with vexation and rage. They declared that they would
seize their chieftain, bind him hand and foot, and send him to the
Czar. Indeed, it is highly probable that the two factions would have
come soon to a bloody fight for the possession of the person of their
chieftain, in which case he would very likely have been torn to pieces
in the struggle, if those who were disposed to revolt had not fled
before the opposition to their movement had time to become organized.
Mazeppa and those who adhered to him--about two thousand men in
all--went over in a body to the camp of the Swedes. The rest, led by
the officers that still remained faithful, marched at once to the
nearest body of Russian forces, and put themselves under the command of
the Russian general there.

A council of war was soon after called in the Russian camp for the
purpose of bringing Mazeppa to trial. He was, of course, found guilty,
and sentence of death--with a great many indignities to accompany the
execution--was passed upon him. The sentence, however, could not be
executed upon Mazeppa himself, for he was out of the reach of his
accusers, being safe in the Swedish camp. So they made a wooden image
or effigy to represent him, and inflicted the penalties upon the
substitute instead.

In the first place, they dressed the effigy to imitate the appearance
of Mazeppa, and put upon it representations of the medals, ribbons, and
other decorations which he was accustomed to wear. They brought this
figure out before the camp, in presence of the general and of all the
leading officers, the soldiers being also drawn up around the spot. A
herald appeared and read the sentence of condemnation, and then
proceeded to carry it into execution, as follows. First, he tore
Mazeppa's patent of knighthood in pieces, and threw the fragments into
the air. Then he tore off the medals and decorations from the image,
and, throwing them upon the ground, he trampled them under his feet.
Then he struck the effigy itself a blow by which it was overturned and
left prostrate in the dust.

The hangman then came up, and, tying a halter round the neck of the
effigy, dragged it off to a place where a gibbet had been erected, and
hanged it there.

Immediately after this ceremony, the Cossacks, according to their
custom, proceeded to elect a new chieftain in the place of Mazeppa.
The chieftain thus chosen came forward before the Czar to take the oath
of allegiance to him, and to o