This affair of the fifes and drums was a notable one, because it led to the first revolt of young Peter against the authority of his sister and her minister and lover, Galitsin.

For the young Tsar was summoned to the Kremlin to answer for his misdeeds and to be made to promise that the drums and fifes of the Streltsi fellows should be restored to their original owners.

To the Regent’s angry command that he should explain forthwith his conduct, Peter replied somewhat haughtily.

‘You forget, sister,’ he said, ‘that I grow with the years; I am not forever to remain in swaddle clothes—a helpless thing to be fed with spoon meat!’

‘At any rate for the present thou art no more than a child, and as a child thou shalt be treated,’ said the Grand Duchess, flushing, nevertheless, and surprised; ‘for the present also it is I that am set above thee, and I that am to be obeyed.’

‘Thy voice, but that fellow’s counsel!’ said Peter, laughing and tilting his chin at Galitsin.

Galitsin flushed angrily, and asked Peter how he dared speak thus to his sister.

‘And thou,’ said the young Tsar, haughtily enough. ‘Who art thou, Galitsin, to be present when the Tsar takes counsel with the Regent? Go forth, sir, into the ante-room and wait until thou art summoned!’

Galitsin looked bewildered and knew not what to do: he glanced at the Regent.

‘Go, LiubyÉzny,’ she whispered. ‘I will bring the young fool to reason.’

Galitsin still lingered, and was about to speak.

‘Do you not hear, fool?’ cried young Peter, stamping his foot and actually taking a step towards Galitsin, over whom he towered by half an arm’s length. ‘Lord, sister, I will have better obedience from my servants when I am master!’

This—which was overheard by some who listened in the ante-room—was said to be the first roaring of the young lion who was soon to tear old Russia into shreds.

What passed between brother and sister after Galitsin had gone—pale and trembling—from the room, shutting the door of the ante-room after him, I cannot tell; but it is certain that the drums and fifes remained at Preobrajensky, and that the conduct of young Peter grew bolder from this day, instead of conforming more strictly to the wishes of the Regent, who would have had the Tsar sink ever more helplessly under her control.

For instance, Peter now set up a recruiting office at his mother’s palace, and here the names of many distinguished Russian families were to be found represented by the younger sons of the Boyars, youths who discerned in the service of Peter hopes of future advancement which could never be expected under Sophia’s rule. It was these young Boyars, more than Peter himself, who worked silently for the revolution in Peter’s favour which was to take place within two years of this time. For men say the Tsar recruited and drilled his men, and fortified his camp, and armed and mounted his troops, all for pastime, not seriously realising his strength or theirs, or his by reason of them; but they worked deliberately and with the full intention to make of Peter’s pleasure regiment a grim and warlike reality, by means of which one day the Tsar of their choice should be placed in power.

And Peter, having now found—perhaps to his surprise, but certainly to his great delight—that he had gained much by asserting himself, began to take more liberty and to ignore his sister the Regent when her wishes clashed with his own.

Were horses required for his pleasure army? A detachment is sent to the KonyÚshannui Prikaz, or cavalry department, in Moscow, and the required number of animals is driven out to Preobrajensky.

By the saints, any fool with a pair of eyes in his head might have foreseen which way matters tended!

Yet Mazeppa, who was no fool, and whose eyes were as good as most, made or appeared to make a mistake in this matter.

Peter the Tsar had observed Mazeppa in Moscow, and asked me of him. I did not praise him too highly, for I was anxious to stand higher with this young giant than he, Mazeppa having undoubtedly an understanding with the party in power, Sophia and her satellites. I had now begun to play a part in life—to have my own ambitious ends in view, in gaining which Mazeppa would be an obstruction. For our object, both his and mine, was the Hetmanate, to obtain which he would play Sophia and I should play Peter.

Therefore, desiring to keep my place in the young Tsar’s regard, I did not speak too highly of Mazeppa, though I allowed him to be a shrewd and capable person, of clerkly rather than military attainments.

‘Can he not ride, then, like thee?’ asked Peter; and I replied that all Cossacks are at home on horseback, as young ducks are in water.

‘Devil take it,’ said the young Tsar. ‘Bring him down here, Chelminsky, and we shall see which of you two ducklings swims best!’

I was glad of this, for I knew that in fancy riding I was a better horseman than Mazeppa. Mazeppa knew this also, and was not anxious to accept the Tsar’s invitation.

‘Why should I take this trouble for the pleasure of a young fool that herds with grooms and moujiks and swills beer with his own cook boys?’ he said. And I replied that this young fool, as Mazeppa was pleased to call him, was nevertheless joint-Tsar of Russia, and must therefore be obeyed.

‘A Tsar in name, but without authority!’ he laughed. ‘Do you not know that Sophia is the mare that draws the chariot, and will draw it to the end?’

‘That may very well be true,’ said I, not willing to argue the matter, lest Mazeppa should become impressed with my own conviction that Peter was destined one day to assert his strength. For at present Mazeppa, being an adherent of Sophia and accustomed to the cant of the Regent and her companions as to Peter’s foolishness and worthlessness, was disposed to think little of this lion-cub, and misdoubted his strength and valour.

‘Continue in that opinion, my friend,’ thought I, ‘for therein may lie my advantage if I have any luck!’

Nevertheless Mazeppa did come with me to Preobrajensky, being too much of a courtier, I suppose, to disobey the will of a Tsar, even though he looked upon that Tsar without much respect.

Peter constrained us to drink with his boon companions and would take no denial, and after these libations to the drunken god Bacchus he must needs set us, first to race and afterwards to exhibit our skill in Cossack feats and tricks of horsemanship.

The race was more a matter for our horses than for ourselves, and Mazeppa being the lighter man, I had fears that he might win. We galloped three times round the exercising ground of the ‘Pleasure Regiment,’ and at one hundred yards from the winning post were still neck and neck, I urging my good beast both with whip and spur, Mazeppa doing the same. Within a stone’s throw of the post his horse fell from exhaustion, leaving mine to gallop in alone.

‘That is a good race,’ shouted the Tsar, ‘and well ridden by both, but he wins a race who rides the best horse. Let us judge which is the better Cossack—you, Chelminsky, or Mazeppa; show your skill, both, and you shall be judged by the votes of us who look on!’

Mazeppa would rather not have engaged in this competition, for in our own home I was accounted a better horseman than he, and Mazeppa was one who loved to excel and hated to be worsted.

In the tricks we essayed I showed my superiority, the Tsar and his companions clapping their hands vigorously and shouting my name; but the culmination of my triumph came when, at last, Mazeppa fell from his saddle in an attempt to pick up a pistol from the ground while passing at full gallop.

Mazeppa’s misfortune set the Tsar shouting with delight and laughing boisterously.

Mazeppa was angry, first by reason of his failure, but still more on account of the bad manners of the Tsar and his satellites.

‘He rides better than you, Mazeppa!’ cried the Tsar. ‘Well done, Chelminsky; it was well done indeed; it may be that thou shalt be the Hetman for this one day, when I am master!’

I wished the Tsar had not said this. I saw Mazeppa flush and start and look quickly at the Tsar and at myself.

‘Many things must happen before Chelminsky is Hetman of the Cossacks!’ he said, and the Tsar laughed.

Presently, when a group of Peter’s men stood about me, I observed that Mazeppa and the Tsar spoke together apart, and I was consumed with the desire to know what was said, for I trusted Mazeppa not at all, and I judged that he would not allow so good an opportunity to go by without stabbing me in the dark.

In this opinion of Mazeppa I did him no injustice, for the Tsar, in speaking with me alone a little later, informed me of his own accord of what had passed.

‘Mazeppa is furious with you,’ said his Highness, laughing, ‘else he would scarcely give you so bad a character. You are too great a fool, Chelminsky, to become Hetman. So says Mazeppa. For Hetman a leader of men is needed, not a mere trick-rider of horses!’

‘Better one that can ride than one who falls off,’ said I. The Tsar laughed, after his manner, very loudly.

‘Mazeppa will not shed tears for thy unkindness, Tsar,’ I continued, ‘for to say truth he pins his faith upon the Regent, not thee. “She will for ever sit in the highest place,” says Mazeppa, “though the little Tsar Peter shall wear fine clothes and be called by a great title.”’

Peter flushed and looked angry. ‘Why said Mazeppa this, and why do you tell me of it?’ he asked.

‘Concerning what your Highness said of the Hetmanate,’ I replied. ‘Mazeppa would be Hetman, and doubtless the Regent will support him—has already so promised him, as I believe. Thus he is not alarmed by the threat of your Highness that I shall be Hetman, because, says Mazeppa, it is her Highness the Regent who shall appoint to the office, and not the Tsar Peter.’

‘Oh!’ said the Tsar, flushing, ‘he said this, did he? Well, my friend, when we see, then we shall know!’

Riding back to Moscow Mazeppa was coldly disposed towards me. He spoke little, but said suddenly when we neared the city, ‘If thou art wise, Chelminsky, forget what this youth said of the Hetmanate, for be sure that before Peter is Tsar Mazeppa will be Hetman; wherefore build no hopes and suffer no disappointment!’

‘As to that,’ said I, ‘I may forget and I may remember!’

‘Do as you please, my friend,’ Mazeppa said, laughing grimly, ‘but I think I shall win.’

Thinking all this over and knowing Mazeppa as I did, I determined that the safest plan in dealing with this fox would be to be a fox also.