‘Are you afraid to cross swords, Falbofsky? I will fight you for your wife, come!’
He took no more notice of this foolish speech than of the other.
‘Gag him quickly, fools!’ he said, stamping his foot; ‘if he shows fight tap him, one of you, on the head.’
Then four of them fell upon me, and in spite of my struggling overbore me and fastened a band tightly about my mouth. Then they tied me to a tree, and sat about waiting and watching, as they had waited and watched for me.
Presently came the sound of galloping hoofs. Mazeppa rode quickly, anxious, like me, to obtain the lady’s ear before his rival should have arrived.
‘He comes,’ said Falbofsky; ‘be ready all, and this time secure the horse, or by thunder you shall be sorry, every one of you!’
Nearer came Mazeppa: the galloping hoofs approached very close, they were almost upon us. Oh, that I could cry out and warn him! but I was as dumb as the dead.
‘Now!’ whispered Falbofsky, ‘two, and then immediately other two!’
At the word out darted a pair of fellows and seized Mazeppa’s reins as they had seized mine. The horse reared up in sudden terror. Mazeppa struck at his assailants, but missed; he tried to draw his sword, but a second pair of fellows had pinned his arms and quickly pulled him from the saddle.
Mazeppa lay and struggled, moving this way and that with a heap of men atop of him. Now he showed a head, now an arm, and all the while he cursed and threatened; but the fight was unequal—as I knew to my cost—and presently he was exhausted and lay still.