregory Orloff secretly fostered the rebellion, and had actually sheltered Pugatchef in his house. There was also a rumour that Baron de Tott, a skilful French officer in the Turkish service, and who, on more than one occasion, had beaten the Russians, and had displayed his sound policy in protecting, at the Sultan's court, the views of the Polish confederates of Bar, (whose sole aim was to fight their common enemy), had some communication with Pugatchef, and directed his mihtary movements. Catherine, who seems to have scorned these rumours, laughed at them openly ; and gave to Pugatchef the title of marquis, in derision. Soon, however, her sagacious mind did not fail to perceive the whole extent of the danger to which she was undoubtedly exposed; and for a long time she directed her whole energy and activity to the PUGATCHEF. 205 means of avoiding it. Her masculine mind forgot the weakness of the female body, and was completely- absorbed in this pressing and important business. Not satisfied with sending a powerful army, under General Bibikof, to crush the rebels, she in her manifesto, hinted, indirectly, at the well-known death of her murdered husband, and at the daring impo- sition of Pugatchef in assuming the name of Peter III. She also put in circulation some ukases or ordinances to her subjects. By one of them she warned her people not to obey any order which was not signed with her own hand, or that did not emanate from her private chancery at Petersburg; by another, she invited all the deluded Cossacks of the Don and the laik, who were in the rebel army, to return speedily to their homes; accompanying this advice with a liberal promise of forgetfulness of the past : by a third, far more dan- gerous for the personal safety of Pugatchef, and in full accordance with the rapacious propensities of the Cos- sacks, she promised a reward of one hundred thousand silver rubles to any one who should deliver him, dead or alive, to the Russian authorities ; with a free pardon if the individual, so delivering him up, was in the rebel army. Pugatchef, however, who could neither read nor write, having some men of ability at his court, was not idle on his part ; and replied by other proclamations and manifestos, which he always issued in the name of the sovereign, whose name he unblushingly usurped ; he ordered also small busts of himself to be cast; and 206 REBELLION OF issued gold, silver, and copper coins, stamped with his image, with the inscription, Peter III., Emperor of all the Russians. Conforming also to the advice of the Polish major, Suchodolski, his chief of the staff, who joined him from the Confederates' ranks, he , widely circulated, in all parts of Russia, a well- couched and solemn order, printed in several dialects, in large letters, by which he abolished servitude, liberated unconditionally all the peasants from the grasp of their oppressors, and made them proprietors of the soil on which they toiled and worked; giving proper instructions to all the governors of the Russian empire, for the rigorous fulfilment of this order, under the penalty of death. This measure would have completely disorganised the Russian empire ; would have put down the influence of the nobility for ever; might, if strictly executed, and oppor- tunely enforced, have worked a great social revolution ; and had not the adventurous, daring Cossack chief, shaken the confidence of his bands by all kinds of debauchery, and scorn for every kind of religious creed. After his arrival at Kazan, General Bibikof found all the citizens and nobles eager to take arms against a man who visibly attempted their complete annihilation ; and they immediately formed some regiments. The Empress Catherine, apprised of their conduct, and strongly urged by the necessity of self-preservation, as- sured them publicly of her gratitude, and ordered her imperial name to be inscribed in letters of gold among J PUGATCHEF. 207 the nobles and citizens of the town of Kazan — a mise- rable farce, gratifying only to vanity. The merit of possessing some military talent can not be denied to General Bibikof. In marching from Kazan towards Orenburg he retook some towns, which had been surprised by the rebels, over, whom, with the aid of his lieutenants, he gained some advantages. Pugatchef was soon apprised of his victorious march, just at the time when all the horrors of famine in Orenburg, gave him a weU-founded hope of the speedy surrender of that important place. He, however, quickly retired from its walls, animated with a strong desire to retrieve his fortune on some more favourable occasion. The major-general. Prince GaUiczyn, who was ordered to follow him quickly, with a great part of BibikoFs army, lost no time in attacking him in a strong position near Tateschtcheva. The combat was fierce and obstinate ; and it was soon evident that Pugatchers army was well trained and instructed by many Poles who had crossed swords with the Russians, not only in the wilds of the Baskhirs but also else- where. He was, therefore, repulsed with great loss ; and as the Cossack chief did not think proper to fight a decisive battle immediately with him, he con- tinued his retrograde movement, with his ferocious bands, in great order, without molestation. Pugatchef retreating with extraordinary speed, chang- ing every day the direction of his march, well acquaiated with the country, and having the best possible inform a- 208 REBELLION OF tion of his adversary's movements, deceived Galliczyn ; and, after crossing a sandy desert, a large forest, and some almost impassable marshes by an unknown track, he in a few days concentrated all his forces, and ap- peared, in hostile attitude, before Bibikof's army, which was completely taken by surprise. The Prince accepted the battle : it was one of the most obstinate ever recorded in the annals of Northern Russia. Pugatchef was a skilful commander ; he employed, for the second time successfully, a very simple stratagem worthy to be mentioned, and which greatly contributed to gain the battle. As the battle was fought in the winter, so protracted in these gloomy regions ; and as the ground was covered with snow, Pugatchef, perceiving some snow-hills skirting one of his flanks, and at a point whereon he expected to be attacked, planted behind them some of his cannon, and ordered, under cover of his men, some trees and planks to be placed on the declivity of these snowy hills, direct- ing as much water to be thrown on them as pos- sible. This done, he feigned a retreat, after some resistance ; the Russians saw their adversary's weak point; a strong body of Bibikof's infantry received peremptory orders to storm the rebel's wing, and was taken in the snare : the water thrown on the trees and planks was frozen, which made them slippery; the Russians, in spite of all their efforts, were unable to climb them, and were suddenly exposed, at point blank distance, to such a deadly fire of musketry and grape- PUGATCHEF. 209 shot, that they were almost annihilated; and as Pugatchef lost not a moment in taking advantage of his success, General Bibikof was completely beaten, and could scarcely effect his retreat with the wreck of his forces : he died soon after. After the death of General Bibikof, Galliczyn took the command of the army ; and having concentrated his forces, and reinforced them by some scattered regiments, marched against Pugatchef, whom he closely chased for several days through wild and unknown tracts, with great spirit and perseverance, reaching him at last at Kargula, not far from Orenburgh, where, after six hours' hot fighting, he completely routed his bands. Pugatchef fled towards the Ural mountains in great haste ; and the rebellion was supposed to be entirely suppressed. Only one head however of the Cerberus was cut oiT. The inaccessible wilds of the Ural mountains, unknown to the Russian troops, swarmed with numerous hordes of Kalmucks, Kirghis, and wandering Cossacks, whom Galliczyn dispersed rather than annihilated; these wilds also, were not completely cleared of those peasants and miners, who, as we have seen, were always eager to breathe fresh air and avenge their wrongs. At the magic voice of Pugatchef, they again took the field; and for the second time, he appeared with an army, victorious in all directions. After mastering some towns and forts, built for the purpose of keeping in obedience the refugees and miners, he besieged and burned h 210 REBELLION OF Troitsa. Beaten, however, near that town by General de Koln, he disappeared again in the mountains. More excited than dispirited by these reverses, he determined to retrieve his fortune by all possible means. Pugatchef descended, for the third time, from the summit of the Ural, and conceived the bold idea of conquering the ancient kingdom of Kazan; like a chafed lion rushing suddenly from his den, he marched towards Kazan on the wings of destruction ; burning, sacking, and killing everything which obstructed his terrible progress, but treating at the same time his friends with great kindness and liberality. After gain- ing several victories over the Kussians, and putting to the sword every one in the suburbs of Kazan, he mas- tered nearly the whole kingdom. Everything was com- pletely subdued excepting the citadel. The Archbishop of Kazan came submissively, with large bags of gold, to Pugatchef; acknowledged him publicly as his sovereign, and promised to crown him, and to provide him with immense treasures, as soon as the citadel surrendered. Not only the latter, but the generality of the popula- tion in the regions of Orenburg, Kazan, UiFa, the whole of Siberia, and the whole country to the river Ural, had declared unanimously for the daring impostor. Pugatchef besieged the strong citadel of Kazan; and having been apprised of the treasures there concealed, promised its plunder to his bands, and pressed the siege vigorously. Major General Paul Potemkin, relative to the celebrated favourite of the czarina, dared not openly PUGATCHEF. 211 to fight with Pugatchef ; he did not even try to prevent the burning of Kazan ; and would, in all probability, have been taken by him, and have perished in torments, had not Colonel Michelson appeared, at the critical time, to relieve him. Michelson, the active, indefatigable, worthy subaltern of Rumiantzov, was not wanting in this exigency; he gave not a moment's rest to the rebels, and was con- stantly at their heels. During several days they resisted him with great skill and ferocity ; he, however, com- pelled them to accept a battle, in which they were so far beaten and routed, that Pugatchef himself escaped almost by miracle. He repassed the "Wolga with scarcely three hundred Cossacks of the lai'k, the remainder of his numerous army. This time, accord- ing to all human probability, he was humbled to the dust, and the rebellion seemed crushed and annihilated. But while various rumours were prevalent respecting his death, he suddenly reappeared, like the fabled Antaeus, reinvigorated from his faU. He seemed only to have to stamp with his foot on the top of the Ural mountains, to wrest from them new and powerful legions devoted to him. His manifestos and pro- clamations, written in different languages, penetrated into the remotest parts of the empire ; other hordes of Baskirs, Kalmucks, Cossacks, and exiles, swarms of peasants armed with scythes and other agricultural instruments, flocked from all directions to hail their liberator. The mass of the people are seldom mistaken 212 REBELLION OF ill their friends. At siglit of these new bands, which seem to have mainly increased in proportion to his misfortunes, he yet cherished a hope of reaching Moscow, where his emissaries were secretly organizing a powerful rebellion. Well aware of their exertions, and having been taught by experience how difficult it was for his newly-levied troops to cope in the field with well-trained regulars, Pugatchef resolved to avoid all fortified towns and general engagements ; to march through the deserts, to descend the Volga, to ap- proach the Caucasus, and to amass, during his projected journey, the remainder of the new colonies, the hordes of discontented Tatars, the Cossacks of the Don favour- able to himj as well as the Cossacks of the Ukraine, and especially the Zaporogues, deprived of their ancient territory. He intended also to proclaim, for the third time, the freedom of the press, liberty of conscience, the extermination of the nobility, and the abolition of all social and hereditary distinctions. In spreading everywhere terror, devastation, and fire, he wished to disorganise the stability of the empire, to undermine the throne, and to change, reform, and remodel the whole of E-ussia; or to plunge her in anarchy, if he could not be her sole and mighty ruler. But the favourable tide for accomplishing so gigantic a project had ebbed ; the people showed some mistrust and disafiection; and the treaty of Koadtshak-Kain- ardgy which was concluded between Turkey and Russia, in the month of July, on the banks of the Danube, PFGATCHEF. 213 obliged Pugatchef to change his quarters. Dreading, not without strong reasons, that the army which was engaged against the Turks, might be sent against him, he came to the decision of remaining on the spot which he had chosen, in the very centre of his power, near those deserts and wilds so familiar to him ; and where he might yet find a refuge, in the event of any mis- fortune befalling him ; he resolved to annoy the Russians by quick marches, unexpected attacks, and guerilla warfare ; thereby training his bands, by well directed excursions, and by the exercise of unremitted and rest- less activity, to acquire, gradually, the nerve, expe- rience, and power of disciplined soldiers ; and gaining time and opportunity either to seduce and disorganize the Russian armies, or to brave them openly. As Pugatchef had lost, in previous battles, many able officers who were training his army ; as his adversaries were infinitely superior to the former Russian com- manders ; as he had some practical knowledge of naviga- tion and was a good sailor, he descended suddenly the Wolga, on a small flotilla which had been formerly con- structed by his orders ; and having heard that a Russian corps, unprepared for his visit, was encamped near the small town of Dubofska, under the orders of Baron Diez, he pounced suddenly upon him, put to the sword every living soul, and took by storm, Pensa and Saratof. The governor of the latter town escaped with scarcely fifteen of his men. A few days later, Pugatchef, whose very name spread terror in all directions, seduced the gar-. S14 REBELLION OF rison of Demitrewsk; and after putting to death without mercy all the Russians faithful to the czarina, he feasted his eyes with the agonies of its commander, who, aban- doned by his soldiers for his oppression and cruelty, was barbarously impaled alive by the order of the Cossack. Not far from that town, Pugatchef, having been apprised that a scientific man, Lowitz, a member of several universities and a distinguished astronomer, was actively engaged, by order of the Russian government, in taking the proper measures for the construction of a navigable canal between the river Wolga and the Don, summoned him before him; and after conversing with him, asked him whether he was an astrologer and could foretell his destiny ? On giving an evasive answer, the man of science was not a little amazed at the sight of his own letter, which the terrible Cossack drew from his pocket ; and in which the astronomer had spoken slightingly of him, and had given information to the Russian colonel respecting his military movements. Lowitz cried for mercy ; but Pugatchef, casting on him the look of a tiger, ordered him to be lifted up with long spears, that he might have the better opportunity, as he said, of giving more correct information respecting this world, and he on the way to the other, nearer the countless stars. Thus perished Lowitz in terrible agonies, in spite of all his entreaties to spare his life. The Empress Catherine, having now nothing to fear from the Turks, who were often duped by Russian diplomacy, in the most critical moments for the safety PUGATCHEF. 215 of the Russian empire, was able to concentrate all her power against the Cossack chief. Count Peter Panin, who had distinguished himself in the last Turkish war, received a peremptory order to march immediately with a large army and unlimited power against Pugat- chef, and to crush the rebellion by all possible means. Having been apprised that Colonel Michelson had successfully fought against Pugatchef, who had offered a large reward for his head. Count Panin detached from his army several regiments, and sent them by forced marches towards Kazan, for his release. He also dis- missed, under different pretexts, all of superior rank, whose jealousy or inferiority might have obstmcted his views and fettered the military talents and activity of Colonel Michelson. These two wise measures, and especially the latter, coupled with unexpected circum- stances, produced the ultimate success of General Panin's mission, just at the very moment when the crown of the czarina was already tottering. Pugatchef must have possessed a secret and unac- countable charm to make himself dreaded and che- rished at the same time. Even at the time when the victorious army pressed him with restless activity; when, by the loss of several engagements, his forces were reduced to 4,000 men ; and himself, compelled constantly to be changing his quarters ; his very ap- pearance produced wonders ; at his mere voice in the districts in which he had never been before, the people flocked to him, murdered their lords, and acknowledged 216 REBELLION OF him their sovereign and master, with a sort of devotion difficult to describe, and which surpasses all belief. At length, though vanquished, he seemed to have formed the most dangerous of his plans; he crossed the Wolga, gave the slip to his enemies, and resolved to march towards Moscow. Whole regions went over to him ; the utmost consternation prevailed in that capital, the great mass of Russian serfs were longing for his arrival ; and had he reached Moscow, nothing could have pos- sibly resisted him, as the fame of his genius and vic- tories, strongly magnified, preceded him. Some writers venture to say, that he had more chance of being ulti- mately successful in his second attempt to conquer Moscow, when he had matured his plans, than at first. In order to check his progress, and to convince the people of his being an impostor, his first wife, Sophia (the second he married at laitzkoy), was found out at the Don, and sent to meet him publicly, by special orders of Catherine II. The interview took place. She came on him unexpectedly, but the object of the stratagem failed. Pugatchef did not lose, for an instant, his presence of mind ; and, perceiving her, he said to his friends, ''Take care of that woman; I knew her hus- band ; he was very kind to me ; the poor creature is at times deranged." But the time had now arrived, when Pugatchef was rapidly approaching the end of his hitherto prosperous career. Colonel Michelson having received the necessary PUGATCHEF. 217 reinforcements, and gained new advantages, lost not a moment in marching against Pugatchef. Not satis- fied with forcing him to retreat with his army from the town of Tzaritshin, he pushed him towards Tschernoiar, cut oif his supplies, and following his advantage with great ability, surprised him at last in a difficult position, when his scattered forces, embarrassed by waggons, women, artillery, cavalry, and a multitude without order, were scarcely moving, in a long and deep ravine on the banks of the Wolga. His bands, attacked in all directions, were compelled to fight for their lives, and made the most determined resistance ; but soon disabled by the superiority of numbers, not less by the difficulties of their military position, than by the efforts of their adversaries, they gave way and fled in all directions. Some of them were cut to pieces ; others, who endeavoured to escape, were hurled with their horses and waggons from high rocks into the river, and were either killed or drowned; the remainder sur- rendered at discretion. After miracles of valour and supernatural efforts in fighting to the last, Pugatchef, covered with Russian blood and gore, was compelled to seek safety in flight. Unhurt amidst a thousand dangers which threatened his life ; spared by all the bullets, spears, and swords directed against him, he plunged into the Wolga, swam across the river, and fled into the desert, where he found himself by a singular chance on the wild banks of the Ouzem, in the very spot so familiar to him, 218 REBELLION OF whence lie had started eighteen months before on his terrible expedition. Weary, anxious, having lost his army, his wealth, and his most devoted subalterns; hunted in all directions, but not dispirited, he took shelter in a wild cavern, concealed by an enormous stone, bearing to this day his name, and attended only by a few friends, who soon, however, were obliged to disperse. Of aU his partisans torn from him by terror, fatigue, misery, and all-powerful hunger, there remained only three Cossacks, TworogofF, of Iletz ; Tschumakof, and Fidulef, of laik. All three gave him, repeatedly, the most unequivocal proofs of their devotion ; and never failed to risk their lives for him and his popular cause ; all three seem to have enjoyed, to the last, his confidence. At last, however, alarmed at their common danger and the gloomy prospects for the future, they began to waver ; they remarked to each other the full pardon and the reward which was offered by the empress to him who should deliver their chief to the Russians. After some consultation, the lower feelings of human nature prevailed, and they resolved to purchase their own safety by the sacrifice of their chief: but such was the magic ascendancy which Pugatchef exercised over every one who came in contact with him, that though they were, next to himself, the most daring, they all trembled lest he should suspect their intention. One of them being seated close to Pugatchef, hinted to him the danger to which he was exposed, and the impossibility of avoiding it, if he should still refuse to beg the mercy PUGATCHEF. 219 of the empress. At the word, mercy, Pugatchef, though humbled and assailed by his misfortunes, started like a tiger, and drew a sharp dagger to plunge it into the heart of his pretended friend ; when the two other Cossacks, who were already anxiously watching all his movements, jumped on him, and after a desperate struggle, disarmed, secured, and conducted him immediately to the camp of Major-General Samarof, posted at that time with his corps on the banks of the laik. Thence he was dragged in chains, to the town of laitzkoy (now Uralsk), and soon after, to Simbirsk. From this place, by the express order of General Panin, he was publicly driven through aU the country he had sacked, to Moscow, shut up in an iron cage, and attended by a detachment of soldiers. As soon as Pugatchef arrived at that capital, his trial commenced with all possible formality and display ; a special commission of the Senate was ordered to attend it and be present at all its minute investigations. There he avowed that he was a Cossack of the Don ; he named the place of his birth ; he was recognised not only by his relatives, but by his former companions in arms ; and after the strictest examination of his life, it was not proved either that his rebellion was instigated by any foreign power, or that he had made treaties with independent states, as mentioned in the historical romance bearing his name ; though all this might cer- tainly have happened, had the existence of the re- bellion been prolonged. The empress forbade the ap- plication to him of the torture, as at first intended ; KEBELLION OF either from clemency, or the fear of some sanguinary reaction which might have exposed the empire to dan- gerous disturbances. It is said that the Empress Catherine visited him secretly in disguise, -attended by her lover. Pugatchef voluntarily avowed, before his death, that his great resemblance to Peter IIL, coupled with clerical intrigue, was the true reason of his rebellion, in which he would undoubtedly have been successful, had his lieutenants fulfilled his orders, and had he not had Co- lonel Michelson for his principal adversary. The above named resemblance between the ill-fated Peter III. and Pugatchef was not such as is sometimes met with between twins ; but it was at all events a striking resemblance, although Pugatchef's countenance was gloomy, and his frame infinitely more vigorous. Pug- atchef was condemned to be quartered alive ; to have his hands, feet, and head cut off, and to be left on the scaffold, his body to be burned, and his ashes scattered to the wind. To the last moment he hoped for mercy, in considera- tion of the daring courage he undoubtedly possessed ; but when all hope of life had vanished, he completely lost, it is said, that spirit and ferocious energy which made him so celebrated : he appeared, even, so timid and terror-stricken in his dungeon, that it was neces- sary to lift him up, that he might not faint, and to enable him distinctly to hear every word of his sentence, to which he was obliged to listen. PUGATCHEF. 221 The vanquished rebel-chief, however, was not sub- jected to the whole of his cruel sentence ; in all proba- bility owing to a mistake, or the pity of his executioner. What confirms this is, that the executioner received the knout, had his tongue cut out, and was sent to Siberia for life. Pugatchef was first beheaded (21st of January, 1775,) and afterwards quartered, and the different parts of his body exhibited on the principal gates of the town. Some of his accomplices were also executed, and others were sent to Siberia. The others, among them Antizof, were employed in pacifying their countrymen. The payment for guarding the frontiers, suspended temporarily, in order to defray the expenses of the Turkish war, was resumed among the hordes oi the laik ; and everything, for the time, pacified. Such was the end of this rebellion, which, during the space of eighteen months, was the cause of immense losses, the burning of numerous and flourishing towns, the complete destruction of three hundred and fifty boroughs, the sack of extensive provinces, the massacre of upwards of 350,000 human beings, and the extinc- tion of several noble families. It was decided by a special order, that the town of laitzkoy, near which was the principal focus of the rebellion, should in future be called Uralskaia ; and the river laik, Uralsk; alluding to the large chains of mountains of that name, from the foot of which it flows to the northern shore of the Caspian sea. In investigating the life of Pugatchef, we cannot 22^ REBELLION OP refrain from comparing him with Stenko Razin. Both these celebrated men were Cossacks; both raised a rebellion which made the whole of Russia tremble to her very foundation ; both rose by the same means, and almost in the same places ; both would have changed the de§tiny of the Russian empire, had they not missed the proper tide of action; both intended to abolish slavery, and exterminate the nobility; both, cloaking themselves under the mask of concern for the people, aspired to the supreme power ; both took advantage of religion and of the clergy for accomplishing their private political purposes; both were practical and excellent seamen, as well as good generals ; both were betrayed, and perished on the scaffold ; both were cruel, daring, and crafty ; and might have been mighty rulers in the north-eastern wilds ; but would have been crushed under the weight of the crown of the czars, after plunging the Russian empire in a long anarchy ; both punished crimes by the commission of still greater crimes ; so certain is it that every great injustice perpe- trated in a higher social position, always creates a terrible reaction. Had the brother of Stenko Razin, a colonel of the Cossacks, not been hanged by the orders of Prince Dolgorouki, the lives of upwards of 300,000 human beings would have been spared ; and fifteen thousand men would not have perished in torments on the scaffold : had not Peter III. been murdered by order of the Em- press Catherine, the frightful rebellion of Pugatchef would never have taken place, and 350,000 men would PUGATGHEF. 22S have been spared. They were both evidently children of democracy. Stenko Razin seems to have been craftier than Pugatchef, because the latter cast off the mask too soon. It is, however, difficult to say, which of the two was more daring and skilful. Some writers, and among them two Englishmen, assert that Pugatchef met his fate with the most undaunted resolution. Let it be remembered that his examination was secret ; and that what was allowed to transpire respecting him was exactly suited to Catherine's interest. I gathered many things from a friend of Suchodolski, who returned to Russian Poland, and who used to relate many inter- esting anecdotes of Pugatchef. Suchodolski died at an advanced age. Pugatchef was evidently a sort of Tam- erlan ; his rebellion gives an idea of the weak points of Russia. "We have not had, to this time, any real, well written history of Pugatchef. What seems extraordinary is, how Pugatchef, after his defeats, appeared with new trains of artillery. The best lieutenants of Pugatchef were Chita, Salavatka, Naga-Baba-Azanof, and Sucho- dolski. (0 See Lesur"*s Histoire des Cosaques; William Tooke; Authentic Memoirs of Catherine II. ; Life of Catherine II., 3 vols.; Biography of Russian Generals; Les Amours de Catherine II. ; Voltaire ; and Cox's Travels in Russia. 224. CHAPTER XII. DESCRIPTION OF THE UKRAINE. Derivation of the word Ukraine — Its Boundaries — Eastern and Western Ukraine— Its Fertility — Description of the Steppes — Their Loneliness and Danger— The Cimmerians and Khosars— Their early History — Description of Kiow — Its interesting Reminis- cences — Brief Account of various Towns in the Palatinate of KVow — Towns in the Palatinate of Czernichow— Animals— Popu- lation of the Ukraine — Costume — Singular Custom — Nuptial Ceremonies— Characteristics — Description of the Nobility — Music — Poetry — Legends — Superstitions — Prophecy respecting the Ukraine — Visions of the past. The country situated between the 50th and 53rd degrees of north latitude^ and of which the city of K'iow has ever been, if not the central, at all events the principal place of resort ; the country traversed by the foaming waters of the mighty Dnieper, and extend- ing about five hundred English miles in length, and nearly two hundred miles in breadth, may furnish some idea of the contested locality of the Ukraine, which has, at no time, been accurately defined. This vast extent of barren fields, rich pastures, and cultivated lands, bounded at their edges by dense forests, deep lakes, and sandy monticules, formed a province, be- longing, for the most part, to the ancient palatinates of K'iow, Bratslav, and Tchernikhof (comprised at the pre- sent day under the governments, gubernies, of Kharkov, and Pultava, Zytomierz, and Kiow). This ancient Polish DESCRIPTION OF THE UKRAINE. province, comprehending the southern part of Volhynia, the eastern part of Podolia, and some bleak districts which extend as far as the Black Sea, was called Ukraina (Oukraina), from the Polish words Kraina, u Kraiu, a country near the edge ; Kraiac ukroic, to carve, to cut ; a country near the limits, or towards the Hmits, or near a detached portion, near a part cut off. Some authors suppose the Ukraine derives its name from the Latin, as the Romans called this province Acheronensis. For a long period it was a mere desert, the haunt of numerous herds of wild cattle, the dwell- ing-place from time immemorial of some nomadic tribes, the wreck of ancient nations, and frequented by hordes of adventurers, whose origin is involved in obscurity. The Ukraine was long the apple of discord between the Tatars, the Poles, and the Russians, by whom it was deemed a common frontier. The Greek authors have partially described this country : their description is equally appHcable, for the most part, to the main features of its appearance at the present time ; they notice its wandering hordes, its immense troops of wild horses, and many of its other characteristics. The Ukraine is divided into two parts; Eastern Uk- raine and Western Ukraine, stretching eastward and westward from the banks of the Dnieper. It is also divided into the Russian, and the Polish Ukraine ; the latter, the more extensive and populous of the two, contains the city of Kiow, the capital of the Ukraine ; and preserves, even to our own times, its primitive o 22Q DESCRIPTION OF name of a province. Although both Ukraines belonged formerly to Poland, as they now belong to Russia, we shall give a special description of the western Ukraine only, that is, of Polish Ukraine ( Ukraina Polska.) On the north of the Polish Ukraine are Polessia (Polesie), and Yolhynia (Volyn): on the east it is bounded by the Dnieper, on the west by Red Russia, (Czervona Rusy and Podolia (Podole) ; and on the south by the Black Sea (Czarne Morze.) The political existence of the Ukraine seems to belong to the past ; since, in legitimate accuracy, neither government nor province of the Ukraine at present exists. There, however, is a government of Volhynia, and like- wise of Podolia, in Russian Poland. Nevertheless, every Pole who is a native of Russian Poland understands this designation better than any other; the more especially, as in every point of view, the Ukraine bears the peculiar and exclusively characteristic im- press of its origin. The armorial bearings of the Ukraine, as a province of the ancient kingdom of Poland, were an angel, with a sword in his right hand, and a halo over his head, a two-headed eagle and a crescent moon in an oval, set in a large cross. In this province there were three palatinates, ^those of K'iow, Bratslav, and Tchernigow. There are several bishops, both Roman catholic and catholic of the Greek united church, and also a metro- politan of the Greek faith, schismatic and not united. The Ukraine, as a province, enjoyed privileges from THE UKRAINE. 227 which others of the Russic territories were excluded. As the Ukraine was inhabited by the Polish Cossacks, it was very difficult to take an exact estimate of its ever- varpng population. The Ukraine formed, in almost every particular, an exception to the other Polish pro- vinces. Its rivers are the Dnieper, too well known to need description ; the Dziesna, the Sula, the Yorskla, and the Samara, which poured their tributary waters into the Dnieper on the east ; and the Teterof, the Piema, the Ros, the Tasmina, with several others, on the west. The climate of the Ukraine is temperate, being softer in the Polish than in the Russian Ukraine. This country is rich in various produce; its soil is almost eveiywhere impregnated with saltpetre; it abounds in timber, grain, esculent vegetables, odoriferous flowers, and delicious fruits; and was justly considered from remote ages as the garden and granary of the neighbouring provinces. The nu- merous herds, scattered over the luxuriant and spacious pasturages ; the fish with which the rivers teem ; the honey and wax of the bees, in the management of which the inhabitants excel ; the oil, saltpetre, leather, tobacco, salt (the produce of the salt lakes towards the Black Sea), and many other usefal articles, may justly entitle this country to the figurative character of " a land flow- ing with milk and honey." In short, if the Ukraine were not at times laid waste by myriads of locusts, (Szarancza, pronounced Charantsha), which destroy sometimes the most abundant crop; if the cataracts 22S DESCRIPTION OF of the Dnieper did not form an obstacle to the naviga- tion of that river ; and if the energies of the popula- tion were not crippled by Russian domination, trade •with the Ukraine would be more flourishing than even that of the East Indies ; and, at the same time, its ter- ritory would be one of the most fruitful and delightful in all Europe. The traveller, journeying from the romantic scenes of the beautiful and mountainous Podolia, commonly called the garden of Poland, on reaching the Ukraine, is struck with amazement at beholding those vast uncultivated plains, known by the appellation of Steppes. In these Steppes, the troops of wild horses Wild as the wild deer and untaught, With spur and bridle undefiled. Btkon's " Mazeppa." dashing across the plains, are seen suddenly to halt, to extend their necks, and gaze with intensity, as if sur- prised at the sight of a living being come to disturb them in their solitude; one of them neighs, others respond, then aU retire with lightning speed. A thousand horse and none to ride ! With flowing tail and flying mane, Wide nostrils — never stretched by pain. Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, And feet that iron never shod And flanks unscarred by spur or rod, A thousand horse, the wild, the free. Like waves that follow o'er the sea. Byron's "Mazeppa." At times also is descried, soaring in the welkin, a THE UKRAINE. 229 solitary eagle, or perchance a flight of large ravens. Sometimes hungry wolves have been known to pursue, with savage howling, the flying steeds yoked to the traveller's car. Now and then may be seen flights of wild ducks and geese cleaving the air ; or cranes in triangular bodies, with other birds, sending forth shrieks that re-echo in the deep silence around. Not a house, not a tree for miles, not a spot of elevated ground meets the eye, except, indeed, large barrows containing the bones or dust of the myriads of victims of war or pestilence. Ravines, called iary, of im- mense length, sometimes intersect the monotonous plains. There exists also an ancient rampart, known by the name of Wall-zmiiowy; this is of considerable length ; and there is also another commencing near Biala Cerkiew, which disappears towards the Dnieper, and is called the Rampart of Trajan, a name explained by a popular tradition, but rejected by historical criticism. The Ukraine has been, from remote antiquity, the theatre of sanguinary battles. It was anciently inha- bited by the Cimmerians, extending from the river Kuban to the mouth of the Dniester towards the Black Sea. Herodotus relates, that at the time of the irruption of the Scythians into the country of the Cimmerians, the latter were overcome by the superior numbers of the invaders, and their sovereigns sacrificed by the sword of the victors, and buried on the banks of the Dniester, where the vestiges of their tombs were still traceable. In proportion as the traveller advances 230 DESCRIPTION OF towards the east and south of the Ukraine, similar tombs become more numerous ; and the Steppes as- sume an aspect still more monotonous and sterile. Occasionally the pelican of the desert is to be met with. At sight of a human being, this rare and unsocial bird, a fitting representative of the Black Sea, takes rapidly to its wing, uttering a wild and piercing cry. Here and there, too, may be seen an enormous and isolated oak tree, whose spreading branches and venerable head awaken a reminiscence of bygone ages. Were these time-honoured oaks gifted with the faculty of speech, and could they describe all the events to which they have been eye-witnesses, what strange things could they not tell us, what mysteries unveil, what mundane vani- ties rebuke; might they not, perchance, instruct us, how to interchange our ideas by some hitherto unknown medium of converse with our distant friends ? how to un- fold the secrets of our hearts, to the objects of our afiec- tion, by the roaring of the winds or the sacred power of music. Whoever has not seen the mighty Steppes of the Ukraine, especially in the dead of the night, and at the rising and setting of the sun, cannot possibly describe the sensation which they produce ; their vast expanse, their soul-chilling monotony, shake, humble, crush the human mind. The traveller in journeying over these Steppes, oc- casionally meets with large inns, or caravansaries, the true oases of this great desert. They are for the most part kept by Russian Puritans, or by Jews {Karaimes)^ THE UKRAINE. 231 whose lively gesticulations and oriental characteristics bespeak an Asiatic origin. In these resting places, particularly in such as are kept by Russian Puritans {Marhitani)^ there is need of precaution; personal security is often endangered, and frequent murders have been committed, few being discovered, from the secluded nature of the locality. The traveller, there- fore, in these regions, should be well provided with fire-arms, of which the innkeepers stand in great dread. Banditti sometimes lie in wait for the mer- chants returning from the marts at Kiow, or from the port of Odessa, and who are supposed to carry with them considerable sums of money. After the wars of the Scythians, the Cimmerians and the Khosars, supposed to be the earliest ancestors of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, traded with the Greeks of Byzantium ; the industry and activity of the latter, induced them to establish Greek colonies, and to build several cities in these provinces ; amongst others, Olbia and Nicosia, whose names bear testimony to their Hel- lenic origin. At a subsequent period, this country witnessed the sanguinary wars between Mithridates and the Romans. The Goths, in their turn, about the year 214, and the Huns about 376, extended their incursions to the banks of the Dnieper. In the tenth century, the Moscovites (Russians), inhabitants of the shores of Ladoga, driven from the north to the south, poured down upon these fertile territories, under Rurik, who established his residence in the wealthy town of Kiow. DESCRIPTION OF The companions of Eurik, Oskold and Dyr, were raised to the dignity of governors of Kiow ; but Oleg, guardian of Igor, the son of Rurik, after having caused the above governors to be massacred, and having, subjugated the Viatichans and the Radi- mitchans, the Severians and the Drevelians, nations of Slavonic origin, founded the Russic power, which became more formidable under Igor, and arrived at a great point of maturity under Vladymir the Great. As the latter divided his conquered territories among his twelve sons, their dissensions gave Boles- laus the Great, king of Poland, an opportunity of avenging those tribes or nations that had been invaded by the Russians ; and of this opportunity he availed himself the more readily, as they had been allies of Poland. Sviatopelk, a Russic duke, and step-son of King Boleslaus, driven out of Kiow by Jaroslav his nephew, sought refuge in Poland. Jaroslav not contented with having dispossessed him of his possessions, invaded Poland. Boleslaus marched to oppose him ; and, after having twice defeated him, and re-established Sviatopelk in his ancient possessions, made his triumphal entry into the city of Kiow, in the year 1018.* He returned into his own states with an immense booty. Some time after this, Boleslaus the Bold, great grandson of Boleslaus the Great, being attacked by the Russic princes, defeated them, re- duced the Ukraine into subjection, and took the city of Kiow; but, indulging in the most shameful ex- THE UKRAINE. 233 cesses, he lost the fruits of his victories, and having committed great cruelties, amongst them the murder of the bishop Szczepanoski, he was dethroned and excom- municated, and died a miserable death in a foreign land. At the time when the Polish scimitar was menacing the power of the Russic dukes, a power which was not yet firmly established, there appeared in the Steppes of the Ukraine, some tribes of Polovcians (Polovcy), springing, like the Hungarians and Turks, from the race of the Huns. In 1060, these Polovcians made themselves masters of the town of Pereaslaw, in Lesser Bulgaria ; and taking advantage of the dissen- sions of the Russic dukes, established- themselves in the Ukraine. The calamities which weighed heavily upon these territories, were succeeded by others still more terrible ; when the hordes of the Tatars, at first led by Genkiscan, and subsequently by other chiefs, com- menced the struggle, which lasted five centuries, between barbarism and civilisation, between Europe and Asia — that dreadful struggle during which Poland alone preserved the other powers from destruction, otherwise inevitable, and which, at a later period, was the principal cause of her ruin. The Russic power, weakened as it was by the Polish and Tatar arms, still thought itself sufficiently strong to make an attack upon the Lithuanian possessions. The grand duke of Lithuania, Guedymin, already famous by the victories he had gained over the Teutonics, placed himself at the head of an army, traversed Volhynia, ^34 DESCRIPTIOX OF overtook twelve Kussic dukes near the river Pierna, gave them battle, defeated them, made himself master of the whole Ukraine, took possession of Kiow in 1320, established a governor-general in the conquered terri- tories, and returned into Lithuania. His son, the Grand Duke Olgierd, inheriting the high qualities of his father, attacked the Tatars in Podolia (which was still groaning under the yoke), near Sine Wody, totally defeated them, and united, in 1331, the two provinces to Lithuania, which formerly extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The Tatars, subdued by Olgierd, having rebelled, the Grand Duke Vitold, son of Keystut, and nephew of the above mentioned Olgierd, marched against them at the head of an army, attacked them several times on the bank of the Don, and made them feel the weight of his sword. Vitold, ere long, penetrated the confines of Asia ; and powerful princes sought his alliance and protection. One of the Tatar princes, Tacktamisz, being twice beaten, and then driven from his states by Timur* Kutluk, of the horde of Kapchake, one of the lieu- tenants of Tamerlan, solicited Vitold to protect him against his enemy. Vitold kindly received the illus- trious exile, granted him a residence in the town of Kiow, promised to reinstate him in his domains, and to punish Timur-Kutluk the usurper. Although many of Vitold's friends advised him to abstain from taking any part in the measures required to effect these objects, warning him of the immense numerical superiority of THE UKRAINE. 2S5 the Tatars, and reminding him of the military experience and valour they had derived from their wars with Tamerlan ; Vitold, unshaken in his decision and nothing daunted, assembled an army composed of Tatars and the Russia dukes, his tributaries, as well as of Lithuanians and Poles, under experienced leaders : ambitious of glory, panting for conquest, and hating repose, he led his forces against Timur-Kutluk. The latter, having learned that Vitold was advancing at the head of a hostile army, sent to him an envoy with a message, couched in the following words : — *' Valiant prince, deliver into our hands Takhtamysz, formerly a powerful chief, now an exile and our enemy : such is the will of the khan, my master." Vitold replied — '' I am on my way to see him !" then, having crossed the Sula, Khorolem, and several other rivers, he came in sight of the army of Timur- Kutluk, encamped on the opposite bank of the Vorskla. Well acquainted with the high renown of Vitold, as well as with his military talents, he did not appear dis- posed to combat with him. He sent a second time an envoy, bearer of the following question : — " I ask you the cause of this war. I have never offended you. I have never invaded your states. What then do you want from me ?" Vitold answered, '' God is preparing to give me the dominion over all nations ; my will is, that you be my son, and my tributary, or my prisoner." Timur-Kutluk, according to several historians, was 2S6 DESCRIPTION OF not averse to peace under certain conditions ; but Vitold required that Timur-Kutluk should restore all the pro- vinces of Takhtamysz, and that money should be coined, bearing Vitold's image. The Mongolian chief requested a delay of three days for his final answer, ardently expecting the arrival of reinforcements under Ediga Holoossa, a renowned Tatar chief, who soon made his appearance. Having heard the conditions of peace, he exclaimed, that he would rather perish than accept them ; and he imme- diately demanded an interview with the grand duke of Lithuania, which was granted. The two chiefs met each other in the space between the two armies. Vitold was one of the greatest captains of the age, and a renowned conqueror. Ediga Holoossa was one of the ablest chiefs of Tamerlan, whose praise, admiration, and even jealousy, he excited. After the usual greet- ings, the Tatar addressed him, " Great prince, Timur- Kutluk, with good reason, called you father, for you are older than he ; but as I am more advanced in years than you, let my image be stamped on your coinage ; bow down your proud head before your master, and be my slave." At these words, Vitold's anger was roused to the highest pitch ; he retired from the Tatar's presence, reviewed his army, and placed it in battle array. The two Tatar chiefs made a final eflfort to bring about a reconciliation, and they would perhaps have succeeded, had not a Pole, named Szczukoski, who, seeing the cele- brated Yitold, for the first time in his life, undecided and THE UKRAINE. 237 wavering, thus rashly addressed him : — " Great prince, if the charms of a young and beautiful spouse, perchance attach you so strongly to the pleasures of this world, permit us at least to perish, or humble the pride ot these innumerable hordes." These words wounded the pride of Yitold, and he gave immediate orders for the attack. Both armies amounted together to five hundred thousand men. The Tatars were, at first, unable to resist the impetuous shock of Vitold's troops, far less nume- rous than the Tatar host, which, in the hyberbolical language of some of the historians, was said to be " countless as the sand of the sea."*' The bravery of Vitold was assisted by a few cannon, employed, for the first time in the north of Eui'ope in this conflict. These, though ill-served, committed great ravages in the ranks of the Tatars : but they failed to produce, in his favour, the successful result which, at the battle of Cressy, the use of artillery, then of modern intro- duction into European warfare, assured to the English. Ediga thrice rallied his troops, and by a desperate ejffort, captured the scanty artillery. Vitold performed pro- digies of valour ; but, being at length overwhelmed by superior numbers, he was completely defeated. After having lost forty thousand men, and seventy-five princes, he was indebted for his life, to the swiftness of his courser. This famous battle was fought on the 12th August, 1399, on the banks of the Vorskla. The loss of the Tatars was enormous. After the victory, Ediga 238 DESCRIPTION OF Holoossa pillaged Kiow, returning laden with booty and glory into his deserts; and having learned that Vitold was assembling a fresh army, he offered the latter an advantageous peace, which was accepted. Some historians have wrongly recorded that Vitold was conquered by Tamerlan, who died in 1395, four years before this battle took place. The mistake may have arisen from the confusion of the names of Timur- Kutluk and Timur-Lankh (Tamerlan.) It is to be re- marked that, although Vitold was worsted in the battle of Vorskla against Timur-Kutluk, yet he always preserved his ascendancy over the Transdnieperian Tatars, inas- much as he brought away several of their tributary khans at the battle of Grundwald.('') The whole of the Ukraine, as well as the country which extends to the Black Sea, comprehending Wal- lachia, remained under Lithuanian dominion till 1453, when Mahomet II., sultan of Turkey, after the taking of Constantinople, changed the political condition of the east. Shortly after this conquest, the Ottomans achieved another over the vassals of Lithuania, already united to Poland. A long series of unfortunate wars, comprehend- ing those with the Cossacks, ravaged the Ukraine and all the south of Poland up to the time of the treaty of Karlovitz, concluded in 1699. The Ottomans, then swearing eternal friendship to Poland, united them- selves to their natural ally, in order to combat the Mus- covite power, which was beginning to extend itself in every direction. The history of its wars from Peter the THE UKRAINE. 239 Great to Nicholas I. is too well known to require our notice here. With regard to the Transdnieperian Ukraine, it passed with the city of Kiow, by the illegal treaty of Andruszof, in 1688, under the dominion of the czars of Russia. This treaty, concluded in the reign of Sobieski, was a most unfortunate one for Poland, who, by the consequent troubles, was weakened and disorgan- ised ; and the same treaty subsequently brought down gradual calamities upon Polish Ukraine ; especially in • the year 1768, during the revolt of Zelezniaque and Gonta, which was fostered and organised by Eussia. After the second dismemberment of Poland, Polish Ukraine passed also (according to all appearances, pro- visionally) under Russian domination. Our notice of the principal towns of the Ukraine shall be preceded by a description of Ki'ow (which the Russians spell Kief), the capital of the province. The origin of Kiow appears to date from a time very far anterior to our own era ; it may be traced back, in the opinion of some annalists, to the period when the Greeks (Cheronites), who laid the first stone of tliis city, carried on an active commerce with Byzan- tium, the modern Constantinople. On the right bank of the Dnieper, the true patriarch of Polish rivers, which pours its broad floods into the Euxine, stands the sacred city of Kiow, crowning a rugged steep, that rises from the bosom of the moving sands on the river's brink. It is divided into two portions, the upper town, called Pieczarsk, and the lower, called Dolny Kiov. The 240 DESCRIPTION OF former contains the noble cathedral of St. Sophia, con- secrated in 1037, a masterpiece of architecture and magnificence ; and in the same portion of the city, there are subterranean vaults or catacombs, containing the bones of many saints or Russian martyrs. Under the ruins of the ancient church of St. Basil, are alabaster tablets with Greek inscriptions, bearing the date 260 of the Christian era. Ki'ow has always been the seat of extensive commerce, and several times has been sur- rounded with ramparts, the scene of many a warlike achievement. When, in 1018, Boleslaus the Great, king of Poland, entered this city in the character of a conqueror, it contained eight spacious squares, and more than four hundred churches, with their gilded towers, shedding floods of reflected radiance when the sunbeams played upon them. These churches contained immense riches, supposed to have been taken from Theodosia (Kaffa). A great part of this wealth was conveyed into Poland by Boleslaus ; and at a later date, when Mieczyslaw II. occupied the Bohemian throne, the Bohemians carried the same into Prague. Although the greatest number of these churches were dedicated to the worship of the Greek Church, yet there was a Roman Catholic cathedral ; and there were also some Roman Catholic churches. In the beginning of the tenth century, the Russian duke Gleg, first took this city from the Slavonians. In 988, Vladimir the Great, established his residence in this city; and, after having espoused Anne, or Anastasia, sister of Basil and Con- THE UKRAINE. S41 stantine, who occupied the throne of Constantinople, embraced Christianity, together with a great number of his subjects. In the same year, the patriarch of Con- stantinople gave to K'iow its first metropolitan bishop, in the person of Bishop Michael. In 1018, Boleslaus the Great, and in 1077, his great grandson, Boleslaus the Bold, entered this city as victors. In 1228, it was plundered by the Tatars. In 1320, the grand duke of Lithuania, Gedymen, took possession of it in his turn. In 1399 and 1414, Ediga, who conquered Vitold, committed in it many acts of ravage and destruction, from which it never recovered. In 1650, Chmielnicki (Khmielnitski), made himself master of it with his Cossacks ; but in the following year, Prince Janus Rad- ziwill, always successful against these Cossacks, drove them out of it. In 1660, it was occupied by the Mosco- vites, and has remained in the power of the Russians ever since 1686. Ki'ow possesses an academy and a gymnasium. For a long time the schools of the govern- ment of K'iow were under the direction of the university of Vilno ; but in recent years, they have been transferred to that of the university of Kharkof. A bishop of K'iow, J. A. Zaluski, is known in the annals of Poland, by his having formed a library composed of two hundred thousand volumes. This noble collection was ordered, in 1795, to be transported from "Warsaw to Petersburg. In the vast gardens of Pietcharsque, abounding in aU the most delicious fruits of the season, there are vines producing grapes, from which wine is sometimes made. B S4S DESCRIPTION OF In these gardens, situated in the upper town, black grouse are sometimes to be seen. Kiow has from a re- mote period been greatly celebrated for its exquisite confectionary, elsewhere unsurpassed. At the festival of St. John, towards the end of June, the highest ranks of society belonging to the Ukraine, and even the proprietors of all the Kussic lands, assemble at Kiow ; many trans- actions are effected, and immense sums change hands. The whole city is crowded with wealthy visitors ; estates are sold and purchased ; balls and brilliant parties exhilarate the young and the gay. In 1831, during the war with the Eussians, Kiow yearned to be united to Poland, its long-lost mother country. This happiness it was not destined to enjoy ; and now, sad and solitary, seated in Moscovite darkness, sullied by acts of infamy, it groans as an unfortunate heroine in chains, directing its straining gaze towards regions whence the adored hero, the life of its life, is expected to arrive, to release it from its bondage, and to fill with the thrillings of rapture, the heart now rent by despair. It is worthy of remark, that though the government of Kiow is composed of a population pro- fessing the religion of the Greek church, yet, in 1831, the insurrection here was much more formidable to Russia, than it was in any other government forming a part of Russian Poland. We will now take a view of other places formerly belonging to this palatinate. Loiovygrod, on the right bank of the Dnieper, is at the north of Kiow. Near THE UKRAINE. 243 this borough,- on the 31st July, 1640, Prince Janus Radzivill, grand hetman of Lithuania, gained a complete victory over 38,000 rebellious Cossacks. Vasilkof and Montvidovka were, in the olden time, fortresses on the ancient frontier of Polesia. Ovrucz, a small town on the Naryna, formerly, as well as at the present time, the chief town of the district ; it now belongs to the govern- ment of Volhynia. Trylisc and E-omanof, on the Ka- miencza, Staviski fortified against the incursions of the barbarians ; it has also been rendered famous by an act of heroic courage on the part of a Pole named Zglobitski. This heroic man was the first to leap upon the walls, and plant thereon the Polish standard; his hands were struck off* in succession, and he seized the standard with his teeth, and held it so firmly, that no force could wrest it from him. He died with the consolation of preserving the standard from the hands of the enemy, and beholding his countrymen victorious. This noble act of devotedness took place under Czar- niecki, in the wars against the Cossacks. Korsun, a borough, situated upon the Ros : it was founded by Stephen Batory, in 1581 ; it was here that Khmielnitski, with the Cossacks that revolted in 1648, surprised and defeated the Poles under Martin Kalinowski and Nicholas Pototski. Zytomii'z, with a population of 6,000, is at present the chief town of the government of Volhynia, after having formerly stood in the same relation with regard to the district of the palatinate of Kiow. There is 244 DESCRIPTION OF here a school, as also a small theatre, in which Polish pieces are sometimes acted. Bialotcerkief, a borough, of 3,000 souls, with an im- mense castle, belongingto the wealthy family of Branetski. Trehtymirow, a borough, which was formerly assigned by Stephen Batory as a residence for the attaman of the Cossacks. Kaniof, upon the Dnieper, an ancient starosty that belonged to the nephew of King Stanislaus Poniatowski, who had an interview, in 1787, with Catherine II. in this town. Berdyczef, with a population of 10,000, principally Jews. This town belonged, and probably still belongs to the illustrious family of the princes Kadzivill ; it is incorporated in the government of Yolhynia. It is re- markable for the horse-fairs which are held there twice in a year. The most considerable is that which is held in the month of August ; it lasts three or four weeks. It may be stated, without exaggeration, that there are often to be seen in the fair 100,000 horses of every kind, from aU parts of Russia, Poland, Austria, and Turkey ; and even at times, a few from Persia. In my boy- hood, I twice visited this fair ; and I remember having seen in it, a Persian stallion, as white as snow, with the exception of his mane and tail, which were as black as coal, exciting the admiration of ^11 beholders ; he was purchased at a high price. There are also many wild horses, which are sold at a ducat each ; sometimes six shillings each. THE UKRAINE. 245 Jahorlik, a borough, situated at the confluence of the Jahorlik and the Dniester. There was, here, a kind of obelisk, which marked the boundaries between Poland and Turkey, after the treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. With regard to the towns and boroughs situated in Transdnieperian Ukraine, and which belonged to the ancient palatinate of Kiow, before the treaty of Grzy- multov, by which they were ceded, in 1686, to Mus- covy, we will follow the Polish geographer, Swie^ki (Sviantski.) Hadziacz, upon the Pszczola, memorable for a treaty concluded here between Poland and the Cossacks, on the 16th of September, 1658. Pultawa, upon the Vorskla, at the present day the chief town of the government of this name, and re- markably associated with the defeat of Charles XII. on the 8th of July, 1709. Batourin, a town founded by Stephen Batory, king of Poland. In 1664, John Casimir here concentrated his formidable forces, ere he marched against the Cos- sacks, who then threw themselves into the arms of Moscovy. Prince Menzikoff took this town by assault, in the time of Peter the Great, in 1709; and after having destroyed the magazines of provisions which Mazeppa had there amassed for the use of Charles XII., he put all the Cossacks to the sword, as accom- plices of the latter, and set fire to the town. Jeremiof ka, formerly belonging to Prince Jeremiasz Wisniowiecki. 246 DESCRIPTION OF Pereaslaw, upon the Trubitza, a town formerly flourishing, which contained a college of Jesuits, founded by Zolkiewski, nephew of the renowned general of that name. The Cossacks under Khmielnitski pillaged it, committing every kind of excess. Nizyn, on the Ostrza, which formerly separated the palatinate of Kiow from that of Czernichow, and the most eastern of the possessions of ancient Poland. We now turn to the palatinate of Czernichow (pro- nounced Tchernikhof ), the territories of which were at first governed by the Eussic dukes descended from Vladimir the Great ; but the grand duke of Lithuania, Gedymin, having annihilated their army on the banks of the Pierna, incorporated in his own states, in 1320, the towns and fortresses of Kiow, Bialogrod, Slepowrat, Kaniow, Czerkassy, Bransk, Pereaslaw, and the duchy of Severia, even to Puty vel, with all their dependencies. About the year 1394, Vladislaus Jagellon, king of Poland, confided to his brother Korybut, the government of Severia and of Czernichow ; but Korybut, wishing to make himself independent of the grand duke of Lithua- nia, Vitold assembled an army, marched against him, gave him battle, routed him completely near Niedo- kodow, took possession of his states, made him pri- soner with all his family, and sent him under a strong escort to Vilno; he then established starosties in this palatinate. Subsequently, Korybut was restored to liberty by the intercession of the duke of Kazan; and obtained THE UKRAINE. 247 the castles of Bratslaw and Vinnista, in Volhynla, with all their dependencies. He then founded Zbaraz and Visnioviatz, whence the powerful families of princes Zbaraski and Visniovietski derived their origin. To the latter of these families belonged Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki, (pronounced Visniovietski) elected king of Poland, before Sobieski. These families have been long extinct. Towards the close of the reign of Casimir the Jagellon, in 1490, the dukes who governed Severia repaired to Vilno, to do homage to the king of Poland ; but as one of the servants of the castle, in opening the gate, accidentally broke the finger of one of these dukes, this exasperated them so much that, without delay, they quitted Vilno, and threw themselves into the arms of Russia ; becoming subject to that power, till the year 1684, when the victories of the Poles over the Czar Michael Federovitch, brought about the glorious peace of Wiazma. By the treaty then made, Smolensk, Se- veria, and Tchernigovia reverted to the power of the mother country, and were included in the palatinate of Czernichow, divided into three districts by the decision of the diet of 1635. They again, by the truce of Andruszow, fell, together with all the Transdnieperian territory, into the power of Russia. The principal towns and boroughs of the ancient pala- tinate of Czernichow are: — Czernihow, a flourishing town upon the Desna, at the present day chief town of the government of the same name in Russia. — Novo- grod Sieverski, formerly the residence of the dukes. 248 DESCRIPTION OF now the chief town of the district. — Bransk, a town memorable for the victory of the hetman Pac over the Russians. The illustrious Polish family of Tryzna were the possessors of estates here situated. — Konotop, memorable also for a celebrated victory gained by the Poles over the Russians in 1664. — Glinsk, anciently the property of the family of the princes Glinski, one of whose members betrayed his country, and delivered up to the Russians, the fortress of Smolensk in 1548. This traitor afterwards met with condign punishment; his eyes were put out by the czar, and he perished in a dungeon. This family is extinct. — Putywell, an ancient fortress, adjacent to an immense forest, scarcely inferior in extent to that of Bialovieza. In concluding this short geographical view of the Ukraine, it may be interesting to give a description of its inhabitants, particularly those of Polish TJki-aine. The population of the Ukraine is composed of seve- ral races, which have more or less amalgamated with each other. The Scythians, or Cossacks, were the first to seize upon the lands and to defend them ; but their nomadic habits, added to a thirst of predatory excur- sions, did not allow them to set a just value on these lands, which lay, for the most part, in fallow, or altogether uncultivated. Poland, accordingly, established therein colonies of veteran soldiers, whose services seemed worthy of a recompense ; and whose posterity constitute, at the present day, the nobility of the Ukraine. Besides the Polish and Russian nobles that have long THE UKRAINE. 249 been established here amidst some Cossacks^ several fami- lies of the latter, tired of their unsettled and turbulent life, built dwellings and settled here, forming a class of small proprietors, much more numerous in the Ukraine than in any other part of the ancient kingdom of Poland. The grandees have at all times formed and still form, as it were, a separate caste. There are also many Jews in the various towns. The huts of the common people are formed of argillaceous loam, mixed with the hair of beasts, and covered over with glaize, or fine clay. These huts are cleaner and more conve- nient than those of the Russians; and they are ge- nerally surrounded with firuit trees. The costume of the common people in the Ukraine, resembles that of the Cossacks. Their hair is gathered up behind into a tuft ; and they wear loose trousers. The young women wear a corset, fitting close round the waist: their long flowing tresses, hanging over their shoulders, are tricked out with variegated ribbons; and there is much grace and elegance in the general features of their dress. The celebration of the nuptial rites has been, from time immemorial, accompanied with singular and peculiar usages. In other countries, probably without exception, the softer sex are wooed; in the Ukraine, on the contrary, they are the wooers. When a young female has conceived an attachment for a youth, she goes to the house of his parents, where she tells the young man, in the presence of his parents, that " the 250 DESCRIPTION OF kindness she beholds depicted in his countenance, and the good qualities of his heart, inspire her with the hope that he will prove a good husband, and under this impression she has come to beg he will accept her as his wife." If this initiatory announcement meets with hesitation or coldness on the part of the parents or their son, she sometimes renews her solicitation, either immediately or after the lapse of a few days ; and then, if the young man assents to her proposal, the parents believe they would expose themselves to the wrath of heaven, should they withhold their com- pliance. Then follow the ceremonies of the betrothal, which are more boisterous, more expensive, and of longer duration, than elsewhere. At the time of the sacred ceremony, the father of the intended inflicts upon her, during the administration of the holy sacrament, several slight blows with a kind of scourge, at the same time saying to her, " if to-morrow you obey not your hus- band, it will be he that will chastise you." On the day after the marriage, amid the prevailing mirth and festivity, attestations of the chastity of the new bride are attached to a board aiExed to the chimney-piece ; and, if her purity is arraigned, there is neither dancing, nor music, nor rejoicing, but a mournful silence is observed ; and amid this gloom, several females, with tears streaming down their faces, and one of them bearing a dead crow, suddenly appear sobbing, and lamenting the lost innocence of the unhappy maiden ; THE UKRAINE. ^51 and all the family prostrate themselves before the All- powerful, beseeching him, in his divine mercy, not to visit the sin of the daughter upon the whole family. The bride is then publicly beaten by her father or nearest male relative; receives a number of strokes corresponding to the years of her age, and must observe a rigid fast for a certain length of time. This custom is not, however, in all cases, rigidly observed. There was an exception to this custom, if it was proved, by respectable witnesses, that the girl was too basely treated, during the invasion of some barbarous horde ; a visitation at all times frequent in the Ukraine. The nuptial ceremonies for a widow, though they are remarkable and singular, do not seem worthy of especial notice here. A woman, guilty of infidelity to her husband, was formerly buried alive up to the neck in the ground, and condemned thus to perish by starvation. This law, which was in force among the ancient Scythians as well as in Russia, still remains valid in the Ukraine, although it is not strictly enforced. The inhabitants of the Ukraine are generally well formed and robust. Their address is dignified, their speech concise, their gestures energetic ; they have piercing eyes; in this respect resembling the inhabitants of the savannah or the desert. They are excellent equestrians, and faithful and devotedly attached to those who are kind to them ; but they are implacable in their hatred, which is occasionally fatal to those on whom S53 DESCRIPTION OF it falls. Murders are sometimes committed, robbery very seldom. The common people speak the E-ussic language, which has greater affinity with the Polish than with the Russian ; and they profess the schismatic Greco-Russian religion. The nobility are principally Polish. The Ukraine is the nati^ve land of the princes Czet- wertynski, lablonowski, Lubomirski, Radziwill, Sangus- zko; of Counts Bobr, Borkowski, Branicki, Brzozowski, Chodkiewiez, Esterhazy, Dunin, Czacki, Gizycki, Gro- cholski, Komar, ICrasicki, Mniszech, Moniuszko, Mos- zynski, Morsztyn, Leduchowski, Olizar, Ostrowski Or- lowski, Potocki, Potulicki Rzewuski, Sobanski, Stecki, Sulatycki, Szalayski, Ulatowski, Wit, as well as of the wealthy families of Abramowicz, Balaban, Baniewski, Choiecki, Czarkowski, Czaykowski, Dzierzek, Goszczyn- ski, Grodecki, Glebocki, Haraburda, larmunda, laros- zynski, Turunski, Ilowicki, lelec, Iwanicki, Iwanowski, Karsza, Kormanski, Mankowski, Orlinski, Oskierko, Prazmowski, Proskura, Ruzycki, Woynarowski, Wys- zynski, Szaszkiewicz, Urork, Zubr; but more especially of the families of princes lablonowski, Lubomirski, Sanguszko, and counts Branicki, Potocki, and Orlowski. All these nobles possess immense estates in the Ukraine, inhabiting magnificent castles, whose gilded towers and grey lichen-clad walls display their gigantic pro- portions amid the monotony of the Steppes ; dazzling or surprising the traveller as they present them- selves to his gaze, withdrawing his thoughts from the THE UKRAINE. ^53 present to the past, filling his mind with historical associations, and again leading it forward to an ideal contemplation of the future : of that future, which makes the heart beat with hope or anguish, and which, behind its impenetrable veil, conceals, perhaps, blood-red visions of slaughter, and the roseate dawn of restoration and glory. In these noble palace-like mansions, adorned with the splendour of the east and the elegance of Europe, ancient Polish hospitality has taken refuge ; that hospitality elsewhere unequalled, and which even the enthusiastic feelings of a true patriot could hardly define. The customs of the Polish nobles are too well- known to need description. The nobles of the Ukraine are stamped with a peculiar impress. They are unos- tentatious, though splendid; refined, though blunt; and to these contradictory qualities they unite bravery unsurpassed. In their castles, enchanted as it were, all that flatters the senses, aU that cultivates the mind, all that strengthens the body, finds a dwelling ; and amid all this, there is a something grand, sombre, and wild, which forces itself upon the imagination, and rivets attention. The same noble personage who charms by his conversation upon Rousseau, Voltaire, or Byron ; ox who expatiates upon liberty, will order a domestic to be punished with fifty blows for a trivial offence, will treat without much ceremony a female domestic; and will kill a man in a duel for any slight breach of etiquette. No armies of Germany or France have ever waved their banners in the Ukraine ; it has never been in contact 254 DESCRIPTION OP with civilised Europe ; and, hence, it has preserved its primitive character. All that locate themselves in the Ukraine, soon become essentially Ukrainian. The Ukrai- nians are generous, brave, friendly, faithful, neither cunning nor egotistical. When a stranger visits the country, every politeness is shown to him : if he be a person of consequence, he is invited to the different castles on his route, separate apartments are assigned to him, two servants are commanded to do his bidding, a Cossack attends upon him, three horses are at his orders; a purse of gold is placed in his drawer, and his wardrobe receives the attention of appointed female servants. The youth of the Ukraine are not softened by luxury. The young Ukrainian, in addition to having received advantages of a high intellectual education, is taught to handle the sabre, to fire the pistol, to hunt wolves, and to tame a wild horse, a feat by no means easy of accom- plishment. The Ukrainian ladies are taught music, paint- ing, dancing, and several languages. They are at once graceful and beautiful ; preserving their freshness to declining years, uniting to an eastern imagination a persuasive eloquence, and possessing manners amiable and distinguished, and are especially celebrated for the beauty of their eyes, for the most part dark, which attract and burn at the same time ; and can almost guide a mis- directed traveller in a gloomy night. During ten years' residence in England, I have met only three ladies whose features bear decidedly an Ukrainian impress, namely, THE UKRAINE. 255 Mrs. L. G. Remington, in London, whose father is a governor of a part of British India; Miss Fanny Brand- ling, at Newcastle; and the dashing and handsome maiden sister of the fair Mrs. Simpson, at the Grieves, the general favourite at Lancaster, known in the neigh- bourhood under the glorious denomination of a most excellent daughter.*' There is in the Ukraine a singular custom prevalent during the carnival: whole fami- lies visit each other, prolonging their stay for several weeks. As many as ten or twelve of these families, or more, are thus often congregated under the same roof; while the vacant houses are left to the care of the domes- tics. This usage is confined to the upper class ; and a sort of rotation is observed in the order of the visitors and the visited. Such a habit of life, although practised only at the season of the carnival, would be scarcely practi- cable in western Europe ; it tends, however, greatly to develope the manners, the happiness, the sociability, the wit, and the eloquence of the Polish nobles ; and renders them, without any Exaggeration, the most courteous and attractive in the whole world. The Polish nobles are a singular race of men; outrageously jealous of any en- croachment upon their class- privileges, they were yet often despotic towards those of humbler station : their lives were principally devoted to war, political strife^ personal contests, and aflfairs of gallantry : they must consequently have acquired great skill in the successful management of such matters. These family meetings (termed kuliki), are sometimes productive of domestic 256 DESCRIPTION OF troubles and conjugal separations. They are more in vogue in the Ukraine and Polessia, than in Poland Proper. The animals in the tFkraine are the same as those found throughout Poland, with few exceptions. The rossomach, which is occasionally seen in the Steppes, is a mixture between a wild cat and a wolf J it is to be found also in the forest of Bialovieza, but it is extremely rare. The pelican, the jet-black hare, and a kind of red teal, much smaller than the common teal, are met with. There is a kind of scorpion very dangerous, and a peculiar viper called vrzetsionitsa {wrzecionica) , short, thick in the middle, small at the ends, whose bite is almost certain death ; it is to be found in dry situa* tions, and is of a slightly reddish colour ; it is by no means common. An ordinary viper (commonly called adder) can be easily distinguished from a harmless ser- pent (whose colours vary according to the species, the age, and the season) by two characteristics never to be mistaken, namely, by dark spots in^ig-2ag on its back, and its brown belly ; it is also considerably thicker and shorter than the common serpents, and likes more ele- vated ground, while the latter has always a belly of variegated colours, a yellow ring close to its head, and is to be found in more moist places : the female and young vipers are of a reddish colour. Sometimes a viper hangs on a low bush ; generally speaking, open copses, dry heaths, newly-covered woodlands, sandy wastes, and southern banks of rivers, are the haunts of THE UKRAINE. 257 the viper. Poisonous bites are more dangerous in summer than in the autumn, and can be cured by- rubbing the fat of the viper or olive oil on the part wounded, over a chafing-dish of coals, and taking the oil internally. It is also necessary to purge the body, and to apply the remedy without delay. Much depends on the state of the blood. A bite in a blood-vessel is always very dangerous : the female viper is the more poisonous of the two. There is a large kind of spider which digs a round hole in the earth, and carries its young on its back ; it is a sort of tarantula, and is dangerous. The children put some water in their holes, and thus oblige the spider to come out, and often kill it. There was, and there is still, probably, a wild goat, called sumah, whose horns are transparent and as white as snow ; they are to be found in the higher range of the southern Steppes. According to Samicki, boa constrictors were occasionally to be met with in the south-eastern part of the Ukraine. The ptarmigan is very common, and the buzzard the largest bird after the turkey : the latter is extremely shy, of a greyish colour, have long feet, and must rim at least thirty yards before it can rise. They are often caught by greyhounds. The music of the Ukraine is strikingly peculiar. Those wondrous melodies, called dumki^ are charac- terised by their touching harmony ; they are at once Ossianic, oriental, plaintive, and martial. They abound in the loftiest sentiments, and are interwreathed with s 258 DESCRIPTION OF eastern imagery. Now the fiercest emotion, the wild tornado of the soul, rushes through them; now the dark eyes of some love-lorn maiden are the theme of their enthralling strains. They always terminate with some sad catastrophe, and happy love finds no refuge in their touching stanzas. The popular ditties of the Ukraine form a pleasing and enrapturing minstrelsy. Very many of them are not set to music. In others, the tide of song rolls gently on. At times, the harmo- nious lay rises, through a climax of exaltation, from the softness of the breeze, to the dirge-like wailings of the blast, and the roar of the hurricane; and bloodshed, revenge, and conflagration glide through the flowing cadence ; the neighings of the steed, the howling of the wolves, the whizzing of arrows, the pattering of musketry, the clash of arms, the ill-boding cries of the vulture, or the croakings of the raven, the shouts of victory, the groans of the dying, despair, rage, and laughter, gush forth in their imitative harmony. The songs of the Ukraine are its history. Its wars, its triumphs, its defeats, its sorrows, are imaged forth and chronicled as it were in these sublime and spirit-stirring rhapsodies. One might say, as is said of Ariel's music in the im- mortal Shakspere, ** This is no mortal business, nor no sound that the earth owes." The fragments of the Ukrainian poetry charm and attract by their tenderness and pathos, by the sympa- thies they awaken, and by thoughts which a different race would in vain essay to express. Among the gems THE UKRAINE. 259 of this delightful art, we may notice '' Maria," by Malczewski ; " The Castle of Kaniov " (Zamek Kani- owski), by Goszczynski, written in the Polish lan- guage. Both have a clark^ essentially Ukrainian im- press; both describe love, murder, despair, and re- venge ; both hint at the terrible pride of the Polish oligarchy ; both dig a hole into the coal-pit of human passion ; both are founded on facts. Both these effu- sions of genius unfold the beauty, the richness, and the harmony of the Polish language. These strange poems seem to be twin sisters, and both unaccountably linked with the other world. The latter is completely in Byron''s fashion, and by no means inferior to any production of that celebrated poet. But it is local, and cannot be judged by any translation. . There are also several other Ukrainian writers, namely, Bohdan Zalew- ski, Michel Czaykowski (nephew of Colonel Rozycki), Grabowski, the two brothers Budzynski, Olizarowski, and Alexander Ilowicki.'^ The works of the latter are written in a pure and pleasing style, while some of the passages claim, by their ideality and wonderful power of description, no ordinary place in Polish literature. — (A. Ilowicki having felt an unfortunate passion for the beautiful Countess Komar, took holy orders, and is in great favour with the present Pope, who is certainly no ordinary man, and would have assured the welfare of Italy had his counsels been followed). — Zalewski is well known for his poetry in Poland. Michel Czaykowski and Grabowski are celebrated novelists : all their Polish 260 DESCRIPTION OF works are exclusively devoted to the Ukraine, and, in point of the knowledge of the human heart and the de- scription of strong passion, are undoubtedly superior to Sir Walter Scott: but as Poland has not, at present, po- litical existence, their works cannot be well appreciated. Czaykowski took the Cossacks under his special pro- tection, and intends to Polonise them, a thing by no means impossible. I am intimately acquainted with him ; he is an extraordinary man, and speaks several languages : he is a great writer, an able politician, an excellent officer in the field, an accomplished gentle- man : he is well acquainted with the whole machinery of the Russian government, is now abroad, and may be very useful to his country under proper circum- stances; but having never been in England, he is not well aware of her gigantic powers. During five years I had daily intercourse with him at Paris. The two brothers, Budzynski have translated "Goethe" into Polish. Olizarowski has written some poems, and often writes ballads which please Prince Czartoryski. Malczewski is dead.^ Czaykowski, the two brothers Budzynski, Goszczynski, are political emigrants. There is also an Ukrainian lady, Miss Korzeniowska, so fond of science, that whenever she was invited to a party, she always carried with her a pencil for taking notes of any thing worthy to be noticed. It is impossible to describe the stock of information which this bride of science possesses, who is known in the literary world for her wonderful productions. She is THE UKRAINE. 261 a sort of Polish Miss Agnes Strickland, and her style resembles that of the Marchioness of Londonderry in her ladyship's poetical description of Moscow. The legends of the Ukraine, which form the nucleus of the dumki airs, are very numerous. These legends have no parallel in any other part of the civilized or barbarous world. Some of them evidently refer to the wars of Mithridates with the Eomans, others to more modem eras. In these legends figure enchantresses, prophetesses, seers, furies, good and evil genii, demons of every kind, females in tears, drowning women, inva- sions, massacres, famine, and pestilence. Some of them make obvious reference to the discovery of America ; others plunge into the Scandinavian mythology, in union with the vestiges of the heathenism of the ancient Lithuanians, mingled with the rites of the East and with Christianity. These legends, too, may be sometimes explained by the Greek colonies, the wars of the Poles under the two Boleslaus ; the conquests of the grand dukes of Lithuania; the invasion of the Tatars ; and other events of history. In one of them are some passages, word for word, to be found in Shakspere'^s " Hamlet." In another, a floating island in Keswick lake is so well and so precisely described, that no one can possibly doubt its reference to that island. It has, however, a singular tale attached to it. It is extremely difficult to trace the manner in which these two Ukrainian legends became so strangely asso- ciated with English literature and scenery. DESCRIPTION OF The superstitions of the Ukraine are numerous. The great enemy of mankind is sometimes called Didho, sometimes Biss, sometimes Satan, sometimes Czort. He is represented now under the form of a black dog ; now of a three-horned bull ; now of a he- goat ; now of a boy in a German dress, — this latter is not considered to be very malignant or dangerous, — he smokes tobacco, regales himself with cream, visits the ladies, taking the features and assuming the dress and manners of their husbands. The one in the form of a black dog is most dreaded ; he can be exorcised only by holy water and fervent prayers ; and when he yields, the hurricane takes place, which dances ^Ae Cossack vi^onihe Steppes. The apparition of a tall female, arrayed in white, with her arms folded, mourning . and wailing on the skirts of the forest, forebodes pestilence. The re- peated hootings of the owl are considered to prognos- ticate a corresponding number of deaths in the village during the space of three years. The appearance of a beautiful maiden, Topielitza, weeping and sobbing, on the banks of rivers or the margins of lakes, with her head hanging down, and dishevelled hair, represents the drowned unhappy one, who has murdered her illegitimate child ; and is destined, by way of penitence, to walk upon the marsh-plants, to induce the young of the opposite sex to come in pursuit of her, and perish in the waters, until some one succeeds in saving an infant from death by drowning. A woman with a beard, Czarownica, (pronounced Tcharovnitsa), is looked upon THB UKRAINE. 263 as a sorceress, and is accounted extremely dangerous. Such were sometimes burned. There prevailed also very singular notions and customs in regard to a being they called Pachole (pronounced Pakhole), which comes from, the Polish word Pacholeh^ signifying a mysterious orphan who knows not his parents, and who is left alone and without protection in the wide world ; and who appears to be the fruit of an ill-assorted marriage of a lady of quality with a husband of low grade. This orphan, without home or country or relatives, wandered about in quest of some one who might give him a resting-place, adopt him, and by acts of kindness banish from his mind the recollections of the miseries he had undergone : he generally appeared about eleven to eighteen years of age, and was accompanied by a large dog. This species of orphan boy enjoyed great privileges in the Ukraine, and received the especial pro- tection of the ladies, of the nuns, and above all of widows, who sometimes espoused them. They were ac- customed to sing plaintive songs by moonlight, under the window of some love-lorn widow. After the refrain at the conclusion of each stanza, the dog set up a howl, and the following dialogue ensued : Widow. Who is singing there ? — Boy, A Pachole, a Pachole. Widow, What is your name? — Boy. I have no name. Widow, Where do your parents live ? — Boy. I have no parents. S64 DESCRIPTION OF Widow. Where are your brother and sister, your cousins ? — JBoy. I have none. Widow. "Where do you live? — Boy. I have no home ; the wild Steppe is my bed, the heaven my covering; but perhaps I shall find a mother, or a kind female friend who will guard me from hunger, cold, and misery ; who will give me a cool shelter in summer, a warm one in winter, and will take care of my dog, that he become not the prey of wolves. Widow. Present yourself at the great gate of my abode, in presence of two witnesses ; I will adopt you, you shall be my son. (He was accordingly adopted, and inherited her possessions ; nor was it in the power of any one to entirely disinherit him). If the widow replied to the boy, ^' Your voice pleases me ; come in and be mine, we will be united ; such is the will of God," then they were married, and the marriage was considered legal, if the Pachole had attained his seventeenth year. If the widow re- sponded, " Knock at the gate, you shall receive my hospitality, as my guest you shall want for nothing ;" then he knocked accordingly, and came under the hospitable roof. This custom, unique and strange as it appears, pre- vailed in the Ukraine with greater or less modifications, and it may easily be accounted for. Wars continually raged in the Ukraine in ancient times ; the Zaporoguians carried oflf the children in their predatory and warlike excursions; these children were left to wander, when THE UKRAINE. 265 their captors might have perished by the sword. Like- wise, many children might have fled into the Ukraine when the Tatars had butchered their parents; these children received hospitality in the villages, and it would have been thought a crime to ill-treat them. The Cossack women also^ during the long absence of their husbands, often adopted such orphans. Hence is derived most certainly the Polish proverb, '' Happy as a Pachole with a Ukrainian widow/* (Szczesliwy iak na Ukrainie pacholek u wdowy.) The manner of drinking, amongst the Ukrainian people, with each other, strongly resembles the usages known on such occasions in England. A man who in- tends to drink a glass of brandy with another, takes a glass, rises, bows to him, and when the bow is returned he makes a speech and drinks his health, while the others are standing. His friends return the compli- ment, and all the guests follow in rotation with speeches, in which they all fehcitate themselves till they lose their senses and become inebriated. (It is called byczek,) Land in the Ukraine has greatly increased in value since the foundation of the port of Odessa; but as the roads are bad, and there is not any railroad yet completed, this port has not given that ex- tension which it would otherwise have given to the trade of this province. The roads of the Ukraine, from the nature of the soil, are bad only during the rains of spring and latter autumn ; at other seasons they are most excellent. The nobility of the Ukraine lately 266 DESCRIPTION OF proposed to the Russian government to construct at their own expense, some good common roads, as well as railroads to the Black Sea for facilitating the export of grain; but this project incurred the displeasure of the Emperor Nicholas, and it was abandoned. There exists in the Ukraine a superstitious belief that, ac- cording to the prophecy of Vernyhora, the principal attack upon Russia will be made by the Ukraine, and that Poland will be restored by the Ukraine. The Russian government appears by no means disposed to favour any undertaking which might augment too much the revenues of the Ukrainian nobles, facilitate their communication, and give them access to the Black Sea, whence in case of war they may derive resources and reinforcements. If the lover of his country should perchance stray among the Steppes of the Ukraine, when the sun casts its setting glories over the plains, wherein the bones of ancient warriors have become dust, and drunk of Bo- kudo's blood ; the Ukraine will present to his imagina- tion an indefinable something between love and hatred, between civilisation and barbarism, between the past and the future, between the darkness of night and the brightness of day, between poetical fiction and reality, between Europe and Asia, between modern and ancient days; the nations whose names have perished; the nations whom tradition has preserved, — the Scythians, the Huns, the hordes of Ghengiskan, of Tamerlane, those of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, the Russic chieftains, the THE UKRAINE. 267 Turks, the Poles, the Cossacks, the Swedes, the Kus- sians, — will pass before his eyes as a phantasmagoria on this arena of blood, on which Poland repelled during several ages the invasions of the barbarians, which were especially directed against civilised Europe. That Poland now, alas ! lies prostrate, bathed in her tears and moaning in the dust. Shall she perish ? No, she shall yet rise again. I see the Pole, the Cossack, and the Mahometan in a friendly embrace. I see a dazzling light in the west and in the east. I see a splendid cradle drawing forth from her imaginary tomb. Having depicted the country of the Steppes, let us now glance at the present state of Europe. Napoleon said, " Dans cinquante ans d'ici, toute TEurope sera libre, ou Cosaque," i. e., '^ every thing would depend on Poland." Should Russia sincerely attach Poland to herself— not by the subjugating sword, but by genuine acts of kind- ness, restoring to Poland its complete independence, then might these two great nations be eternally re- conciled, and Eussia thereby enabled to become indeed almost " mistress of Europe," but never otherwise. As, however, no such reconciliation is probable, and as, sooner or later, war between Russia and western Europe, that is, between despotism and liberty, must burst forth, — a war which will shake the most remote parts of the globe — it is incumbent on us to expose the weak point of Russia, and convince the reader, by facts, that Russia is really far weaker than other nations. Moreover, we must S68 DESCRIPTION OF demonstrate that, in the event of war with Russia, if proper means are taken to strike at her vital point, she must be vanquished, and repulsed behind the Dzvina and the Dnieper within one year; but if, on the con- trary, she is allowed to concentrate her whole strength, if she be not attacked with wisdom and vigour, she may prove the victor ; may, if aided by Austria, swallow up the Turkish empire ; may pour her barbarous hordes in the west, and may inflict terrible mischief on the whole of Europe (France alone excepted) for centuries. If a sportsman, when confronted by a tiger, levels his gun at its paw or leg, he may wound slightly that tiger and himself perish ; if, on the contrary, he aims at the heart, the animaFs terrific growl of anguish will testify that the shot has taken effect ; and, without peril to himself, the sportsman may slay the ferocious beast. So if a ravenous wolf is prowling near a farm, it is the farmer's duty for the safety of his herd to maim or kill it. This comparison is, to a great extent, correct as respects Russia and her neighbour nations. Russia is specially dangerous, not to France, but to Germany, Austria, Turkey, and even England. It is difficult to conceive that any German army could victoriously contest in a pitched battle with a Russian army. The latter, composed of men of sterner stuff, more accustomed to hardship, to the rules of iron discipline, possessing the advantage of unity of command, longing for pillage and rapine, and its movements protected by swarms of Cossacks, must have ultimately a decided advantage over the former ; the THE UKRAINE. 269 more so, that while Germany is vulnerable the whole year, Russia is scarcely vulnerable for six months. For checking at once such a calamity, at any time pregnant with danger to civilized Europe, there are only two modes. One consists in having an immense standing army, in magnitude double that of Russia, which would necessarily entail increased taxes, and swallow more gold than Crcesus ever possessed ; and the other mode presents itself in rendering Poland sincere assistance in regaining her independence, to dissolve the principal aggressive resources of Russia, and to weaken in every direction that power. The second remedy is, in every respect less troublesome, and appears far more certain than the first. What is Russia ? It is rather a government than a nation ; a government, whose first edition reverts to the time of Ivan the Cruel, and its second edition Peter the Great and the debaucheries of Catherine II. It is a govern- ment which, from the Gulf of Finland to the Chinese boundary ; from the Black and the Caspian to the White Sea; from the Pacific to the Baltic; exists only by rapine, plunder, oppression, and systematic de- moralization. Russia is continually augmenting her armies; increasing her large navy (which costs her immense sums, though she has no colonies) ; intriguing in all parts of the world ; undermining some years ago the British power in India ; watching the movements of Turkey, almost as a spider watches the movements of a fly ; menacing the whole of Germany with invasion ; 270 DESCRIPTION OF speaking of religion and God, yet scorning and perse- cuting every creed which is not of Greek persuasion ; spreading her propaganda of panslavisra, which visibly disorganises, under various colours and different shades, the vital parts of Turkey and several other states. Further, bribing swarms of authors and periodicals in foreign countries, she prostitutes with the utmost im- pudence, the words of justice, disinterestedness, and virtue, and dares to speak of her pacific intention; because she was suddenly stopped in her aggressive career by the magic and all powerful word Poland ! Happily, Kussia has in herself the germ of her own destruction. There is no law, no liberty of the press, no personal security in Eussia. All the civilians, and the army, are so badly paid that, according to approx- imative calculations, they cannot subsist more than two months in the year out of their pay, and, therefore, during the remaining ten months they must exist by robbery. Plundering the people, and compelled to main- tain their own superiors, they let loose the flood-gates of immorality, and excite general hatred or contempt to the government. In short, they form one cancer of corruption, and promote insurrection, the more so that the Russian nobles may be considered as the very heart of despotism. There being almost no control over them, they are at times more oppressive than the czar himself, and the Russian people, therefore, are subjected, not to one but a whole swarm of tyrants. A Russian noble is sole master and sovereign of his serf; THE UKRAINE. 271 le can flog him at any time, and as brutally as he pleases ; he can choose any female that his unbridled lust may desire ; he can transport his serf under any pretext to Siberia; he can sell his serf, or tax his labour to the uttermost, as it may suit his convenience or rapacity ; and woe to a serf who presumes to mur- mur against the oppression of his lord. Such a frightful and artificial state of society cannot possibly exist in the present state of Europe without endangering the whole structure of the Russian empire, the more so, that a regular democratic element exists among the Cossacks and other semi-civilized hordes nominally subjected to Russia. The historical reminiscences given in previous chapters, testify that the Cossacks have never been com- pletely reduced under the Muscovite sway. Centuries of Russian domination has utterly failed in assimilating the Cossack to the Russian; and Cossack hostility to Russia, like the sacred fire of the ancient Persians, has never been extinguished. Thus, at the very commence- ment of the Russian supremacy in the Ukraine, we behold Stenko Razin — an obscure Cossack, previously unknown, even by name, to his tribe — exciting a for- midable insurrection against Russia. Throughout the desperate war waged by Stenko Razin, he did not re- ceive the slightest aid, or even countenance, from any foreign power, yet his self-energy alone enabled him to rally 200,000 men round the standard of revolt. He vanquished Russian army after army ; subjugated the kingdom of Astrakan ; checked Russian influence in 212 DESCIilPTION OF Persia; marclied upon Moscow itself; and, in brief, made Russia tremble to her very foundation. Nay, had not Stenko Razin been betrayed into the hands of his enemies, he would, most assuredly have overthrown the Romanow dynasty, and seated himself on the Mus- covite throne. A century after this, we behold the Cossack, Pugatchef, at the head of innumerable barba- rous hordes, who gave him constant proofs of their devotion even under the most unfavourable circum- stances. Five times repulsed, yet five times he re- newed the contest. During the terrific struggle he routed several well organised Russian armies, con- quered Kasan, and the whole country between the Ural Mountains and the Volga, and threatened Mos- cow itself with destruction ! What, then, is to be done? Why, to attack Russia by press and in- surrections, and to raise against her those very bar- barian hordes with which she threatens Western Europe ; to re-establish the independence of Poland ; to restore to Sweden and Germany their former pro- vinces; to liberate the Russian serfs; to excite an insurrection in the military colonies, where rebellion has already twice broken out ; to give to the Cossacks, to the Mahometans, to the Mato Russes, to the Kirg- hise, to the Circassians, and the other large tribes now under Russian domination, kings, who may protect their own nationalities, establish regular governments, and erect their countries into separate states. It is deserving of note, that Colonel Dorigni, a foreign re- THE UKRAINE. 273 fugee in the Russian service, proposed to the French cabinet during the seven years' war, to raise 300,000 Kherghes and Tcheramess against Russia, and he was confident of the success of such a raising. Napoleon, gigantic genius as he was, yet knew not where to strike a real blow on Russia. If instead of sending his armies into Russia, he had but adopted the line of policy here suggested, with proper care and activity he would easily have humbled Russia. Russia was then, as I have proved it now to be, weaker internally than any other European state, in which such rebellions as those above referred to have never been known, and, indeed, are impossible. In fact, a conspiracy of some Russian colonels can, at any time, shake the whole Russian empire ; especially in the military colonies. It may be remarked that the weakness of any govern- ment is always in proportion to the number of spies employed by that government ; and in no country are they so numerous as in Russia. However, the secret police, so formidable in Russia, have failed in checking the frequent conspiracies against the government — con- spiracies that may yet prove successful. I will but add, that every attack on Russia from the Pacific, or from the regions of the White, jCaspian, Black, and Baltic seas, is fraught with danger to her. In conclusion, I may remark that although the present state of Germany, and of Europe generally clearly proves that communism or socialism is nowhere in fashion on the continent (and thanks to General T 274 DESCRIPTION OF THE UKRAINE. Cavaignac, is almost extirpated in France) ; yet, at the same time, the progress of despotism — such as that of Russia — is quite out of the question. A strong re- action against ultra-democratic principles is visible, and their fallacy clearly proved ; but a new era of European reasonable liberty is to be established on the basis of a real friendship between England and France. Eng- land has no other desire than to behold France great and powerful, and never intended to interfere in her internal affairs. Lamartine testified himself a wise politician as respects England, since he foresaw well the consequence that might spring out of an unjustifiable interference with the threatened Irish insurrection. To quote from my work '^ The Poles in the Seventeenth Century," I can but exclaim, " Let then France and England unite heart and hand ; let them extinguish every spark of petty rivalry. Not then, would Russia raise her despotic head, but these two nations might exercise a salutary influence over the civilized world. Cherished and adored by the whole human race, they might crush oppression, annihilate tyranny, and restore to their former integrity the nation that has been dis- membered, and, for a time, enslaved !" See Clarke, Beauplan, and Lesur, Description de rUkraine, Malte Brun, Chodzko, Siviecki, Staszyc Count Lewis Plater, Bzonczynski Sarnicki, &c. &c. NOTES. CHAPTER I.— THE COSSACKS OF THE UKRAINE. Page 3. (a). — Kazachia Orda was a tribe known in the Caucasus long before the word Kozak was known in Europe, Some writers say, that Schah Matey, the Tatar khan of the Wolga, bound by a treaty made with John Albert, king of Poland, to make war with the khan of the Crimea, had a brother of the name of Kosak, whom he sent to the Nogay Tatars for reinforcements, and that that brother, having a whole tribe of Tatars under his command, gave the name of Kosak to the whole Kosak nation, in whose territory the conflicts between the two Tatar chiefs were raging. Others assert, that the name is derived from the Polish word Koza, which means a goat, in order to give an idea of the swiftness of the Cossacks. Sherer, in the Annals of Lesser Russia, asserts, that they derive their name from a sUp of land called Kossa (a scythe). The Poles and the Russians mean by the word Kosak, a brigand lightly armed. See Cromer, p. 452 ; Lesur, pp. 185, 186. Page 3. (6). Such is the version of Lesur, but he contradicts him- self visibly respecting the Cossacks of the Ukraine ; and we would rather be inclined to follow the opinion of Cromer, and other PoHsh historians, who assigned the existence of the Cossacks to the ninth century. Page 6. (c). — See Cromer, Sherer, and other historians, who mention that the militia of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which, after the annexation of the Ukraine to Poland, passed completely under the dominion of the Polish crown, was dressed, in the reign of the Polish 276 NOTES. king Kazimir Jagellon in English grey woollen-cloth. The above-men- tioned militia were no other men but Cossacks. Page 12. (d). — See Lesur, Beauplan, about the inhabitants of the Ukraine. Page 13. The Kings of Poland were the possessors of certain lands belonging to the crown, which they were obliged to give to the Polish nobles, who signalised themselves in war, or in council, or who, on other occasions, might have deserved well of their country. These lands varied in value, according to the rank and merits of those to whom they were assigned. They were not given in perpetuity, but for life, sometimes for two or three generations, but very seldom as a heritage. The widows very often continued in possession of these estates till the time of their death, and none but nobles could receive them. They were called in Polish Starostwa. The title of Starosta was enjoyed by the possessor of them, and his consort was entitled Staroscina ; the Starosta's son was called Staroscic, and the Starosta's daughter Staroscianka, and the name of the estate or village was often adjoined to the title. The Starosta enjoyed a certain authority on their estates, especially during the interregnum. There were two sorts of Starosta, those who enjoyed the magistracy on their estates, and those who did not enjoy the same privilege ; yet it is to be re- marked, that when a Polish noble had nine sons, six of which were in the army, he received an estate of the government and was Starosta. Page 14. (e).— See Lesur sur les Kosaques ; Beauplan's Description de rUkraine. Page 20. (/). — Czayki (pronounced tchaiqui), means, in Polish, the sewwicks. These boats were so called on account of their lightness. Page 21. (g). — The Polish Cossacks, according to Beauplan, used in their piratical expeditions a kind of cask, which contained a quan- tity of fresh water, so well preserved that it never putrified, and acquired at sea, even with the length of time, a better taste. The secret of preserving sweet water from putrefaction— a secret which would be of the greatest importance in navigation— was never disclosed by the Cossacks. Several historians mention it. It seems now to be completely lost . Page 29. (A).— According to Lesur, p. 321, Czaplinski, after ravishing the lady of Klimielnitski on the dead body of her son, massacred her, put Khmielnitski in prison, and burned his house. Lesur, however, who wrote his History of the Cossacks in 1813 and 1814, dwells often on all things unfavourable to Poland. He mentions that the Cossack NOTES. 277 chief, Nalevayko, vanquished and taken prisoner by the celebrated Polish chieftain Zulkiewski, in 1598, was publicly burned at Warsaw, in a copper bull made on purpose ; when it is a well known fact, which I minutely investigated, that nothing of the kind ever happened in Poland. Nalevayko was beheaded. Some authors assert that Czaplinski ill-treated Khmielnitski, burned his house, put him in prison, and lived publicly with his wife. Page 56. (t). — It is a singular fact, that a real democracy does not exist anywhere but among the Cossacks. How then the democratic element can harmonize with the Russian government and the Russian aristocracy, the very heart of despotism, and the most decided element of oppression and tyranny, it is difficult to account. These two con- trary elements, which have already had some collision, cannot ulti- mately harmonize, and must sooner or later fight to the death. CHAPTER II.— REBELLION OF STENKO RAZIN. Page 65. (a). — A young Circassian, Prince Pereghorski, previously taken prisoner by Stenko Razin, was obliged, by the orders of the latter, to assume the character of the czarewicz, in the bark covered with red velvet ; in that covered with black velvet, another young man represented Nickon, the disgraced patriarch. The above named Prince Pereghorski was pardoned and kindly treated by the Czar Alexy, as it was undoubtedly proved that the former was compelled to do so under the fear of a violent death. See relation of the Rebellion of Stenko Razin. Page 69. (6).— To this time, this name, the Suburb of Hell, still exists, according to the author of the relation of the Rebellion of Stenko Razin. CHAPTER m.-THE ZAPOROGUES. Page 74. (a). — Suppressed. Page 77. List of the Attamans Koshovy of the Polish Ukrainian Cossacks, nominated by the kings of Poland, or approved by them, till the defection of Khmielnitski : — 1, Pzeclaw Lanckoronski (pronounced Fshetzlaf Landskorongski), called also Pazetzlav Lantski Bronski, first chief attaman of the Polish Cossacks, nominated in 1506 by Sigis- mund I. ; 2, Ostaphy Daszkiewicz (pronounced Dashkievitch) ; 3, Ro- zynski (pronounced Rojinski) ; 4, Wezyk Chelmicki (pronounced Van jick Khelmitski) ; 5, Twerkoski (pronounced Tferkoski) ; 6, Bohdanko Rozynski (Rojinski) ; 7, Podhowa {Podkovd)^ means in Polish a horse 278 NOTES. shoe ; 8, Szah (Sshagk) ; 9, Skalozup (Skalozoop) ; 10, Kosemski (Ko- samski); 11, Nalevayko (JValavaiko) ; 12, Piotr Konasewicz Sahay- daczny (Peter Konasavitch Saghaydatchny) ; 13, Yaras (Yaras) ; 14, Saavkanof-Perewieska (Savakanof-Paraviaska) ; 15, Pawluk (Pav- look ; 16, Ostranica {Ostranitza) \ 17, Poltora-Kozuch (JPooltora-Ko- joogh) ; 18, Buluk {Boolook) ; 19, Sineroy Bohdan Chmielnicki (Sina- voi Boghdan Khmielnitski). Among the aboTe-mentioned Polish Cos- sack chiefs, or attamans, Ostafy Daszkiewicz, Twerkowski, Boghdanko Rozynski, Shah, Nalevayko, Sahaydaczny, and Khmielnitski, were the most celebrated. After the defection of Khmielnitzki to Russia, in 1654, the Cossack chiefs in Russia were, and are to this time desig- nated under the title of Hetmans, a title borrowed from Poland, cor- responding in meaning to the general-in-chief, and which lasted in Poland till the partition of the latter country. After the defection of Khmielnitzki, as there were continual wars between Russia and Poland respecting the Cossacks, and as the Zapo- rogues formed a distinct community, though there were more atta- mans Koshovy nominated by the kings of Poland, yet as the Cossacks of the Ukraine alternately acknowledged the supremacy of Poland, Russia, and Turkey, it is extremely difficult to trace the regular suc- cession of their attamans. Page So. {h). — Suppressed. Page 82. (c). — Colonel Lagowski, who spent part of his life in the Ukraine, and was a living dictionary of the Russic lands, mentioned, with many other persons, that the Zaporogues, leading several years a wild life on the islands of the Dnieper, acquired sometimes, if young, a secret love charm for the ladies, which, if once known by them, in- creased their attachment to a sort of phrenzy for those who pos- sessed it. The colonel alluded to, who gave himself the trouble of describing this charm, says, that it was often transmitted from the father to the son ; that the use of the waters of the Dnieper near the cataracts, and the river Boh, especially at the time when a kind of red flower is blooming on the Steppes, — a flower whose aromatic scent has been known to invigorate the human frame, — produced occasionally such a charm. Be this as it may, I have heard several times of that charm, and a gentleman well-known in Volhynia and the Ukraine, of the name of Iwanicki (pronounced Ivanitski), probably still alive, has been known to possess undoubtedly such a charm. Page 85. ( :p=P= gj=^ 4-j - ^^H — hji j:^ ^i ^ES ^s ■•-! — •■ i= ^ ^ 4-^l-j T^ %f = 3 izsz: f^ r^^^^\ -m- -m- -&- *i=ii:ptti: • — m—r^ •f(v rallent. i^pp -•-^-•s»- ^ ' Mil DUMA O HRYCIU. Andanfino. :±^. »— »- '5i|a "/-< ^^ n^^ H U? H»--|-t-V /I ^ , f=}: :t=p:tt=J '£•■ ."""i^iir '^ *t^23 JSIl .:^tS3:.^|:^fe>l^:f^M"feS ^iilK^ii t-r-'-t ^ SZUMYT I HUDE. J 1/ egret to. \ ^ tUJ tUJ lLD l1_lj ll5 i^ /I -i_-1»-h-f-'=g— _gr'^ h-r-h-t -^ ^« T ~r^ /^^" OF THE ^>' JRN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 202 Main Library N PERIOD 1 lOME USE 2 3 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 1 -month loons nnay be renewed by colling 642-3405 nth loons moy be recharged by bringing books to Circulation De enewols and recharges may be mode 4 days prior to due date 1 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW ;t^ 1970 1 «-r» c;.-.,. -- \ mj^mmr ^^^ ^ "' e CSg? *^^ 'I'. *i