When I came to Batourin I saw Mazeppa for the first time since I had taken Vera from him at the post station, and I came prepared for war; for surely, I thought, I should be called to account.
But Mazeppa was inclined to treat the matter lightly.
‘What!’ he said. ‘You bring no wife? Where, then, is the fair, foolish Vera?’
‘I have no wife. The Barishnya Kurbatof remains in Moscow. And why, I pray, is she called foolish?’
‘Oh!’ he laughed, ‘it would not become me to say; but, tell me, has she proved herself so wise that she has sent Chelminsky about his business?’
‘She is and remains wise,’ I replied, ‘since she both escaped Mazeppa and prefers to tarry where she is, safe from false friends and hypocrites.’
‘Come, Chelminsky, take not such matters too seriously: women are toys. If she has played thee false, as she has served me and others also, it is a matter to laugh at, not to weep for. She is not worth a tear, my son, nor a frown—was there ever woman worth crying for?’
‘I will uphold the honour of Vera with my sword; therefore speak well of her or not at all,’ I said angrily; and Mazeppa laughed and shrugged his shoulders, though he looked annoyed. I have since thought all this indifference was assumed to deceive me, and that he had not yet forgotten his love for Vera, which was real enough at the beginning, and when he would have stolen her from me.
After this we spoke of military matters, for Mazeppa was at this time the Hetman’s chief minister for all that concerned warfare and the arming and preparing for campaigns, and it was necessary to put fifty thousand lances in the field very quickly to help Galitsin and his Russians against the Tartar Khan in the Crimea.
Now Samoilovitch, the Hetman, took command of our troops, wishing for military glory, and more especially to gain favour with Sophia, Regent of Russia, by personally assisting her dearly-loved Galitsin—from whom and from Sophia herself he had lately received little but coldness, for which, had he but known it, there was none but Mazeppa to thank. Mazeppa, preparing the ground for his own succession as Hetman, which is a life office, or is held until deposal, had traitorously done and said all he could to undermine the position of Samoilovitch, who suspected nothing, but trusted Mazeppa absolutely.