BATTLE BETWEEN TURKS AND MONTENEGRINS—ADDRESS OF PRINCE
MIRKO—HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER—THE PROJECTS OF
PRINCE DANIELO—PRINCE NICHOLAS I.—SPORT IN MONTENEGRO—INTERVIEW
WITH THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS—NATIONAL COSTUME—SPLENDID
ILLUMINATION.
I regret more than I can express having lost some interesting notes
of several conversations I had with the Commandant Pedro Pejovich on
the subject of the campaign of 1864(?); all the more as they were most
graphically told me by him, who had been in the thick of the fight, and
carried in his body, in the shape of severe wounds, proofs of the active
part he had borne in that campaign. One only I partially remember still,
sufficiently well to venture to retail.
The Turks, apparently, were attacking the Montenegrins from the
Herzegovina in the north of Montenegro. They numbered about twelve
thousand men, together with a good force of Artillery; while the
Montenegrins collected to oppose them were not more than two thousand;
but whilst the Turks were in the plain fully exposed in sight of the
Montenegrins, these sturdy mountaineers, finding covert behind each
rock and bramble bush, were able to pick off the Turks with considerable
effect. Still the disparity of force was too great, and at the end of the
second day's fighting, although the Turks had not been able to make any
impression on the position held by the Montenegrins, still the number of
those killed and wounded bore a very large proportion to their numbers.
At sunset the fight being over for the time, and sentries having been
posted by the mountaineers as far forward as practicable to watch the
Ottoman camp, Prince Mirko, father of the present Prince of Montenegro,
then in command of the Montenegrins, summoned all the chiefs to a brief
council of war, and spoke thus:
"Two days we have been fighting the infidels, and the only result has
been the losses we have sustained in killed and wounded. Another day of
such fighting will leave us so crippled that the accursed Turks will
walk over us into our homes and villages. There is but one plan which
offers any hope, but if you adopt it and place faith in me, I promise
you a complete victory before to-morrow's sun shall gild the tops of
yonder mountains. To-morrow morning, one hour before daylight, be all
ready to follow me, leave behind your rifles and ammunition, and follow
me softly and stealthily, making no noise; so we shall pass the Turkish
advanced sentries without their noticing us, and when sufficiently near
I will call my cry, and then let you all rush forward with me, trusting
solely to your yataghans, and give no quarter."
This was carried out to the letter, and succeeded perfectly. The
Turks, never imagining they would be attacked, kept a bad look-out.
The Montenegrins, led on by the intrepid Mirko, rushed on the Turkish
batteries, cutting the gunners' heads off, and having spiked the cannons
attacked the remainder of the army with such impetuosity that they fled
from the field in the utmost disorder.
This was the last attack of the Turks against Montenegro, and I don't
think they will ever try it again. Prince Mirko was dead before my
visit to this country. I cannot therefore give any description of him
personally, but from all I heard he must have been a very remarkable
man in every way. Though small in stature and slight, contrary to the
general build of the Montenegrins, who are mostly all very tall and
powerful men, he had immense influence over the mountain-tribes; owing
to his well known sagacity and his fierce courage, wherever Mirko would
lead, the whole of Montenegro would follow. He had the eye of an eagle,
and strength of will and determination are portrayed in every line of
his face, as I have observed in his portrait which hangs in the Palace
of Montenegro, as well as the photograph I have seen of him. But he was
wise also; when Prince Danielo (the predecessor of the present ruler)
died by the hand of an assassin at Cattaro, his widow, the Princess
Darinka, at once caused the present Prince, Nicholas I. (nephew of the
murdered Danielo) to be proclaimed sovereign, passing over his father
Mirko, who, owing to the great youth of his son, might have expected and
claimed the succession; but as I said above, Mirko was wise as well as
valorous. He knew that from his own warlike tendencies, how much soever
he might be acceptable to his own mountaineers, his elevation to be
ruler of Tchernagora would be displeasing to most of his neighbours in
Austria, Servia, and Turkey. He therefore at once consented to his son's
promotion, and generously was the first in Montenegro to do homage to
the young Prince.
Up to the year 1850, when Prince Danielo succeeded to the throne of
Montenegro, the country had always been ruled by a Prince-Bishop, styled
the Vladika. This dignitary, generally, if not always, nominated his own
successor in the person of a nephew or some other near relative, who,
on the death of the Vladika at once took holy orders and became in his
turn Prince-Bishop.
Danielo, not wishing to give up the happiness of home and married
life, and also perhaps with the hope of founding a dynasty of his own
in Montenegro, which in the course of time might, by extension and the
absorption of other principalities, become an important kingdom, repaired
to St. Petersburgh on the death of the Vladika Peter II., his uncle, and
there obtained the full consent of the Emperor Nicholas to his effecting
a division between Church and State. On his return journey to Cettigne
he married at Trieste the Princess Darinka, hoping to have founded a
line of princes to succeed him. His hopes however were destined to be
blighted. Darinka had no children, and after reigning eight years, he
was murdered at Cattaro as I have related above.
The young Prince, (Nicholas I.) who had already been betrothed almost
in infancy, as is the custom among the upper classes in that country
to a relation of his own, daughter of one of the principal Voyvodes in
Montenegro, followed his studies under special direction in the Palace of
his ancestors; till one day the late Emperor Napoleon III., for reasons
of his own, proposed to have the young Prince sent to Paris, there to
be educated under his own eye; and the offer having been accepted, a
French man-of-war without loss of time steamed into the Gulf of Cattaro
and carried away the young Prince, together with two companions of his
own age, sons of two of the principal Voyvodes of the country. Whatever
care was bestowed upon the Prince's education, he amply profited by it;
he is an excellent French and Italian, as well as German and Russian
scholar. He is exceptionally well informed, and on a great variety of
subjects; and voracious to a degree for more information, especially
concerning English laws, customs, and manners, in all of which he takes
the greatest interest, and is most anxious that Englishmen should visit
his country. He was good enough to have me repeatedly at his house and
at his hospitable board, and he never omitted to repeat to me.
"I shall always be glad to see English gentlemen in my country; tell
them, when you go back, that if they are fond of shooting, they shall
have their choice of game, from an eagle to a blackbird, and from a bear
to a squirrel; if they prefer fishing, I promise them trout such as they
have never dreamt of,[8] and they shall have every assistance that I can
afford them in the way of tents to camp out, and men to guide and help
them."
In appearance, the Prince is tall and remarkably handsome; his hair is
black, he wears both beard and moustachios, contrary to the fashion of
his country, where only the latter are worn, often of immense size and
length. With a commanding appearance, he still has a most benevolent
expression of countenance, due to the softness of a very fine pair of
eyes, and his manners are most captivating. He is very dignified, but at
the same time most kind, without being in the least patronizing, and I
was told by those who knew him best that he has a most equable temper,
and that an angry word seldom was heard from him.
I had been careful before leaving the Palace to set my watch exactly
to their time, so as to ensure my punctuality in the evening; and at
eight P.M. to the minute, I found myself in the saloon of the
Palace. The Russian Consul was there already; he was showing me the
different portraits which hung round it, when the Prince walked in, in
full Montenegrin costume, but without any ceremony; and a few minutes
after a door was thrown open from the opposite side, when in walked the
Princess, accompanied by the widow of Prince Mirko and attended by her
lady-in-waiting, Mademoiselle Neukomm, all in full native costume.
Pero Pejovich had so often extolled the beauty of the Princess, that I
was quite prepared to be disappointed, as is almost always the case,
for anticipation seems invariably to exaggerate the reality; but on
this occasion it was just the reverse. I don't think I ever saw a more
beautiful creature than the lady to whom I was then introduced; tall,
pale, neither thin nor stout, but beautifully formed, and with exquisite
hands and arms. She wore a diamond ornament on her head, half hidden
by the masses of black hair among which it was nestled, and though it
shone at times like a star from among a mass of stormy clouds, it could
not subdue the light which shone from her glorious dark eyes.
Dinner was instantly announced, and we proceeded to the dining-hall, a
room of good size and well-furnished. The dinner, a German one, was good,
the wines better. The attendance consisted of two men in black and four
in native costume. The Princess, who speaks French fluently, did the
honours with most winning grace; and the Prince, by his affability, at
once put every one at his ease. At dinner I sat on his left, his mother
being on his right, with the Russian Consul _vis-à-vis_, principally, I
suppose, to facilitate her enjoyment of the conversation, as she speaks
only Slave.
During the repast His Highness constantly asked me questions, sometimes
about my impressions of Montenegro, which were easily enough answered,
as I had nothing to recount of myself but enjoyment since I had entered
his territory, having met with nothing but the most unbounded kindness
and hospitality. But in his anxiety for knowledge, he often put questions
which I found it difficult enough to reply to, and sometimes questions
which I could not answer at all. Having spoken with admiration of the
gorgeous costume of the Montenegrins, and how it set off their fine
figures, he replied:
"Yes, it is very fine; but I should be delighted to abolish it, if it
were possible; they spend a great deal too much money on it."
Being simply horrified at the idea of doing away with national dress, I
could not avoid expressing myself unreservedly, and I said at once that
depriving a country of its costume would be simply to destroy it.
"Ah!" replied the Prince sharply, "you look upon us only from a
picturesque point of view; in fact, you would like to keep us here like
a sort of menagerie of wild beasts, to come and look at us occasionally
for your amusement."
The Prince was almost angry; but fortunately I had an analogous example
to place before him, in our own Scottish Highlanders, who cling to
their costume with such tenacity. I told him of our Highlanders, of our
splendid Highland regiments, of how our Scottish nobility held by the
national dress, and of how our precious Queen dressed all her boys in
Highland costume; and yet we did not go to look at them as we would go
to look at wild beasts in a zoological garden, but we regarded it with
admiration, as an ancient national costume, associated in our minds with
devoted loyalty, stirring times, and valiant deeds; as their own costume
was also, which, I trusted, I should never live to see exchanged for a
bad imitation of the present universally adopted French fashion, ending
by saying that I was convinced that the supplanting of national costumes
with imitations taken from our neighbours, was decidedly a backward step
in civilization.
He questioned me very closely upon the law of primogeniture and entail
in our country, and could not understand how such a law did not produce
_des jalousies terribles, et d'autres inconvenances_. I endeavoured to
explain to him the present law of English entail, and how it differed
from the ancient Roman law of _fidéi-commis_, which still obtains in
Scotland, where entails are for ever. Still he did not like our system of
primogeniture, where the eldest son, in many instances, has £100,000 per
annum, and all the other children £10,000 each, representing about £400
a year. He thought it terribly unfair; indeed he could not understand how
they quietly submitted to it at all; and so we got through our dinner most
agreeably without the least _gêne_, while the Prince's band played some
excellent music outside, under the window. This band consisted entirely
of Montenegrin lads, some quite young, and considering the short time
they had been learning their new profession, was wonderfully good. The
bandmaster was from Prague, an excellent musician, and as he was a Czech,
he spoke a language very similar to Montenegrin, which contributed not
a little to his success.
Having left the dining-room in company with the ladies, we all adjourned
to the saloon, and from it to the terrace in front of the Palace, where
the Prince having lit a cigarette, offered some to me and Mr. Yonin.
As I hesitated to light mine, after having taken one, the Princess, who
immediately guessed that my hesitation was owing to her being present,
at once most kindly came forward and requested me to smoke "_de suite_"
&c. I therefore lit my cigarette at once, saying with a deep bow that
I dared not disobey her commands. She then bid me watch, as presently
a change would suddenly take place in the aspect of the scene.
It was now quite dark, when suddenly a cannon was fired, and
simultaneously, as if by magic, every window in the town, in the Palace
opposite, in the monastery, in the terrace, and at every point where a
candle could be stuck, was filled with lights, while the band played the
grand Russian National Hymn, and the people shouted with all the power
of their lungs, firing off their pistols in the air in every direction.
The illumination was so instantaneous that the effect was charming, and
coupled with the music, the enthusiastic cheering, and the booming of
the cannon, which kept up a sort of "contrabasso" accompaniment to the
whole, all contributed to produce a _coup de scène_ never to be forgotten.
We now all withdrew to the drawing-room for coffee and tea, _à la Russe_,
without cream and with a slice of lemon. I was not sorry to leave the
balcony, for that firing of pistols in the air is not so innocent a
pastime as might be imagined, as no Montenegrin ever dreams of loading
his weapons with anything else than ball-cartridge.
The Prince again resumed his conversation with me about English customs
and manners. He said, "I am told that in London one policeman, unarmed,
can control a mob, while in Paris it is very different, as nothing short
of loaded muskets and bayonets will do for the French."
I answered him that English mobs could be troublesome too, but that,
generally speaking, owing to our constitutional respect for the majesty
of the law, we came to look upon that solitary unarmed policeman as
an impersonation of it, and as such he was always sure of the active
assistance of all respectable citizens in the execution of his duty.
He then began to question me about the British constitution, and I never
felt more posed. Irish mother-wit, however, came to the rescue, and I
said, "To explain the British Constitution I should have to be a lawyer,
but one of the great characteristics of it, so far as a layman like me
can explain it, consists in what is called the Law of Habeas Corpus, by
which no man can be imprisoned by any authority whatever without being
immediately informed of the accusation against him, and brought up before
the constituted authorities within twenty-four hours."
He said he had heard of that before, and thought it a grand law, but
under certain circumstances he considered it might be advantageous for
the king to have the power of arresting dangerous characters, upon which
I told him that in certain emergencies the law of Habeas Corpus had been
suspended, but that could only be done by Act of Parliament, and not by
the sovereign's authority.
"In short," said he, "your Chambers are the real sovereign, the King
being only the outward and visible sign of regal authority."