‘May I not be upon an equality with him by doing the same? All my wit and all my power are at your service. I am sure that I am as ready to serve you as he.’
‘I do not doubt it, and—and if it were ordinary service I should accept your offer most gladly, but that which Mazeppa suggested was a particular service and must not be spoken of, excepting to himself.’
‘What then would you wish me to do?’ I asked, feeling much mortified.
‘I would have you tell him that the time has nearly come when he must redeem his promise, if it is ever to be redeemed,’ she said. ‘Soon it will be too late; the danger I feared, or rather the danger which I refused to recognise, has proved a real one. It was he that pointed it out, half in jest and half in earnest, but it has come true.’
‘I will tell you that the secret is no secret for me!’ I laughed. ‘The danger you are in is this, that the Tsar Ivan desires to make a Tsaritsa of you and you desire it not. Am I right?’
‘Did Mazeppa tell you this?’ she asked. ‘Oh! did he send any message—that he would come to help me—to do that which he promised in case of imminent danger?’
‘Mazeppa gave me no message. As for the Tsar, it was I that showed Mazeppa which way the wind blew, not Mazeppa me. I saw how Ivan gazed at you, and bade Mazeppa look also. He feigned to think nothing of the matter; but I perceive that he thought badly enough of it to warn you and to promise assistance.’
‘Alas! what am I to do? Supposing that among these maidens there is none that happens to please his fancy—then I am lost!’
‘Think whether I cannot help you as well as Mazeppa, whom, as you told me, you fear or dislike.’
‘Hush! do not say that! It was thoughtful and kind of him to foresee danger and to suggest a remedy. I should be ungracious if I accepted your offer while his own still holds. Is he in Moscow?’