MAZEPPA, Ivan Stephanovitch (16-14-1709), a Cossack chief, best known as the hero of one of Lord Byron’s poems, was born in 1644, of a poor but noble family, at Mazepintzui in the palatinate of Podolia. At an early age he became a page at the court of John Casimir, king of Poland. After some time he returned to his native province; but, engaging in an intrigue with a Polish matron of high rank, he was detected by the injured husband, and was sentenced to be bound naked on the back of an untamed horse. The animal on being let loose galloped off to its native wilds of the Ukraine. Mazeppa, halfdead and insensible, was released from his fearful position, and restored to animation by some poor peasants. In a short time his agility, courage, and sagacity rendered him popular among the Cossacks. He was appointed secretary and adjutant to Samoilovitch, their hetman or chief, and succeeded that functionary in 1687. The title of prince was afterwards conferred upon him by his friend and patron, Peter the Great, who long believed confidingly in his good faith, and banished or executed as calumnious traitors all who, like Palei, Kotchubey, and Iskra, ventured to accuse him of conspiring with the enemies of Russia. Bent, however, upon casting off the Russian yoke, Mazeppa became, in his seventieth year, and after much hesitation and inconstancy of purpose, an ally of the Swedish monarch, Charles XII. After the disastrous battle of Pultowa, fought, it is said, by his advice, Baturin, his capital, was taken and sacked by Menshikoff, and his name anathematized throughout the churches of Russia, and his effigy suspended from the gallows. A wretched fugitive, he escaped to Bender, but only to end his life by poison in 1709. Pushkin made Mazeppa the hero of his drama “Pultowa.”