I did not understand for a moment or two. When his meaning at last occurred to me I said no more, for it would have been as foolish to attempt to stem a mountain torrent as to divert Mazeppa from his purpose at that moment. And presently he took my horse and rode away.
A day and a half I awaited his return at that post station at Gorelka. I guessed what was passing in our own district, and I spent my time musing over this and over the question of my future career. Now that Mazeppa had shown me the matter from his point of vision, I wondered how I could ever have contemplated living at home after Falbofsky’s treatment of us and the disgrace and derision that were bound to follow. Truly this fiend could not have devised a more devilish trick to bring fellow creatures into the contempt of men though he had been Beelzebub himself, the prince of fiends!
Mazeppa returned, and I looked into his eyes, saying nothing. He, too, gazed in mine, but smiled only, keeping silence upon the subject we both thought of. But he was now himself once more, and in excellent temper, from which I inferred that his mission, whatever it might be, had succeeded.
On the following day my servant arrived, and Mazeppa’s with him. I had despatched post horses and a messenger to fetch them. They brought terrible news.
Falbofsky had been dragged from his bed at night, it was said, and forced to fight with some desperate stranger, who had left him dead or dying upon the ground and departed. ‘It was as well,’ said the servant, ‘that the Pans Mazeppa and Chelminsky were both here at Gorelka, as could be testified, for otherwise suspicion might have fallen upon either or both, since it was freely spoken of that there had been a quarrel in which all three were involved.’
‘And the lady?’ I asked, glancing at Mazeppa.
‘They say she was beaten with thongs by the same miscreant, and lies raving and accusing,’ said the man. ‘The Pan Falbofsky was a fierce lord, and had many enemies!’
Not one word did I speak with Mazeppa of this matter. We settled our affairs as well as we could do so by our servants, and having dismissed them lost no further time, but rode direct towards Bastupof, a city of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, in search of a career. It was some time before I heard definitely whether Falbofsky died or lived.
CHAPTER IV
See us now at the headquarters of the Hetman or chief of the Registered Cossacks, by name Doroshenko. These Registered Cossacks are they whose names are entered in the book as adherents of the King of Poland: they are thus distinguished from those others who espouse the cause of the Tsar of Russia. It was Mazeppa who so quickly found a new career for both of us, and that by his amazing assurance; for he rode straight to the Court of the Hetman (who holds his head, be it remembered, as high as the Polish King himself, though in a measure his vassal), and demanded employment, stating our names and the places we came from, but preserving silence—be sure—upon the reason for our leaving home.