Mazeppa

I rode straight to the monastery at Troitsa, hoping to find opportunity for serving the Tsar Peter with distinction. This, it seemed to me, might prove the hour of his destiny,...

After our dismissal from the Polish Court we returned for a while to our own homes, where we should have seen little of one another but for the circumstance that we happened to...

‘So!’ he said. ‘You again! Well, it is bad luck for you, my friend, that I have caught you, for this time you shall not escape me: you have a reckoning unpaid!’

One would suppose that with so comprehensive an order published throughout Russia, namely, that the fairest maidens from every part should be despatched to the city for the conv...

This affair of the fifes and drums was a notable one, because it led to the first revolt of young Peter against the authority of his sister and her minister and lover, Galitsin.

I had several opportunities of seeing the two young Tsars, as well as the Regent, at this time. The contrast between the elder and younger sovereign was almost incredible--Ivan,...

I had begun, as I say, to understand and to know Mazeppa, and the first fruit of my better knowledge was the determination to be very cautious in my dealings with him, for in sp...

Then I rode to Mazeppa’s house in order to find how he had fared in his ride home. To be sent riding back to one’s friends stripped of all clothes and tied like a pack to the ho...

A sight to make angels weep and devils smile was it, men said, when Vera Kurbatof--before the great choosing, and I think before the assemblage even of the maidens--was summoned...

‘It is foolish,’ she said, ‘and dangerous. What if the Tsar should see me and say something, or even look something? all would then be lost. Remember, I would die rather than be...

I promised Olga to consider this matter, and so prevailed upon her to leave me. When she had gone I gave vent to the laughter which I had with difficulty restrained.

Though I had laughed to ease the mind of the good woman, I felt indeed but little disposed for mirth. My mind was full of Vera, for I had a horrible dread that she would be forc...

On my way back from Preobrajensky one evening I met a man and a woman on horseback, both scolding one another at full voice--so loudly, indeed, that I could not fail to hear eve...

About one year from the time of our return to the Hetman’s Court after this visit to Moscow, as I reckon it, there began to subsist a state of constant warfare between Mazeppa a...

I will begin my story from the moment when, at the age of sixteen, my destiny first came more directly in touch with that of Mazeppa, my cousin in the third degree and my compat...

It was at this time I first became intimate with a certain young lion cub destined before many years were passed--though few guessed it as yet--to become a very great and uncout...

‘Oh, foolish Chelminsky!’ exclaimed Mazeppa, ‘that is going out of thy way, indeed, to find cause of quarrel with an old friend. I am attracted by the wench, true enough; but mu...

We remained in Moscow a little while, and during that period I heard that the Hetman Doroshenko, our late master, had been attacked in his citadel by a large force of Tsar’s Cos...

I met at this time with two adventures which I will now relate, since the first resulted in a friendship which was afterwards--and indeed very soon--of great use to me, and both...

Much of that which now must be described was not, of course, witnessed by me in person, but--from one source or another--has been gradually communicated to me. Nevertheless, of...

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 a...

Vera’s news disquieted me much. To know that Mazeppa was daily at her house poisoning her father’s mind against me was not pleasant knowledge. And I was to be refused admittance...

Praskovia Soltikof passed that night in the Tsaritsa’s house at Preobrajensky, for young Tsar Peter would write his promised letter to Ivan, and that could not be done quickly,...

It seems that the Regent Sophia, whom, indeed, some have pronounced to be a wonderful woman for her ability in the management of affairs both great and little--though for my par...

Mazeppa had wasted no time. I gave him credit for the cunning of a fox, but no man could have expected that he would have done so much for himself in so short a while.

One of the city gates lay in this direction: that which gave upon the road leading to our own home, the Ukraine. I must at least make sure that Mazeppa intended to take this roa...

Mazeppa was of opinion next day that, since he must be married in disguise, it would be well to have a witness both on his own side and upon the lady’s. ‘And since you, naturall...

The Superior was kind and cordial, and hesitated not a moment when asked by me to receive Vera for a while under exemption from the strict rules of the convent.

All who have read thus far in my records must be already impressed by the fact that I have told the varying tale of my destiny wheresoever it crosses that of Mazeppa with strict...

As the Regent’s carriage drew near, all eyes being fixed upon it, and principally upon the beautiful young Tsaritsa-elect, I saw Olga push her way so as to be at the very door o...

It appeared that Vera was recognised, and that one of the Streltsi officers spoke of having seen her at the Diévitchy monastery, though he said nothing of me or of the fight on...

My advantage of an hour, if it had been honestly accorded me, must have been greatly shortened by poor Shadrach’s malady, for before I had waited half an hour I heard the sound...

‘One Cossack takes her and the other brings her back! One Cossack prevents her marrying with the Tsar, and the other entreats me for her hand, saying he will be Hetman and the b...

From this time things began to go somewhat contrariwise. There came excitements and perils and failures, together with some successes and certain moments of great joy; but the s...

During the next two days I matured the plan which should give me the laugh over both of those who had offended me. I am a bad forgiver, and when I have a debt to pay, I like to...

The Tsar, though in his foolish, weak way he seemed to regret Vera, grew--it is said--hourly fonder of Praskovia, and by degrees he began to show something of the spirit of a ma...

The Kurbatof mansion lay in a suburb of the city: it was a large wooden house, horse-shoe shaped, like most of the houses of the richer inhabitants in the outskirts of Moscow. T...

By this time Vera and I were both middle-aged, and as happy a married pair as were to be found in all Russia. The old Boyar Kurbatof was dead long since, and Vera was a rich wom...

For the rest of the interview my patron, this Tsar of seventeen, made barefaced love to Vera Kurbatof, ignoring my presence and the motive of his visit, which had been to advanc...

The Tsar’s anger against Mazeppa did not end with the victory of Pultowa. Mazeppa had escaped into the territory of the Sultan, and the Tsar actually sent a mission into Turkey...