‘Curse him!’ said Mazeppa; ‘and doubly, trebly and eternally damned be Falbofsky in this and all worlds! I am shamed and disgraced for ever.’
‘No one saw thee except Falbofsky and his men,’ I said, thinking to soothe him.
‘Curse thee, too, for a fool!’ he cried angrily. ‘Do not men’s tongues wag? All the world will know of it for fifty leagues around!’ His jaws shook with the cold, but he seemed to take no heed of it, though he quickly donned the clothes I brought. I gave him food; but, though he must have been starving, he ate it without thinking what he did; his thoughts were far away.
‘How came you free?’ he said suddenly. ‘Did you escape them?’
‘My horse escaped,’ I said, ‘or doubtless I should have been treated as you were. As it was, I was left gagged and bound in the wood, stripped also; but a peasant found me and carried me home in his cart. Then I rode across to Falbofsky’s house, and——’
‘You have not killed him—do not tell me that!’ cried Mazeppa, so loudly and furiously that I was startled. ‘Dare not to tell me you have killed Falbofsky!’
‘I fought him and wounded him, but spared his life,’ I said, ‘because she——’
‘She!’ cried Mazeppa, and repeated ‘She,’ almost shrieking the word; ‘it was she that led us into the trap. Do you know that, Chelminsky? How would he have known of our coming but for her? And you spared him because she wept and bade you be merciful——was it so, I say?’
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.