I had begun, as I say, to understand and to know Mazeppa, and the first fruit of my better knowledge was the determination to be very cautious in my dealings with him, for in spite of his seeming goodwill towards me I began almost unconsciously to distrust him. It was not long before I became persuaded of this, in Mazeppa, that he did nothing and said nothing without careful intent. Which being so, thought I, his friendship towards me cannot be disinterested, and its reason must be discovered.

Thus, after much consideration, I came at length to the conclusion that Mazeppa intended to use me. I was a pawn in his political schemes, to be employed in the accomplishment of his ends. But I must have position and power to be of use to him, and at present I had none. Then I thought of his words: ‘We will rise in the world side by side,’ and the idea came to me that Mazeppa fixed certain hopes upon my career as a soldier. He intended that I should have influence among the soldier population, and that that influence should be employed by me, when the time came, for his advantage.

‘Well,’ thought I, ‘I am willing to rise; but whether my influence, if I have it, shall be used to your advantage or my own, friend Mazeppa, shall depend!’

And indeed both Mazeppa and I—perhaps specially recommended to Samoilovitch by the Tsar himself, as to which I knew nothing—prospered amazingly at the Court of the Hetman. Mazeppa, as secretary to Samoilovitch, soon gained his confidence and became very quickly a power—a force more felt than seen and realised, but none the less a force. As for myself, I too was in much favour with the Hetman, and rose rapidly as a soldier of his army.

The Tsar Alexis died, and in a very short while his son Feodor died also, and now Mazeppa was sent to Moscow, at his own suggestion, in order to see how the land lay in the matter of the Romanof succession. I accompanied him by order of the Hetman, who bade me keep an eye upon Mazeppa and report all that he said and did.

I received this order with surprise. Did the Hetman, then, distrust his peesar?

We found Moscow in a turmoil, arriving—as it chanced—on the very day when the Streltsi those hereditary regiments of turbulent busybodies which Ivan the Terrible had raised and armed, marched in revolt upon the palace within the Kremlin, in order to right certain imaginary wrongs.

It had been whispered among these men that the Tsar Feodor had been done to death by the family of Naryshkin, in order that their own relative—young Peter—might succeed. The Tsar Alexis had married a second wife, choosing a daughter of the Naryshkin family, and her brothers—it was said—would be deterred by no crime from placing their nominee, Peter, upon the throne. Some even said that they would go further than this and murder Peter himself in order that one of themselves, as brothers of the Tsaritsa, might usurp the throne. Now between Peter and the succession there stood Ivan, his imbecile half-brother, and it was averred by the Streltsi that the Naryshkins had not only murdered Feodor, but also this Ivan, and it was in the midst of the fury and the madness of their awakening that we reached Moscow. We found the streets full of an excited mob, all surging in the direction of the palace, following and accompanying the Streltsi, who rushed through the midst of the crowd shouting and gesticulating, and turning up the sleeves of their red shirts as they ran with naked swords to the slaughter.

Some cried as they ran that Feodor had been assassinated; others that Ivan, the helpless, harmless child of fourteen, had been murdered also; but all shrieked curses upon the Naryshkins and howled for their blood.

Now whether Feodor had been poisoned, as was said, or whether he died a natural death, I know not; but it is certain that neither Ivan nor Peter had been harmed, for the Tsaritsa, in response to the shouts of the Streltsi mob beneath the palace windows, brought out both children upon a balcony and allowed the deputation of the soldiers to climb up and identify them.

But this was not enough for the Streltsi, who had come for blood and must have it. They still shouted for Naryshkins to be thrown out to them, and two of their own generals who strove to appease them were quickly cut in pieces.

Then a search was made for the brothers of the Tsaritsa, the Naryshkins, a number of the Streltsi forcing their way into the palace and searching it throughout. They found and slew two who had taken refuge in the chapel, and—having vented their fury upon them—were satisfied.

But the mob without howled for victims, and by an unfortunate chance both Mazeppa and I, who followed with the mob into the palace square, came near to supplying food for their insensate rage. For as we stood, or were hustled hither and thither, Mazeppa, nudging my arm, bade me see who stood near us, separated from us, however, by a score, or maybe a hundred, of the crowd. I looked and immediately recognised an old acquaintance, Falbofsky. This was he whom Mazeppa had left for dead some years before at our home in Volhynia—the rogue who had sent him to ride naked through the Ukraine, shaming us both into exile.

‘It is Falbofsky,’ I said laughing—‘an old friend indeed!’ I felt no animosity against the man; time had smoothed out the rancour I had felt in the old days. But Mazeppa was, it seemed, of a different temper.

‘I hoped I had wiped out our score that night,’ he said, looking darkly at the man, ‘but the fellow takes two killings to end him. We will see that he does not escape: he is easily followed and marked down!’

Presently Falbofsky turned and observed us, and I could see at once that if Mazeppa had not forgiven his offence, neither had he forgiven Mazeppa’s; for he stared and glared furiously at us for a moment. Then, like a fool, he began to shout aloud maledictions and threats, calling us by our names, and continuing, yet more foolishly, to tell those about him of the escapade of many years ago and of Mazeppa’s shameful treatment.

Mazeppa’s face grew milk-white with rage. A few Streltsi standing near began to be attracted by the loud voice of Falbofsky.

‘What is the matter—have you found a Naryshkin?’ they cried, pushing through the crowd towards Falbofsky, who took no notice but talked on, glaring at Mazeppa.

Then I observed Mazeppa behave in a surprising way. He pointed at Falbofsky: ‘A Naryshkin!’ he shouted. ‘If you seek for Naryshkins, there is one, the vilest fox of the litter!’

‘Which, which?’ cried the Streltsi, struggling up with bloodshot eyes and hands that clutched their naked weapons, ready to strike.

‘The old one!’ cried Mazeppa, pointing. ‘He was on his way to the palace, but got jammed in the crowd.’

In a moment the men fell upon Falbofsky and cut him to pieces. They killed two others standing beside him, lest they should have made a mistake and slain the wrong one. They stuck the three heads upon spear-points and pushed through the mob, screaming that they had sent one or more of the Naryshkin litter to hell.

‘Come,’ said Mazeppa, ‘we will not stay!’ and, sick at heart and shocked, I struggled my way out of the square.

‘You devil, Mazeppa!’ I said, when I had recovered my breath. ‘No murderer is more guilty than you after such a deed!’

‘You fool—it was his death or ours!’ he replied. ‘Could you not discern so much? Let a man but point at another, this day, and speak loudly, and lo! there is found a Naryshkin for the Streltsi to fall upon. In another moment we should have been the victims instead of he.’

‘Thank God,’ said I, ‘that my heart is not for ever full of black vengeance. I had forgotten his offence, and wished him no ill.’

‘As to that,’ said Mazeppa grimly, ‘it is not my way to forget, nor yet to forgive. Moreover, it was I that was put to shame, and not you.’

Thus again did Mazeppa reveal himself. A terrible hater, indeed! Nevertheless, as I have since thought, his quick wit saved us that day from the fate of Falbofsky and of many others mistaken by the Streltsi for Naryshkins.

Wise folks declare that the real secret of the rising of the Streltsi was the rivalry between the two factions represented by the families of the two wives of the Tsar Alexis—the Miloslavskys and the Naryshkins. It is natural that the Miloslavskys, relations of Ivan, the incompetent prince, and of Sophia, the princess upon whom Mazeppa had set ambitious eyes, should have desired that their own nominee should sit in the highest place, rather than a younger prince of the Naryshkin faction, and it is said that the Miloslavskys it was who aroused the Streltsi, by foolish reports, to wage war upon their rivals and to murder all upon whom they could lay hands that were of Naryshkin blood.

The upshot of the Streltsi rising was, shortly, this: that Ivan and Peter became joint Tsars, in name, under the Regency of Sophia, in whom was vested the real power, the elder Tsar being both sickly and incompetent, and the younger—though a child of spirit and showing promise of character even at this early time—a mere fledgling of ten years.

This was a victory for the Miloslavskys, of course, for Sophia was the daughter of the Tsar Alexis by his first wife, the Miloslavsky princess, and the incompetent Ivan was her full brother.

I saw the princess now for the first time, and was not greatly charmed by her appearance. She was stunted and squat in form, sickly in complexion, and far from attractive in feature and expression. She smiled very kindly upon Mazeppa, who assumed his most winning air. But whatever Mazeppa may have thought or hoped, it appeared to me that his ambitions in this direction must be doomed to disappointment; for the lady—it seemed to me—was already provided with a lover, one Galitsin, who never left her side and who frowned at Mazeppa’s advances as though he would have no poacher upon his domain. Moreover, Mazeppa was as yet as far as ever from the Hetmanship, and what possible chance should he have of securing a Tsar’s daughter for bride unless he were already the elected chief of the Cossack tribes? Add to this, that the lady was now Regent, and it will be seen that Mazeppa’s chances were slight indeed. I said as much to Mazeppa, who laughed and replied that Galitsin was welcome to the princess.

‘I am Galitsin’s lover no less than hers!’ he said. ‘Politically I am deeply in love with both, and there my love ends.’