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798 COXR’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
trate myfelf before your throne, I fhall always be moft willing to expofe my life in your
fervice, Neither a long banifhment from the throne of Majefty, nor the climate of Si-
beria, have been able to damp, in the {malleft degree, that fire which formerly fhone
with fuch luftre for the interefts of the Ruffian empire, and the glory of its fovereign.”
Munic enjoyed the favour and protection of Peter and Catharine, and died on the
16th of O&tober, 1767, in the eighty-firth year of his age.
Cuap. XV.—Impoftors who affumed the Name of Peter the Third, particularly Pugatchef.
— His Origin and Hiftory.~- State of the Ruffian SeCtaries, and the Mutiny of the Coffacs
of Yait favour bis Rebellion —He affumes the Character of Peter the Third. — Collette
an irregular army.—His Progre/s.—Barbarity.—Weakne/s and Ill-condué?.— Repeated
Defeats, and Efcapes, /ubfequent Appearance.—Finally routed. — Betrayed by his Adber+
ents. —Executed at Mofcow.
ALTHOUGH the body of Peter III. was expofed to public view in the convent of
Alexander Neviki; yet feveral impoitors ttarted up in the diftant regions of the Ru&
fian empire, and paffed for that monarch. > ’
The firft was a fhoe-maker of Voronetz, who appeared under the name of Peter, a
few years before the rebellion of Pugatchef; but he was foon taken and executed.
The fecond was a deferter from the regiment of Orlof: his name was Tchernichef,
and he rofe in 1770, in the fmall village of Kopenka on the frontiers of Crim Tartary,
as a corps of troops was marching through that place. Some diffenting priefts, having
fuborned a number of followers, raifed him upon the altar of the church, and were pre-
paring to acknowledge him; but the colonel of the regiment repairing to the church
at the head of a ftrong guard, took him from the altar, and led him to immediate
execution.
A third was.a peafant belonging to the Vorontzof family, who deferting from his
village, engaged as a common Coflac among thofe who are fettled upon the Volya at
Dubofka. A body of thefe Coffacs marching in the fpring of 1772, from Pzaritzin to
join the Ruffian army, he affembled them in a fmall poft-houfe fituated in the lonely
defert between the Don and the Volga, and declared himlelf Peter the Third. Having
perfuaded them to falute him Emperor, and take the oath of allegiance, he appointed
feveral officers of ftate. A few hours after this tranfaétion, the commander of the-troop:
unexpettedly arriving, confounded the foldiers by his prefence, feized the impoftor by
the hair, and with the affiftance’of the aftonifhed Cofflacs, bound and conduéted him a
prifoner to Tzaritzin. During his trial the inhabitants, excited by falfe reports of his
followers, rofe in his favour, and were not without great difficulty difperfed by the
commander Colonel Zipletof. The impoftor being conveyed to an ifland of the Volga
was knooted to death. ;
About the fame time a malefactor, who had been tranfported to Irkutfk, made a
fimilar attempt, and even gained over an officer who had # penfion from the crown; ~
but his fecret being difcovered, he was alfo put to death. ef
Yemelka Pugatchef narrowly efcaped the fame fate at his firft appearance. This ex-
traordinary man, fon of the Coffac Ivan Pugatchef, was born at Simoveifk, a village on
the Don. He was a common Coflac in the war againft the King of Pruffia, and ferved
likewife during the campaign of 1769 againft the Turks. He was at the fiege of Ben-
der; and on the furrender of the town, demanded his difmiflion, which being refufed,
he deferted and fled into Poland: he was there concealed by fome hermits of the Greek
6 religion,
3-
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