‘He chokes for want of water!’ he said. ‘Give us a drink, friend, for the love of Heaven. We are all Cossacks, though we swear by different overlords!’
They gave us water, and Mazeppa drank also. Afterwards, when the fellows were asleep again, I tried to swallow more pieces of the letter, but made but a poor job of it. Mazeppa ate some of it, contriving to swallow better than I had done. I hid the rest in my boot, intending to finish it before daylight, and thought I had done so; but when we were carefully examined at morning for letters or despatches, one small scrap was found in my boot, and upon this scrap were treasonable words which betrayed our mission.
‘Oho!’ said the Captain; ‘so you are envoys to the Turk? We have made our capture, men! Come, you young gamecocks,’—to us—‘where is the rest of the letter?’
‘Down our throats, most of it,’ said Mazeppa, laughing; ‘washed down by the water which you kindly provided us withal.’
‘Come, reveal: what was in this letter?’ said the man. ‘You had better disclose, or, who knows? we may rip you up to find the pieces. Which of you swallowed the letter? This one, I’ll be sworn, since he is so silent, and seeing, too, that a scrap was found in his boot.’ The Captain nodded his head at me.
Mazeppa did not contradict. I have since thought that if it had come to ripping us open in order to secure the letter, I should have been the first and perhaps the only one to suffer. At that time I did not suspect that Mazeppa would have allowed me to be the victim; the suspicion came long afterwards, when I knew more of the man’s heart.
The fellows consulted, however, and determined to leave us to digest the letter, whatever it might be.
‘It seems a serious matter,’ said the Captain; ‘and you shall be taken to the Tsar’s Court at Moscow. They have ways there of getting men to reveal what it is desirable to know.’
‘Take us to the devil if you will,’ laughed Mazeppa. ‘The Tsar shall know just as much or just as little as we—who know nothing—can tell him. It is easier to eat a sealed letter than to read it.’
‘It is easiest of all to tell what was in it, when the knout is at the back!’ laughed the Captain. ‘We shall see what will happen, Mr. Boastful.’