I assented, somewhat shamefaced. Mazeppa’s madness made me afraid and ashamed.
‘Well, thank God, you spared him!’ he laughed, a moment later. ‘And you reached home naked?’ he ended unexpectedly.
‘I was not seen,’ I said.
‘It is the same as though we were both seen. By this time all is known. We have done with home for ever, my friend, you and I—with home and with all who knew us there. I thought of this as I rode yesterday. Would you return?’
It had not occurred to me that it would be necessary to depart, as Mazeppa suggested, but now that he pointed it out I realised the whole shame that would attach to us both in this matter if folks should speak of it, as speak they surely would. It would be impossible to live, knowing that people looked askance at us as we passed and told one another of our disgrace. True, I had fought Falbofsky and had the better of him, but that would be forgotten, while the rest remained.
‘No,’ I said, ‘I will not return, or, if I do, only for a short space in order to put my affairs in order with the steward.’
‘No; let him come to you, that is my advice. We will abide at Gorelka, which cannot be far from here. I have an idea for our future career (I had time to think yesterday), and from Gorelka we will summon our servants.’
We travelled slowly to Gorelka, which was a small town distant about two leagues from the spot in which I had found Mazeppa. There we lodged at the post station, but when we had eaten and rested an hour Mazeppa said that he would borrow my horse for a day, or maybe two days.
‘Whither go you?’ I said. ‘Homewards, to settle your affairs?’
‘Yes, homewards, and to settle my affairs,’ he replied grimly.
‘If one is to go,’ I said, ‘it were surely better I, for of the two, Mazeppa, it is you that have been worse treated and will be most spoken of. Both of us will lie under contempt, but you more than I.’ I spoke honestly, desiring to spare him the shame of being seen, for I saw plainly that this would be no small matter for him in his present temper.
‘Fool!’ he retorted. ‘Do you not understand that because I have suffered the greater disgrace therefore it is for me to go?’
I did not understand for a moment or two. When his meaning at last occurred to me I said no more, for it would have been as foolish to attempt to stem a mountain torrent as to divert Mazeppa from his purpose at that moment. And presently he took my horse and rode away.
A day and a half I awaited his return at that post station at Gorelka. I guessed what was passing in our own district, and I spent my time musing over this and over the question of my future career. Now that Mazeppa had shown me the matter from his point of vision, I wondered how I could ever have contemplated living at home after Falbofsky’s treatment of us and the disgrace and derision that were bound to follow. Truly this fiend could not have devised a more devilish trick to bring fellow creatures into the contempt of men though he had been Beelzebub himself, the prince of fiends!
Mazeppa returned, and I looked into his eyes, saying nothing. He, too, gazed in mine, but smiled only, keeping silence upon the subject we both thought of. But he was now himself once more, and in excellent temper, from which I inferred that his mission, whatever it might be, had succeeded.
On the following day my servant arrived, and Mazeppa’s with him. I had despatched post horses and a messenger to fetch them. They brought terrible news.
Falbofsky had been dragged from his bed at night, it was said, and forced to fight with some desperate stranger, who had left him dead or dying upon the ground and departed. ‘It was as well,’ said the servant, ‘that the Pans Mazeppa and Chelminsky were both here at Gorelka, as could be testified, for otherwise suspicion might have fallen upon either or both, since it was freely spoken of that there had been a quarrel in which all three were involved.’
‘And the lady?’ I asked, glancing at Mazeppa.
‘They say she was beaten with thongs by the same miscreant, and lies raving and accusing,’ said the man. ‘The Pan Falbofsky was a fierce lord, and had many enemies!’
Not one word did I speak with Mazeppa of this matter. We settled our affairs as well as we could do so by our servants, and having dismissed them lost no further time, but rode direct towards Bastupof, a city of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, in search of a career. It was some time before I heard definitely whether Falbofsky died or lived.
CHAPTER IV
See us now at the headquarters of the Hetman or chief of the Registered Cossacks, by name Doroshenko. These Registered Cossacks are they whose names are entered in the book as adherents of the King of Poland: they are thus distinguished from those others who espouse the cause of the Tsar of Russia. It was Mazeppa who so quickly found a new career for both of us, and that by his amazing assurance; for he rode straight to the Court of the Hetman (who holds his head, be it remembered, as high as the Polish King himself, though in a measure his vassal), and demanded employment, stating our names and the places we came from, but preserving silence—be sure—upon the reason for our leaving home.
‘Which is Chelminsky?’ asked the Hetman, and learning that it was I, ‘What, the son of our good captain, under Hmelnisky?’ he asked with interest.
I blushed, and said that so it was.
‘Then I say that none have a better right to demand service among us here,’ said he, taking me by the hand. ‘You shall find a good friend in me, my man,’ he added kindly, ‘and if you are like your father we shall be glad of you indeed! I do not know your name, Pan Mazeppa, but you seem to be one who goes with his eyes open.’
‘You will find that Mazeppa’s eyes never shut, Hetman,’ I said; ‘be wise and take him into your special service. He can do many things besides ride and use a sword, in which common accomplishments he excels.’
‘Is he a gramatny?’ asked the Hetman. ‘Can he write and read?’
‘I am as much clerk as soldier,’ said Mazeppa, ‘and I know figures.’
‘Come, then, that falls in well for both of us,’ said the Hetman, ‘for my peesar (secretary) died but a week since, and all these fellows—though they are devils to fight and can write well with their swords upon the body of an enemy—can wield a pen no more than ply a needle. You shall be tried, sir, as peesar, and you, Chelminsky, shall remain soldier.’
Thus Mazeppa first received employment in the country of which he was destined to be the greatest of all, by virtue of his friendship with myself—a matter which has given me cause for many reflections and for some laughter. I to have been Mazeppa’s godfather in Cossack-land! and he to have owed his first advancement to me! Lord! how oddly things happen in this world.
As young men and leaders, for so we soon became, we did well among our equals at the Hetman’s Court, and presently stood high in Doroshenko’s favour.
With the ladies Mazeppa was ever popular: fickle and inconstant as water was he, yet having some quality of attractiveness which drew female hearts to him in spite of the fate which—it was to be seen—would surely overtake those who trusted him. It may be that women did not take him seriously, as at this time he certainly did not take them. At any rate, he ever stood well with them. With the men he was not so popular, though, for some reason, they seldom quarrelled with him. When they did so they fared ill, for if it came to swords Mazeppa was as skilful as any, and rarely received so liberally as he gave; while if matters went before the Hetman, then Mazeppa’s tongue easily gained him the victory, however weak his cause, for in craftiness and cleverness he was the superior of all, and it so happened that those who offended him came