CHAPTER 21. THE YEARS OF THE WAR

INDEX.

TWENTY YEARS OF BALKAN TANGLE

CHAPTER ONE

PICKING UP THE THREADS

It was in Cetinje in August, 1900, that I first picked up a thread

of the Balkan tangle, little thinking how deeply enmeshed I should

later become, and still less how this tangle would ultimately affect

the whole world. Chance, or the Fates, took me Near Eastward.

Completely exhausted by constant attendance on an invalid relative,

the future stretched before me as endless years of grey monotony,

and escape seemed hopeless. The doctor who insisted upon my having

two months' holiday every year was kinder than he knew. "Take them

in quite a new place," he said. "Get right away no matter where, so

long as the change is complete."

Along with a friend I boarded an Austrian Lloyd steamer at Trieste,

and with high hopes but weakened health, started for the ports of

the Eastern Adriatic.

Threading the maze of mauve islets set in that incomparably blue and

dazzling sea; touching every day at ancient towns where strange

tongues were spoken and yet stranger garments worn, I began to feel

that life after all might be worth living and the fascination of the

Near East took hold of me.

A British Consul, bound to Asia Minor, leaned over the bulwark and

drew a long breath of satisfaction. "We are in the East!" he said.

"Can't you smell it? I feel I am going home. You are in the East so

soon as you cross Adria." He added tentatively: "People don't

understand. When you go back to England they say, 'How glad you must

be to get home!' They made me spend most of my leave on a house-boat

on the Thames, and of all the infernal things. ...

"I laughed. I did not care if I never saw England again. . . .

"You won't ever go back again now, will you?" he asked whimsically,

after learning whence I came. "I must," said I, sadly. "Oh don't,"

said he; "tell them you can't, and just wander about the East." He

transshipped shortly and disappeared, one of many passing travellers

with whom one is for a few moments on common ground. Our voyage

ended at Cattaro and there every one, Baedeker included, said it was

correct to drive up to Cetinje. Then you could drive down next day

and be able to say ever afterwards, "I have travelled in Montenegro."

It was in Cetinje that it was borne in on me that I had found the

"quite new place" which I sought. Thus Fate led me to the Balkans.

Cetinje then was a mere red-roofed village conspicuous on the

mountain-ringed plain. Its cottages were but one storeyed for the

most part, and contained some three thousand inhabitants. One big

building stood up on the left of the road as the traveller entered.

"No. That is not the palace of the Prince," said the driver. "It is

the Austro-Hungarian Legation."

Austria had started the great Legation building competition which

occupied the Great Powers for the next few years. Each Power strove

to erect a mansion in proportion to the amount of "influence" it

sought to obtain in this "sphere." Russia at once followed. Then

came Italy, with France hard on her heels. England, it is

interesting to note, started last; by way of economizing bought an

old house, added, tinkered and finally at great expense rebuilt

nearly the whole of it and got it quite done just before the

outbreak of the Great War, when it was beginning to be doubtful if

Montenegro would ever again require a British Legation. But this is

anticipating.

In 1900 most of the Foreign Ministers Plenipotentiary dwelt in

cottages or parlour-boarded at the Grand Hotel, the focus of

civilization, where they dined together at the Round Table of

Cetinje, presided over by Monsieur Piguet, the Swiss tutor of the

young Princes; a truly tactful man whom I have observed to calm a

heated altercation between two Great Powers by switching off the

conversation from such a delicate question as: "Which Legation has

the finest flag, France or Italy?" to something of international

interest such as: "Which washer-woman in Cetinje gets up shirt

fronts best?" For Ministers Plenipotentiary, when not artificially

inflated with the importance of the land they represent, are quite

like ordinary human beings.

Their number and variety caused me to ask: "But why are so many

Powers represented in such a hole of a place?" And the Italian

architect who was designing the Russian Legation replied, more truly

than he was perhaps aware: "Because Montenegro is the matchbox upon

which the next European war will be lighted!"

Cetinje was then extraordinarily picturesque. The Prince did all he

could to emphasize nationality. National dress was worn by all. So

fine was the Court dress of Montenegro that oddly enough Prince

Nikola was about the only ruling Sovereign in Europe who really

looked like one. The inroads of Cook's tourists had stopped his

former custom of hobnobbing with visitors, and he dodged with

dignity and skill the attempts of American snapshotters to corner

him and say: "How do, Prince!"

A vivid picture remains in my mind of the Royal Family as it filed

out of church on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin. The

Prince, heavy-built, imposing, gorgeous; his hair iron grey,

ruddy-faced, hook-nosed, keen-eyed. Danilo, his heir, crimped, oiled

and self-conscious, in no respect a chip of the old block, who had

married the previous year, Jutta, daughter of the Grand Duke of

Mecklenburg Strelitz, who, on her reception into the Orthodox

Church, took the name of Militza. Montenegro was still excited about

the wedding. She looked dazzlingly fair among her dark "in-laws." Old

Princess Milena came, stately and handsome, her hair, still black,

crowning her head with a huge plait. Prince Mirko, the second son,

was still a slim and good looking youth. Petar, the youngest, a mere

child, mounted a little white pony and galloped past in the full

dress of an officer, reining up and saluting with a tiny sword as he

passed his father. The crowd roared applause. It was all more like a

fairy tale than real life. But the black coated Ministers

Plenipotentiary were all quite real.

From Cetinje we went to Podgoritza where for the first time I saw

Albanians. Podgoritza was full of them, all in national dress, for

Montenegro had as yet done little towards suppressing this. Nor in

this first visit did I go further inland.

But I had found "the land where I could have a complete change"; had

learnt, too, of the Great Serbian Idea; had had the meaning of the

Montenegrin cap explained to me; and been told how the reconstruction

of the Great Serb Empire of the Middle Ages was what Montenegro

lived for. Also that the first step in that direction must be the

taking of the Sanjak of Novibazar, which had been formed as a

barrier between the two branches of the Serb race by the Powers at

the Berlin Congress. To me it sounded then fantastic--operatic. I

had yet to learn that the opera bouffe of the Balkans is written in

blood and that those who are dead when the curtain falls, never come

to life again.

So much for Montenegro. We returned after a run to Trebinje,

Serajevo and Mostar, to the Dalmatian coast and Trieste.

First impressions are vivid. There is a certain interest in the fact

that I recorded Spalato in my diary as the first Slav town on our

way south from Trieste and that my letter thence was dated Spljet,

the Slav form of the name.

The one pre-eminently Italian town of Dalmatia is Zara. From Zara

south, the language becomes more and more Slav. But the Slav

speaking peasants that flock to market are by no means the same in

physical type as the South Slavs of the Bosnian Hinterland. It is

obvious that they are of other blood. They are known as Morlachs,

that is Sea Vlachs, and historically are in all probability

descendants of the pre-Slav native population which, together with

the Roman colonists, fled coast ward before the inrush of the Slav

invaders of the seventh century. Latin culture clung along the coast

and was reinforced later by the Venetians. And a Latin dialect was

spoken until recent times, dying out on the island of Veglio at the

end of the nineteenth century. The Slavizing process which has

steadily gone on is due, partly to natural pressure coastward of the

Slav masses of the Hinterland and partly to artificial means.

Austria, who ever since the break-up of the Holy Roman Empire, had

recognized Italy as a possible danger, had mitigated this by drawing

Italy into the Triple Alliance. But she was well aware that fear of

France, not love of Austria, made Italy take this step. Therefore to

reduce the danger of a strong Italia Irredenta on the east of Adria

she encouraged Atavism against Italianism, regarding the ignorant

and incoherent Slavs as less dangerous than the industrious and

scientific Italians. Similarly, England decided that the half-barbarous

Russians were less likely to be commercial rivals than the

industrious and scientific Germans, and sided with Russia.

Future historians will judge the wisdom of these decisions.

During the fourteen years in which I went up and down the coast, the

Slavizing process in Dalmatia visibly progressed, until the

German-Austrians began to realize that they were "warming a viper,"

and to feel nervous. Almost yearly there were more zones in which no

photographs might be taken and more forts were built.

Having picked up the thread of the Balkans the next thing was to

learn a Balkan language, for in 1900 scarcely a soul in Montenegro

spoke aught but Serb. Nor was any dictionary of the language to be

bought at Cetinje. The one bookshop of Montenegro was carefully

supervised by the Prince, who saw to it that the people should read

nothing likely to disturb their ideas, and the literature obtainable

was mainly old national ballads and the poetical works of the Prince

and his father, Grand Voy voda Mirko.

In London in 1900 it was nearly impossible to find a teacher of

Serb, and a New Testament from the Bible Society was the only book

available. Finally a Pole--a political refugee from Russia and a

student of all Slav languages--undertook to teach me. English he

knew none, and but little German and had been but a few weeks in

England.

I asked for his first impressions. His reply was unexpected. What

surprised him most was that the English thought Russia a Great Power

and were even afraid of her. I explained that Russia was a monster

ready to spring on our Indian frontier--that she possessed untold

wealth and countless hordes. He laughed scornfully. In halting

German he said "Russia is nothing--nothing. The wealth is

underground. They have not the sense to get it. Their Army is large,

but it is rotten. All Russia is rotten. If there is a war the

Russian Army will be--will be--" he stammered for a word--"will be

like this!" He snatched up a piece of waste paper, crumpled it and

flung it contemptuously into the waste paper basket.

I never forgot the gesture. Later, when folk foretold Japan's

certain defeat if she tackled the monster, and in 1914 talked

crazily of "the Russian steam-roller" I saw only that crumpled rag

of paper flying into the basket. By that time I had seen too much of

the Slav to trust him in any capacity. But this is anticipating.

CHAPTER TWO

MONTENEGRO AND HER RULERS

In days of old the priest was King,

Obedient to his nod, Man rushed to slay his brother man

As sacrifice to God.

THE events seen by the casual traveller are meaningless if he knows

not what went before. They are mere sentences from the middle of a

book he has not read. Before going further we must therefore tell

briefly of Montenegro's past. It is indeed a key to many of the Near

Eastern problems, for here in little, we see the century-old "pull

devil-pull baker" tug between Austria and Russia, Teuton and Slav,

for dominion.

In 1900, Montenegro, which was about the size of Yorkshire,

consisted of some thirty plemena or tribes. A small core, mainly

Cetinaajes, Nyegushi, Rijeka and Kchevo formed old Montenegro. To

this was added the Brda group, which joined Montenegro voluntarily

in the eighteenth century, in order to fight against the Turks.

These are mainly of Albanian blood and were all Roman Catholics at

the time of their annexation, but have since been converted to the

Orthodox Church and Slavized. It is noteworthy that they are now

strenuously resisting annexation by Serbia. Thirdly, came the

extensive lands, some of them wholly Albanian, annexed to Montenegro

in 1878 under the Treaty of Berlin, much of which, in spite of the

efforts of the Montenegrin Government, is by no means Slavized.

Certain other small districts have also from time to time been

joined to Montenegro at different times, e.g. Grahovo. Each of the

Montenegrin tribes has a distinct tradition of origin from an

individual or family. They tell almost invariably of immigration

into their present site in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Thus

Nyegushi in 1905 told me of descent from two brothers Jerak and

Raiko, who fled from Nyegushi in the Herzegovina fourteen

generations ago. The Royal family, the Petrovitches, traces descent

from Jerak. If we take thirty years as a generation this gives us

1485. The Turks had then begun to overrun Bosnia and the Herzegovina.

Ivan Tsrnoievitch, chief of the tribes of the Zeta, was so hard

pressed by the oncoming Turks that he burnt his capital of Zhablyak

and withdrew to the mountains, where he founded Cetinje in 1484.

Tradition thus corresponds closely with historic fact. The strength

of Turkish influence is shown by the fact that even to-day the

peasant speaks of Ivan as Ivan Beg.

The oft-repeated tale that Montenegro was founded by the refugees

from Kosovo is thus we see mythical, as Kosovo was fought a century

earlier in 1389. Lineally, the Montenegrins are Bosnians,

Herzegovinians and Albanians rather than Serbs of Serbia. Bosnia and

the Herzegovina were independent of the old Kingdom of Serbia, which

explains much of the reluctance of Montenegro to be to-day

incorporated by the Serbs.

Ivan and his refugee tribes successfully resisted the Turkish

attacks on their stronghold and were helped by Venice. But

conversions to Islam became frequent. One of Ivan's own sons turned

Turk and fought against Montenegro. Finally, the last of the

Trsnoievitch line, Ivan II, who had married a Venetian wife, decided

that the leadership of a band of outlaws in the poverty-stricken

mountains was not good enough. He retired to the fleshpots of

Venice, trusting the defence of the district to a civil, hereditary

leader and charging the Vladika [Bishop] with the duty of preventing

ore of his flock going over to Islam, as the Serbs of Bosnia were

now doing in great numbers.

It has been inaccurately represented that Montenegro was singular in

being ruled by her Bishop. In this respect Montenegro in no way

differed from other Christian districts ruled by the Turks who, with

a tolerance at that date rare, recognized everywhere the religion of

the country and entrusted all the affairs of the Christians to their

own ecclesiastics. To the Turks, the Montenegrin tribes and the

Albanian tribes of the mountains--who had also their own Bishops

--were but insubordinate tribes against whom they sent punitive

expeditions when taxes were in arrears and raids became intolerable.

The Montenegrins descended from their natural fortress and plundered

the fat flocks of the plain lands. They existed mainly by brigandage

as their sheep-stealing ballads tell, and the history of raid and

punitive expedition is much like that of our Indian frontier.

Till 1696 the Vladikas were chosen according to the usual methods of

the Orthodox Church. After that date they were, with one exception,

members of the Petrovitch family. This has been vaguely accounted

for by saying that to prevent quarrels the Montenegrins decided to

make the post hereditary in the Petrovitch family. As the Vladika

was celibate, his successor had to be chosen from among members of

his family. Later events, however, throw much light on this alleged

interference with the rules of the Orthodox Church.

In June, 1696, Danilo Petrovitch, of Nyegushi, who, be it noted, was

already in holy orders, was chosen as Vladika. A man of well-known

courage such as the country needed, he accepted office, but was not

consecrated till 1700. Till then the Vladikas of Montenegro had been

consecrated by the Serb Patriarch at Ipek. But in 1680 Arsenius the

Patriarch had decided to accept the protection of Austria and

emigrated to Karlovatz with most of his flock. The turns of

fortune's wheel are odd. The Serbs have more than once owed almost

their existence to Austrian intervention. The Turks permitted the

appointment of another Serb Patriarch, but Serb influence in the

district waned rapidly and the Albanians rapidly resettled the lands

from which their forefathers had been evicted. In 1769 the

Phanariotes suppressed the Serb Patriarchate altogether, for the

Greek was ever greedy of spreading over the whole peninsula, and the

Vladika of Montenegro was thus the only head of a Serb Church in the

Balkans and gained much in importance.

Danilo was a born ruler. He soon absorbed all the temporal power,

and latterly left matters ecclesiastic to his nephew Sava.

The outstanding feature of his rule was his suppression of

Mahommedanism. At this time conversions to Islam were increasing.

Danilo, when on a visit to the plain of Podgoritza, to consecrate a

small church by permission of the Pasha of Scutari, was taken

prisoner by the local Moslems, though he had been promised safe

conduct, and put up to ransom. He was bought off only by the

sacrifice of the church plate of the monastery, and returned home

hot with anger.

To avenge the insult and clear the land of Islam he organized the

wholesale massacre of the Moslems of Montenegro. On Christmas Eve

1703 an armed band, led by the Martinovitches, rushed from house to

house slaughtering all who refused baptism. Next morning the

murderers came to the church, says the song: "Their arms were bloody

to the shoulders." Danilo, flushed with joy, cried: "Dear God we

thank Thee for all things!" A thanksgiving was held and a feast

followed. Danilo thus gained extraordinary popularity. Such is the

fame of his Christmas Eve that it was enthusiastically quoted to me

in the Balkan War of 1912-13 as an example to be followed, and

baptisms were enforced with hideous cruelty. The Balkan Christian of

to-day is no whit less cruel than the Turk and is more fanatical.

Danilo's prestige after this massacre was so great that the tribes

of the Brda formed a defensive alliance with him against the Turks.

And his fame flew further, for Russia, now for the first time,

appeared in Montenegro. Peter the Great sent his Envoy Miloradovitch

to Cetinje in 1711--a date of very great importance, for from it

begins modern Balkan policy and the power of the Petrovitches. Peter

claimed the Montenegrins as of one blood and one faith with Russia

and called on them to fight the Turk and meet him at Constantinople

where they would together "glorify the Slav name; destroy the brood

of the Agas and build up temples to the true faith."

The Montenegrins rushed to the fray with wild enthusiasm and on the

high ground between Rijeka and Podgoritza won the battle called "The

Field of the Sultan's Felling," such was the number of Turks who,

entangled in the thorn bushes, were slaughtered wholesale, as the

Montenegrin driver recounts to this day when he passes the spot.

A great victory--but Russia and Montenegro have not yet met at

Constantinople. The Turks sent a strong punitive force and, not for

the first time, burnt the monastery at Cetinje, wasted the land and

doubtless removed enough gear to pay the haratch [tax] which Danilo

had refused.

1715 is noteworthy as the date of Danilo's visit to Petersburg, when

he was given the first of the many subsidies which the Tsars have

bestowed till recently upon the Petrovitch family.

In a land which is rat-poor, the family which has wealth has power.

The Petrovitches had gained power and they kept it. Fighting almost

till the last, Danilo died full of years and fame, in 1735, and

named his nephew Sava, who had acted for some time as ecclesiastical

head, as his successor.

Sava had no ambition to be aught but a Churchman. He built the

monastery of Stanjevitch and retired to it, leaving his nephew

Vassili to govern.

Vassili, who was already in holy orders, had much of the quality of

Danilo. He organized the defence of the land and defeated more than

one attack upon it. Montenegro was now largely fighting against the

Moslem Serbs of Bosnia and the Herzegovina. In fact the "Turk" with

whom the Balkan Christian waged war was as often as not his

compatriot, turned Moslem.

Vassili and Sava further strengthened their alliance with Russia by

visiting Petersburg, where the Empress Elizabeth promised them a

yearly subsidy of 3,000 roubles and money for schools. Vassili died

in Russia in 1766 and Sava was left to manage alone.

He was quite unfit and his post was usurped by a remarkable imposter

who appeared suddenly in Montenegro and said he was Peter III of

Russia, who had been murdered in 1706. Russia was a name to conjure

with. He thrilled the credulous tribesmen with tales of his escape

and adventures. In the words of an old ballad: "He is known as

Stefan the Little. The nation turns to him as a child to its father.

They have dismissed their headmen, their Serdars, Knezhes and

Voyvodas. All eyes turn to him and hail him as Tsar." Sava returned

to his monastery and the imposter reigned. Even the Patriarch of

Ipek who was on the verge of dismissal, cried for the protection of

Stefan Mali, who set to work to govern with great energy. Venice,

alarmed by his popularity, joined with the Turks and attacked

Montenegro, but was repulsed. Russia, seeing her influence waning

with the departed Sava, sent an Envoy to denounce the impostor. But

"nothing succeeds like success." Stefan Mali had such a hold over

the ignorant tribesmen that Russia, seeing Sava was useless,

recognized Stefan as ruler. He reigned five more years and was

murdered in 1774 by, it was said, an agent of the Pasha of Scutari.

He is believed to have been of humble Bosnia origin and was one of

the few successful impostors of history.

Sava had perforce to return to the world, and owing to his

incapacity the post of Civil Governor of Montenegro now became

important. The office, till now held always by a Vukotitch, had

meant little save the leadership of tribal Soviets or councils. The

Vukotitches exchanged the office with the Radonitches for that of

Serdar, and under the title of Gubernator the first Radonitch rose

to power.

This is a very important period for now for the first time Austria

appears on the scene and the long diplomatic struggle with Russia

for power in Montenegro begins.

In 1779 an appeal to the Emperor of Austria was sent, signed by Ivan

Radonitch, Gubernator; Ivan Petrovitch, Serdar; and lastly by Petar

Petrovitch, Archimandrite and Deputy-Metropolitan. From which we

must conclude that Sava had definitely retired from power. From this

date for several years Ivan Radonitch always signed first. He had

just returned from a fruitless trip to Russia, and was seeking help

from Austria. Sava died in 1783 and was succeeded by Vladika

Plamenatz, a fact which, though well known in Montenegro, is rigidly

excluded from her official history by the Petrovitches, whose

version, the only "authorized" one, is constructed with more regard

to the glory of their dynasty than historic truth.

On Sava's death the Radonitch party at once welcomed the first

Austrian Mission to Montenegro and accommodated it in Sava's

monastery. One of the Envoys has left a vivid picture of Montenegro

in those days.

"The nation has no police, no laws. A kind of equality reigns. The

headmen have only a certain authority for managing ordinary business

and settling blood-feuds. The father of Radonitch was the first to

whom the nation gave the title Gubernator in order to gain the

respect of the Venetians and Turks. The Gubernator summons the

Serdars, Voyvodas and Knezhes. They meet in the open air. The

General Assembly takes place at the village of Cetinje. . . . The

Vladika, or at least a couple of monks, are present. The Serdars

similarly call local meetings of headmen and thus arrange peace

between two families or villages. Their power consists only of

persuasion. In practice murder is usually avenged by murder. The

land has one Metropolitan, the Vladika, in whose eparchy are

included Ipek, Kroja and Dalmatia spiritually, for the consecration

of priests, he being, since the removal of the Patriarch of Ipek,

the next Archbishop. But the foreign priests obey him in no respect

save for consecration. His functions consist in the consecration of

priests and churches. He visits the parishes but not so much for

pastoral duties as for the collection of the so-called Milostina,

the alms which form his payment. The monks too collect on their own

behalf. The people who are very superstitious, fast rigorously and

give willingly to the clergy. Their terror of excommunication makes

them regard their Bishops as the highest and most respected in the

land. Radonitch's father, first Gubernator, tried to obtain the

highest position for himself but failed. His son now tries to, and

would succeed, were he cleverer and had more money, for the

Metropolitan Plamenatz is little respected and could not do much to

prevent him. The Metropolitans have been used to visit Petersburg

from time to time and to receive a subsidy for the Church and gifts

in money and in the form of costly vestments for themselves. From

which gifts, say the people, they receive no benefit. Since 1779 no

Russian money has been received. The feelings of the country have

consequently grown cold. People here obey only so long as they gain

by so doing."

We now come upon the first notice of the development of the Great

Serbian Idea, as a definite political plan in Montenegro. The

Austrian Envoy writes:

"The following which was told me by a Montenegrin monk is worthy of

further consideration. A little while after the Russian war was

ended in 1773 a plan was made by the Metropolitan and some monks to

reconstruct the old Serbian Kingdom and to include in it besides

Bulgaria, Serbia, Upper Albania, Dalmatia and Bosnia, also the Banat

of Karlstadt and Slavonia. The Turks in all the provinces were to be

fallen upon at a given moment by the Schismatics, and it was also

resolved that all foreign officers should be cleared out of all

lands within the Imperial frontiers. The late Orthodox Bishop

Jaksitch of Karlstadt is said to have agreed and carried on a

correspondence with the Metropolitan of Montenegro by means of

priests. . . . Though the carrying out of such a plan is very

difficult, yet the project should not be left out of consideration."

The Petrovitch ambition to form and rule over Great Serbia was thus,

we see, actually elaborated long before Serbia had obtained

independence and before the Karageorgevitches had even been heard

of. This explains much that has since happened.

Further the Envoy replies to the question: Whether or not Montenegro

can be considered independent?--thus:

"From the frontier drawn by the Venetians with the Turks it follows

that Montenegro belongs to the Turks. The nation does not deny that

it has been twice conquered by the Turks, who, each time, destroyed

Cetinje and the Monastery, where some Turks even settled, but were

driven out. In 1768 they were forced to pay tribute by the Vezir of

Bosnia. The Montenegrins on the plains, in fact, pay tribute. The

Katunska and Rijeka nahias alone have paid no tribute since 1768.

These facts show Montenegro belongs to the Porte.

"The Montenegrins on the contrary maintain that they have never

recognized Turkish rule, and never paid tribute save when forced by

overpowering numbers; that they do not recognize the assigning of

their nahias to the Pashas of Spuzh and Scutari; that they have

chosen a Gubernator whose title has not been disputed; that they

rule themselves without Turkish interference. In truth, however, the

apparent independence of the land depends as much on its mountainous

character as on the courage of the inhabitants. The difficulties of

the land make it more trouble than it is worth."

The country is described as completely lawless. Blood feuds rage

between rival families and in seven months a hundred men have been

killed in vengeance. Over this wild group of tribes Russia and

Austria now struggled for influence. In 1782 Ivan Radonitch went for

seven months to Vienna. Montenegro could not (and cannot) possibly

exist without foreign aid. And he sought it.

But the Emperor Joseph II decided that to organize Montenegro as an

Ally "would, in peace, be costly and in war of insufficient use." He

withdrew the Mission but, to retain Montenegro's goodwill, allotted

a small annual subsidy of which 500 ducats were to go to Radonitch,

and but 150 to Vladika Plamenatz.

Russia, however, would not let Montenegro slip from her grasp. In

May, 1788, a Russian Envoy arrived and began countermining Austria.

Austria retorted by sending another Envoy, who reports complete

anarchy and ceaseless inter-tribal fighting:

"Some were with us; some sought to destroy us; some fought the

Turks; some were in alliance with them. They have a Bishop, Governor

and Serdar, but these are mere names. People obey only if they can

gain by so doing. We even heard a common man say to the Bishop's

face: 'Holy Bishop, you lie like a hound! I will cut out your heart

on the point of my knife.' Except that they keep the fasts they have

no religion. They rob, steal, and have many wives. Some sell women

and girls to the Turks and commit other crimes as one hears daily.

All is done with the animal impulse of desire, or hatred, or

selfishness. The inhabitants are used to raid neighbourlands for

cattle, etc., and are even led by their priests on these expeditions

which they think heroic."

This vivid account will be recognized as the truth by all who have

lived in native huts and listened to local tradition. It describes

the life of the Balkan Christian up till recent days. My Montenegrin

guide used to lament the good old times when a second wife could be

taken and no fuss made; and when as many as fifteen men were shot in

a feud; and his great uncle had commanded a pirate ship which plied

between the Adriatic and the Aegean.

There is nothing new under the sun. In 1788, as in the twentieth

century, we find the rival Powers trying to buy partisans. "We never

could satisfy them," says the Austrian Envoy. "When we thought we

had won him with one gift, we found next day he had joined the

opposition party or demanded a new gift as if he had not had one.

Even the Bishop, though he tried by all means to win our favour,

could not hide from us his false intriguing heart."

The struggle was brief. Russia was victorious. Vladika Plamenatz

disappeared suddenly, and the Petrovitches came again to the fore.

Vladika Petar's name headed all official documents, the Gubernator

fell to second rank, and the blood-feud between the Plamenatzes and

the Petrovitches compelled some of the former to seek shelter with

the Turks. Russia has never permitted a pro-Austrian to rule long in

Slav lands. Witness the-fate of the Obrenovitches, in Serbia.

Vladika Petar was a strong man, which is probably why he obtained

Russian support. He drove his unruly team with much success and won

its respect.

Russia and Austria came to one of their many "understandings" and

in 1788 declared war together on the Turk with the expressed

intention of ending the Sultan's rule. Both encouraged the

Montenegrins to harry the Turkish borders. The Austrian Envoy,

however, distrusted the Montenegrins and wrote: "Very much more can

we rely on the faith and courage of the Catholic Albanians of the

Brda, the very numerous Bijelopavlitchi, Piperi, Kuchi,

Vasojevitchi, Klementi, Hoti, etc., who could muster 20,000 very

outrageous fighters whom the Sultan fears more than he does the

Montenegrins." A passage of great interest, for to-day many of these

Albanian tribes, having fallen under Montenegrin rule, have been

completely Slavized and have 'joined the Orthodox Church.

Some of these tribes did support Austria, were left in the lurch by

her when she made peace in 1791, and were punished by the Turks.

Part of the Klementi dared not return home and settled in Hungary,

where their descendants still live.

Montenegro was mentioned in the Treaty of Sistova merely as a

rebellious Turkish province, but Vladika Petar had gained much

power, for the Brda tribes now definitely accepted him as their head

and the Tsutsi and Bijelitch tribes emigrated into Montenegro from

the Herzegovina and were given land.

The Turks forcibly opposed the union of the Brda with Montenegro,

but could not prevent it, and in the fight the Pasha of Scutari was

killed. His head, on a stake, for long adorned the tower at Cetinje.

A hard blow was now struck at Montenegro. The Venetians in 1797

ceded the Bocche di Cattaro to Austria. Till then the frontier had

been vague. The Vladika was spiritual head of the Bocchese and the

Montenegrins considered them as part of themselves. The new frontier

caused much wrath. Russia hurried to support the Vladika. Austria

strove in vain for influence. Her Envoy wrote in 1798, "The

Gubernator sees his authority daily weakening while that of the

Vladika increases." He says the frontier must be fixed "so as to

force this horde of brigands to remain within the frontiers which

they cross only to molest his Majesty's subjects and make them

victims of brigandage. The Metropolitan and the Gubernator have

given no satisfaction to the complaints daily addressed to them."

No. They did not. For they had a strong backing. Up hurried a

special Envoy of the Tsar with rich gifts for the Vladika, who

received him with a salute of guns, and further insulted Austria by

hoisting the Russian flag over the Monastery. "Devil and Baker" had

both pulled. Which won? I leave that to the reader.

Russia was now ruling power in Montenegro. When Napoleon's troops

appeared in the Near East the Montenegrins joined the Russian forces

and attacked the French at Ragusa where their ferocity horrified

even the hardened soldiers of Napoleon. A Ragusan gave me her

grandfather's account of the yelling horde of savage mountaineers

who rushed into battle with the decapitated heads of their foes

dangling from their necks and belts, sparing no one, pillaging and

destroying, and enraging the Russian officers by rushing home so

soon as they had secured booty worth carrying off. In considering

the Near East of to-day it should never be forgotten that but a

century ago much of the population was as wild as the Red Indians of

the same date.

The French held the Bocche di Cattaro some years during which the

Vladika, as Russia's ally, flatly refused to come to terms with

them. And in 1813, so soon as Napoleon's defeat became known Vladika

Petar and Vuko Radonitch, the new Gubernator, summoned the

tribesmen, swooped down on Cattaro, stormed the Trinity fort and

captured Budua. A short-lived triumph. Russia, wishing peace with

Austria and having no further use for Montenegro, ordered the

Vladika to yield his newly conquered lands and they were formally

allotted to Austria by Treaty.

During these years the resurrection of Serbia was taking place. In

this Montenegro was unable to take active part, being more than

enough occupied with her own affairs. But the Vladika himself sang

Karageorge's heroism and tried to send a force to his aid.

Vladika Petar I died in 1830. He left Montenegro larger and stronger

than he found it, for he had worked hard to unite the ever-quarrelling

tribes by establishing laws to suppress blood-feuds. Inability to

cohere is ever the curse of Slav lands. Only a strong autocrat has

as yet welded them. Petar earned the fame he bears in the land.

His body is to this day deeply reverenced by the superstitious

mountaineers. Some years after burial it was found to have been

miraculously preserved from decay and he was thereupon canonized

under the name of St. Petar Cetinski.

When dying he nominated as his successor his nephew Rada, then a lad

not yet in holy orders, and made his chiefs swear to support him.

Such an irregular proceeding as appointing a youth of seventeen to

an Archbishopric could hardly have been carried out, even in the

Balkans, had it not been for the terror of a dead man's curse--a

thing still dreaded in the land. And also for the fact that Rada's

election had the support too of Vuko Radonitch the Gubernator.

Vuko hoped doubtless to obtain the upper hand over such a young

rival. Rada, with no further training, was at once consecrated as

Vladika Petar II by the Bishop of Prizren and this strange

consecration was confirmed later at Petersburg, whither the young

Petrovitch duly went.

Russia has all along consistently furthered her influence and plans

in the Balkans by planting suitable Bishops as political agents.

Russia was now powerful in Montenegro. A Russian officer led the

clans a-raiding into Turkey and returned with so many decapitated

heads to adorn Cetinje, that the Tsar thought fit to protest. The

tug between Austria and Russia continued. Vuko, the Gubernator, and

his party, finding the youthful Archbishop taking the upper hand

with Russian aid, entered into negotiations with Austria. The plot

was, however, detected. Vuko fled to Austria. His brother was

assassinated; the family house at Nyegushi was burnt down and the

family exiled. Russia would tolerate no influence but her own and

had begun in fact the same policy she afterwards developed in

Serbia. From that date--1832--the office of Gubernator was

abolished. Imitation is the sincerest flattery. The Petrovitches

began to model themselves on their patrons, the Tsars, and strove

for absolutism.

Petar II ranks high as author and poet. He further organized the

laws against the blood-feuds which were sapping the strength of the

nation and ingeniously ordered a murderer to be shot by a party made

up of one man from each tribe. As the relatives of the dead man

could not possibly avenge themselves on every tribe in the land the

murder-sequence had perforce to end. To reconcile public opinion to

this form of punishment he permitted the condemned man to run for

his life. If the firing party missed him, he was pardoned. The point

gained was that the murder became the affair of the central

government, not of the local one.

Petar also did much to start education in the land. He died before

he was forty of tuberculosis, in 1851, one of the early victims of

the disease which shortly afterwards began to ravage Montenegro and

has killed many Petrovitches.

He named as his successor his nephew Danilo.

Danilo's accession is a turning point in Montenegrin history. He at

once stated that he did not wish to enter holy orders and would

accept temporal power only. He was, in fact, about to marry a lady

who was an Austrian Slav. For this, the consent of Russia had to be

obtained, for till now it was through the Church that Russia had

ruled in Montenegro. She had ever--with the sole exception of the

usurper Stefan Mali--supported the Vladika against the Gubernator.

This office was, however, now abolished. There had been difficulty

more than once about transmitting the ruling power from uncle to

nephew. Russia decided that she could obtain a yet firmer hold of

the land if she established a directly hereditary dynasty. Danilo

was proclaimed Prince and ecclesiastical affairs alone were to be

administered by the Bishop.

The Sultan who had accepted the rule of the Bishop in Montenegro as

in other Christian districts, protested against the recognition of

an hereditary Prince and at once attacked Montenegro, which was

saved by the diplomatic intervention of both Russia and Austria,

neither of whom wished its destruction. Peace was made and Danilo formally

recognized. He was never popular. He had received his title from

Russia, but his sympathies leaned towards Austria. And he offended

both Russia and his Montenegrins by refusing to take part in the

Crimean war, to the wrath of the tribes who saw in it a fine

opportunity for harrying their foes of the border. Attempts to

enforce law and order provoked hostility among the recently annexed

tribes of the Brda who, though they had voluntarily joined

Montenegro as opposed to the Turks, refused flatly to pay taxes.

Danilo put down this rising with great severity and gained the

hatred of the revolted tribes.

But even with enforced taxation Danilo was short of funds. Russia,

angry at his failure to aid her, stood aside. Danilo begged of

Austria and Austria refused. Montenegro could not and cannot live

without foreign support. The French--now so active again in Balkan

intrigue--came in and tried to detach Danilo from their then enemy

Russia, by offering him a subsidy and certain concessions from the

Sultan if he would accept Turkish suzerainty.

There ensued a quarrel between the Russian agent in Cetinje, B. M.

Medakovitch, and Danilo over this. Medakovitch was Danilo's private

secretary. "I lived in friendship and harmony with Prince Danilo,"

he says, "until he said to me, 'I know you wish the Montenegrins

well and highly value their liberty. But it cannot be as you wish.

We must recognize the Turks in order to obtain more money.' We might

have remained friends but foreign intrigues crept in. ... Enemies

of our faith and name denounced me as the "friend" of Russia. My

faith and blood are dear to me. But I have always kept in view the

good of the nation and followed the course which ever led to the

fortune of Montenegro. ... I would not agree that Montenegro's glory

should be denied in accordance with the wishes of the French Consul

at Scutari, who in especial is trying to destroy the power of

Montenegro." (History repeats itself. The French now, 1920, are

aiming at Montenegro's destruction.) "I opposed Turkish rule . . .

but the headmen sided with Prince Danilo and favoured the wish of

the French Consul. They were ready to accept the Turk as lord. Only

I and Prince George Petrovitch opposed them."

The quarrel was heightened by the fact that Tsar Nikola I, when he

died in 1855, bequeathed 5,000 ducats to Montenegro, but stipulated

they were to be used for charitable purposes under Russian control.

Danilo was enraged by this as he wanted the cash himself.

Medakovitch refused to give it him. "He regards as his friend him

who gives him gold," says a contemporary; "who gives naught is his

arch-enemy." Danilo continued negotiating with France, and

Medakovitch carried the 5,000 ducats out of the country to the

Russian Consul-General at Ragusa.

Danilo formed a crafty plan. He sent two cunning agents to Ragusa to

pretend to the Russian that Montenegro was in a state of unrest, and

that they could overthrow Danilo and re-establish Russian influence

if they could have the 5,000 ducats. To what more laudable end could

they be expended? But the Russian was a yet more wily fox and the

plan failed.

Danilo then hurried to Paris to discuss matters and while he was

absent George Petrovitch led a rising against him, instigated

doubtless by Medakovitch. Danilo hastily returned to Montenegro and

according to a contemporary account a reign of terror followed. He

feared every popular man: "Thus it is that a series of executions

without trial or formal accusation has gone on for months without it

being possible to see when this terrible state of things will end.

Persons who to-day are the Prince's favourites are to-morrow

corpses. His commands, his threats and his gold obtain for him false

oaths and false documents." A fierce blood-feud which lasted in

effect till a few years ago, arose between him and the Gjurashkovitches.

Marko Gjurashkovitch, one of the richest and handsomest of the

headmen, dared, during the Prince's absence in France, to marry the

widow of Pero Petrovitch, whom Danilo had meant to bestow on his

favourite Petar Vukotitch. Danilo therefore bribed heavily Gligor

Milanovitch the arambasha of a brigand band, who accused Marko

Gjurashkovitch and another of a treasonable plot against Danilo's

life. The two were at once arrested and executed in spite of their

protestations of innocence. The Gjurashkovitches fled into Turkish

territory where the two still held official posts under the Turkish

Government till 1912.

Danilo found his scheme for accepting Turkish suzerainty now so

unpopular that he dropped it and the Turks consequently at once

attacked Montenegro. The land was saved by the valour of Danilo's

brother, Grand Voyvoda Mirko, whose exploits are still sung by the

peasants. A great battle was fought at Grahovo. The retreat of the

Turkish army was cut off and the whole was slaughtered or captured.

The prisoners, according to Montenegrin custom, were hideously

mutilated and the British report of them as they passed Corfu on

their return struck horror in Europe. By this victory Montenegro

gained more land, but owed it to the valour of Mirko rather than to

Danilo.

Danilo's best work was the codification and reformation of the

unwritten law of the land. Code Danilo is rude enough, but an

advance upon the laws of Vladika Petar. It was printed in Italian

as well as Serb. Italian, till the beginning of the present century,

was the only foreign tongue that had made any way in Montenegro.

When Danilo had refused the spiritual headship of the land and had

chosen marriage, the superstitious foretold that no good would come

of this and that no heir of his body would succeed him.

The prophecy came true. He was assassinated in the summer of 1860 on

the shore of the Bocche di Cattaro, and left but two daughters. The

assassin, a Montenegrin, was arrested and executed and died without

giving any explanation of his deed. It has been ascribed both to

Austria and Russia--but was far more probably an act of private

vengeance.

Danilo was succeeded by Nikola I the present King of Montenegro, son

of Voyvoda Mirko.

Two main points stand clear from this brief sketch.

(1) That the history of Montenegro, as that of all the Balkan

peoples, is but a part of the gigantic racial struggle of Slav and

Teuton for command of the Near East. The Slav ever pressing

Southward and Westward, the Teuton standing as a bulwark for West

Europe and holding back the advancing hordes. The one non-Slavonic

lace in this group, the Albanian (with the exception of a few

Catholic tribes) consistently struggles also against the Slav peril

and sides with its opponents.

(2) It is also markedly a struggle for the supremacy of the Orthodox

Church. For with the exception of Montenegro's fights against the

armies of the Pasha of Scutari and his Albanians, the enemy of

Montenegro was always the Moslem Serbs of Bosnia and the

Herzegovina, people, that is, who racially and linguistically and by

custom are identical with the Montenegrins.

Montenegro's history continued on precisely the same lines under

Nikola I, until Slavonic and Teutonic rivalry culminated in the

colossal struggle which began in August 1914.

Of all the Petrovitches Nikola is one of the most remarkable. The

last of the mediaeval chieftains of Europe--a survival from a past

age--he is an epitome of the good and bad qualities of his race. In

common with that of other half-wild races the Montenegrin mind is

credulous and child-like and at the same time crafty and cunning.

With a very limited outlook, the Balkan politician is wont to spend

infinite ingenuity in outwitting a rival in order to gain some petty

advantage, and meanwhile to lose sight entirely of the larger

issues. Prince Nikola, better equipped by a western education than

any of his forerunners, rapidly gained a strong hold over his

ignorant subjects and in the great game of Near Eastern politics was

second only to Abdul Hamid at ruse and intrigue.

From the very first he had but one ambition--the reconstruction of

the Great Serbian Empire with the Petrovitches as the reigning

dynasty. He lived for it and he did all possible to foster it in the

minds of his people. He enforced the wearing of the national cap,

invented by Vladika Petar II. Each child was taught that his cap's

red crown was blood that had to be avenged. For each tribe he wrote

a Kolo song to be danced to at festive gatherings, to stimulate

nationalism. And for the whole country he wrote that most popular

national song:

Onward, onward, let me see Prizren,

For it is mine--I shall come to my home!

The throne and the castle of Tsar Dushan at Prizren became a

national obsession.

And to ensure the obedience of the Soviet of headmen he appointed

his redoubtable father Voyvoda Mirko as President and chose the

members himself.

He was but nineteen at the time of his accession and married almost

at once, Milena, daughter of Voyvoda Vukotitch of the fighting tribe

of Kchevo, to whom he had been affianced in childhood, as was then

customary. Their reign began stormily. The Turks thirsting to avenge

Grahovo attacked Montenegro on three sides. Voyvoda Mirko led his

son's forces and the Montenegrins defended themselves desperately,

but were so severely outnumbered that only the intervention of the

Powers saved them. So much was Mirko dreaded that the Turks made it

one of their peace terms that he must leave the country. This term

was, however,' not fulfilled and the sturdy old savage remained in

Montenegro till the day of his death, steadily opposing all western

and modern ideas, especially the making of a carriage road into the

country; and ever composing and singing to the gusle songs of battle

and border fray, which, though devoid of literary merit, give an

invaluable picture of the savagery of the land in the middle of the

nineteenth century.

Old Mirko died of the great cholera epidemic which swept Montenegro,

and Prince Nikola was then free to introduce new visages into the

land.

Balanced perilously between Austria and Russia he managed to keep on

good terms with both, but his sympathies were Russian. To Russia he

turned for help to organize an army. Till then each tribe had fought

according to its own ideas. Montenegro had no artillery and no

equipment save flintlocks and the hand jar, the heavy knife used for

decapitation. In Petersburg he was warmly received by Tsar Alexander

II, who gave him funds both for schools and the army. A small-arms

factory was started at Rijeka and a gun foundry near Cetinje. Weapons

were bought from France and preparations made for the next campaign.

You cannot talk to King Nikola long without learning that war,

successful war, filled all his mind. Conquest and Great Serbia were

the stars of his heaven and of that of his people. Border frays

enough took place and when, in 1875, the Herzegovinians broke into

open revolt the Montenegrins rushed to their aid. Nikola, commanded

by the Powers to keep the peace, declared he could not restrain the

tribesmen. Local tradition which is possibly correct states that his

efforts to do so were not strenuous. In June 1876 Prince Milan of

Serbia declared war on Turkey. Prince Nikola, who had already

refused to acknowledge Milan as leader of the Serb peoples and

regarded him with jealous eyes, thereupon declared war next day.

The Great Serbian Idea was already causing rivalry.

Nikola fought and won his first battle at Vuchidol. Montenegrin arms

were successful everywhere--penetrated far into the Herzegovina;

took Podgoritza, Nikshitch and Antivari. When the victorious

Russians drew up the Treaty of San Stefano at the very gates of

Constantinople Prince Nikola, "the Tsar's only friend," received

liberal treatment, and Serbia, suspected of Austrian leanings, but

scant recognition.

The Treaty of Berlin reversed this. England was especially

anti-Russian and, represented by Lord Beaconsfield and Lord

Salisbury, insisted on entrusting the bulk of Montenegro's conquests

in the Herzegovina to Austrian administration. "The Tsar's only

friend" was regarded with suspicion. Montenegro was unfortunately

compensated mainly with Albanian territory. It was a great

injustice. The Albanians had made just as stubborn a fight for their

nationality as had the Montenegrins, and had never lost local

autonomy. They resisted violently and prevented Montenegro from

occupying either Plava, Gusinje or Tuzi. The Powers tried to make up

by an even worse act of injustice. Mr. Gladstone, having little or

no personal experience of the Orthodox Church, was possessed of an

extraordinary admiration for it, and, filled with the erroneous idea

that every Moslem was a Turk, he was in favour of giving Dulcigno, a

wholly Albanian town, to Montenegro in place of the other three. It

was a peculiarly unjust and cruel decision. Even in the days of the

Serb Kings Dulcigno had kept its autonomy and at one time coined its

own money. All old travellers state the spoken language was

Albanian. The Montenegrins could not take it and had no claim to it.

A naval demonstration of the Powers forced it to surrender, perhaps

one of the biggest acts of bullying of which the Powers have as yet

been guilty.

Albanian Dulcigno was handed over to its hereditary foe. The

strength of its purely Albanian nature is shown by the fact that

whereas in Nikshitch, Podgoritza, and Spuzh the Moslems, Serbs and

Albanians, were stripped of all their property and expelled

wholesale to starve as very many did--the Montenegrins did not dare

interfere with the large and hostile population of Dulcigno and have

in no way succeeded in Slavizing it: The Dulcigniotes still ask for

re-union with Albania.

Montenegro was recognized by the Treaty of Berlin for the first time

as an independent Principality, and Serbia, in 1880, was raised to a

Kingdom. To Prince Nikola and his Montenegrins who had refused to

recognize Prince Milan as leader of the Serb nation this was a most

bitter pill. Rivalry between the two branches of the Serb race was

intensified. Prince Nikola strove by a remarkable series of

marriages to unite himself to any and all of the Powers by means of

his numerous offspring.

Russia being his "only friend" he aspired to marry one of his elder

daughters to the Tsarivitch. But the poor girl who was being

educated for the purpose in Russia, died young.

Two other daughters he however successfully married to the Grand

Duke Nikola Nikolaievitch and the Grand Duke Peter. With Great

Serbia in view, and on bad terms with the Obrenovitches of Serbia,

he married his daughter Zorka in 1883 to Petar Karageorgevitch, the

exiled claimant to the Serbian throne. Having thus married his elder

children to Russian and Serb he then turned to the Triple Alliance

and married Helena to the Crown Prince of Italy, thus securing an

ally, as he hoped, across the Adriatic; and his heir Prince Danilo

to the daughter of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz. For his

daughter Anna he selected Prince Joseph Battenburg. "How do you

think this young man will do as Prince of Macedonia?" he once

cheerfully asked Mr. Bouchier, to Prince Joseph's embarrassment.

Lastly, in order to have claim on Serbia whichever way the political

cat hopped, he married Prince Mirko to Natalie Constantinovitch,

cousin to Alexander Obrenovitch of Serbia. All that Prince Nikola

could do to conquer Europe by "peaceful penetration" he certainly

did.

Two daughters remained: Princesses Xenia and Vera. Popular report

had it that one was destined for Bulgaria and the other for Greece,

and there was much disappointment when the Princes of those lands

made other choice. Nor I fear are either ladies likely now to mount

thrones.

One error of judgment which has largely helped to thwart Prince

Nikola's hopes is the fact that, alarmed lest foreign luxury should

make his sons discontented with their stony fatherland, he would not

send them abroad to be educated. They were taught at home by a tutor

who was an able man enough, but the future ruler of even a tiny

realm needs a wider experience and training. He further made the

fatal mistake of bringing them up as Princes apart from the people,

whereas he himself had played with village children. As a result

they grew up with exaggerated ideas of their own importance, devoid

of discipline and ignorant of all things most needful for a

successful ruler in a poor land. They had all the vices of Princes

and none of their virtues.

It was a tragic error with tragic consequences. Nikola came to the

throne as a mediaeval chieftain in a yet mediaeval land. To succeed

in his ambitions, and he was then amply justified in believing that

he would succeed, it was needful to train up a successor fit to rule

in the twentieth century.

The gates of time were of a sudden flung open. In the space of a

few years something like five centuries poured over the land. Nikola

stood on the rocks with his sons hoping to escape the devastating

torrent. But there was no way of escape. They must swim with the

stream of time--or drown.

Nor does it now seem likely that one of his immediate descendants

will ever rule Great Serbia.

They failed to take the "tide in the affairs of men" and their

golden dream has been swept, into the Never-Never Land. It is bitter

tragedy to end life as a failure.

CHAPTER THREE.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF LAND AND PEOPLE

In 1901 I visited Montenegro and went down the lake to Scutari.

Scutari captured me at once. It had colour, life, art. Its people

were friendly and industrious and did not spend all their time

drinking rakia and swaggering up and down the street as at Cetinje.

There was something very human about them and of all things I wanted

to go into the Albanian mountains. But our Consul there was but just

arrived. He consulted his Austrian colleague and as Austria was then

keeping the mountains as its own preserve, he replied, emphatically,

that the journey was impossible for me.

No particular political crisis was happening, but there were rumours

of a certain Kastrioti in Paris who claimed descent from the great

Skenderbeg and his possible arrival as Prince of Albania roused a

certain excitement in Albanian breasts. Hopes of independence were

already spoken of in hushed whispers.

In Montenegro Great Serbia was the talk, and I was shewn crude

prints of the heroes of old, on many a cottage wall. And some

flashlights on Montenegrin character showed vividly the different

mentality of the Balkans.

The new British Vice-Consul for Scutari came up to Cetinje on

business, for the British Minister had left owing to ill-health. The

Montenegrins did not like the new Vice-Consul and seriously

consulted me as to the possibility of having him exchanged for

another. I was extremely surprised. "But why do you not like him?" I

asked. "Because he does not like us," was the confident reply. "But

he has only been here a week," I urged. "How can he know yet whether

he likes you or not? In any case what does it matter. It is not

necessary to like a Consul."

"But yes!" came the horrified reply.

"How is it not necessary? One must either love or hate!"

One must either love or hate. There is no medium. It was Dushan

Gregovitch that spoke.

Lazar Mioushkovitch flashed the next beam on the national character.

Some tourists arrived and, at the lunch table, talked with Lazar.

One was a clergyman. He told how Canon McColl during the

Turko-Russian War of 1877 had reported having seen severed heads on

poles, and how all England, including Punch, had jeered at him for

thinking such a thing possible in Europe in the nineteenth century.

Mioushkovitch was sadly puzzled. "But how, I ask you, could he fail

to see severed heads in a war? The cutting off of heads in fact--I

see nothing remarkable in that!" Then, seeing the expression of the

reverend gentleman's face, he added quickly: "But when it comes to

teaching the children to stick cigarettes in the mouths--there I

agree with you, it is a bit too strong!" (c'est un peu fort ca!)

There was a sudden silence. The Near East had, in fact, momentarily

undraped itself.

Last came the days when we daily expected to hear that the Queen of

Italy had given birth to a son and heir. A gun was made ready to

fire twenty-one shots. Candles were prepared to light in every

window. The flags waited to be unfurled. We all sat at lunch in the

hotel. The door flew open and a perianik (royal guard) entered. He

spoke a few words to Monsieur Piguet, the Prince's tutor. Piguet

excused himself and left the room.

After some interval he returned, heaved a heavy sigh, and in a voice

of deep depression, said to the Diplomatic table: Eh bien Messieurs

--nous avons une fille! It was appalling. No one in Montenegro, it

would appear, had thought such a catastrophe even possible. To the

Montenegrin the birth of a daughter was a misfortune. "You feed your

son for yourself. You feed your daughter for another man." Faced

with this mediaeval point of view the Diplomatic circle was struck

dumb. Till the British Consul said bravely: "I don't care what the

etiquette is! I won't condole with him." And the tension was

relieved.

No guns were fired, no candles lighted. Cetinje tried to look as

though nothing at all had happened.

One member of the Round Table at this time needs mention. Count

Louis Voynovitch from Ragusa was staying in Cetinje to draw up a new

code of laws. This clever adventurer was looked on with some

jealousy by the Montenegrins and much favoured by the Royal Family

whom he amused with anecdotes and jokes.

It was said he was to be permanently Minister of Justice, but he

left Montenegro rather suddenly over, it was said, a cherchez la

femme affair. He then went to Bulgaria as tutor, I believe, to the

young Princes, and afterwards held a post in Serbia.

And he returned again to Montenegro and represented Montenegro at

the Ambassadors Conference in London during the Balkan War of

1912-13. He was reputed to be deep dipped in every intrigue of the

Balkans and in Jugoslavia we may some day hear of him again.

Nothing else now worth recording occurred in my 1901 holiday. Next

year was a full one.

CHAPTER FOUR.

SERBIA AND THE WAY THERE

"The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous is bold as

a lion."

Twice had I visited Montenegro and had heard much of Great Serbia.

Of the past as seen by Serb eyes I read in any number of cheap pink

and blue ballad books. As for the present, big Montenegrins in the

most decorative national dress in Europe, swaggered up and down the

main street of Cetinje, consumed unlimited black coffee and rakia

and discussed the glorious days when all Serbs should again be

united under Gospodar Nikita. But that they were taking any active

steps to create this earthly paradise I had then no idea.

My 1902 holiday was due. I decided to go further afield and see

Serbia itself, but to go first to Montenegro where I might obtain

information and introductions. No one in England could tell me

anything and only one recent book on the subject could be found.

This was of no consequence for the real joy of travel begins with

the plunge into the unknown and in 1902 it was still possible to

find this joy in Europe. From Whittaker's Almanac I learnt that all

passports must be visaed at the Serbian Legation and thither I

hastened.

I had never travelled without a passport, for accidents may always

happen and even so near home as Paris identity papers may be useful.

But I had never before sought a special visa.

Light-heartedly, therefore, I rang the Legation bell and cheerfully

offered the youth, who admitted me, the passport with a request for

a visa. He told me to wait; and wait I did until--though not quite

new to the Near East I began to wonder what overwhelming

world-politics were detaining the Serbian Minister. Persons peeped

at me cautiously through the half-open door and darted back when I

looked round. Finally, I was summoned into M. Militchevitch's

presence.

Stiffly he asked why I wanted to go to Serbia. My reply, that having

visited Montenegro I now proposed seeing other Serb lands, did not

please him at all. I made things worse by enlarging on my

Montenegrin experiences for I had no idea then of the fact that

there is nothing one Slav State hates so much as another Slav State,

and truly thought to please him.

He persisted in wanting "definite information." "What do you want to

do there?"

"Travel and sketch and photograph and collect curios."

He suggested sternly that there were other lands in Europe where all

this could be done.

His attitude was incomprehensible to me, who then knew foreign lands

only as places which received tourists with open arms and hotels

gaping for guests. He, on the other hand, found me quite as

incomprehensible for, like many another Balkan man, he could

conceive of no travel without a political object.

And I was quite unaware that the murders upon which Great Serbia was

to be built were even then being plotted.

Point-blank, I asked, "Is travelling in Serbia so very dangerous

then?"

The shot told. "Not at all!" said he hastily.

"Then why may I not go?"

After more argle-bargle he consented to give me the visa on

condition I went straight to the British Consul at Belgrade and did

nothing without his advice. He signed, remarking that he took no

responsibility. I paid and left triumphant, all unaware of the

hornet's nest I was now free to enter.

Of Serb politics I knew at that time little beyond the fact that

King Alexander was unpopular owing to an unfortunate marriage and

the still more unfortunate attempt of Queen Draga to plant a false

heir upon the country by pretending pregnancy; that his father's

career had been melodramatic and that the history of Serbia for the

whole period of her independence had been one long blood-feud

between the rival dynasties of Karageorge and Obrenovitch, neither

of which seemed popular in Montenegro. Off I went to Cetinje and

told various people my plan for seeing Serbia. Rather to my surprise

no one offered me introductions, but having been repeatedly told

that the Montenegrins were the cream of the Serb nation, and would

lead Serbia to glory I believed that the mere mention of Montenegro

and my acquaintance with it would suffice to assure me a welcome.

Near the door of the Monastery of Cetinje is the grave of one of the

Karageorgevitches and the priest who showed it me told that the

families Petrovitch and Karageorgevitch had been on very friendly

terms. Prince Nikola had married his daughter Zorka to Petar

Karageorgevitch, the rival claimant to the Serbian throne, in 1883;

that the young couple had lived in Cetinje and their three children

were born there; but that, after Zorka's death in 1890,

father-in-law and son-in-law had fallen out badly about money

matters and Petar had been seen no more in Montenegro. The fact that

the present Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia was born in Cetinje is

of some interest now, when he is attempting to seize his

grandfather's throne--but more of this later. In 1902 it was still

undreamed of.

Only Count Bollati, then Italian Minister to Montenegro, took any

active interest in my plans. Le bon Dieu, he said, "has created you

expressly to travel in the Balkans." He loathed Cetinje and

explained he had accepted it only as one degree better than Buenos

Ayres because nearer to Rome. "Nothing bites you," he continued;

"everything bites me. Your method of seeing lands is undoubtedly the

best, but I am satisfied with what I see from the windows of the

best hotel." Nor, unfortunately, was Count Bollati in any way unique

in his tastes a fact which may have affected the politics of Europe.

He had held a diplomatic post in Belgrade and was very curious to

know how I should fare. "Sooner you than I!" he laughed, and

meanwhile sketched me a route through the chief towns and told me

his first experience in the land.

It was at a court ball, given by the gay and dashing King Milan. The

salon was awhirl with dancers when-click--something fell to the

ground near the Count's feet. A lady's jewel doubtless. He stooped

and picked up a revolver cartridge. Laughing, he showed it to an

aide-de-camp near him, who saw no joke in the matter and referred it

to King Milan, who turned white and looked gravely anxious. And

Bollati for the first time realized the Balkans. Before I left

Cetinje it was officially announced that the marriage of Prince

Mirko (Prince Nikola's second son) with Mademoiselle Natalie

Constantinovitch had been fixed for July 12 O.S. (1902), and the

faire parts were sent to the Corps Diplomatique.

The bride was cousin to King Alexander Obrenovitch who had no direct

heir. Failing one, she was one of the nearest relations to the

Obrenovitch dynasty. The astute Prince Nikola, having married a

daughter to the Karageorge claimant to the throne, now strove to

make assurance doubly sure by marrying a son to a possible rival

candidate. My diary notes though: "It seems there has been a lot of

bother about it and that it was nearly 'off' as Papa Constantinovitch

required Mirko to put down a considerable amount in florins. And

Mirko could not produce them. I suppose he has now borrowed on his

expectation of the Serbian throne. Which is, I imagine, his only

asset."

I confess that at this time I did not know the Balkans and saw all

these doings humorously, as a comic operetta. But the comic operas

of the Balkans are written in blood and what was then fun to me was

to end in a world tragedy.

My route to Belgrade was by boat to Fiume and thence by rail via

Agram. On the boat I picked up a Croatian lady and her daughter, who

moped miserably in the hot and stuffy cabin till they ventured to

ask my permission to sit with me on deck. "You are English, so the

men will not dare annoy us," they said, "if we are with you." Only

English women, they declared, could travel as I did. The mere idea

of a journey in Serbia terrified them and they assured me it was

quite impossible.

And the cheap hotel in Agram, to which they recommended me, was of

the same opinion. The company there assured me that King Alexander

was drinking himself to death, and were loud in their expression of

contempt for land and people. In those days union between Croatia

and Serbia was possible only if Croatia swallowed Serbia. And not

very long after I was in Agram riots took place in which the Serbs

of the town were attacked and plundered.

As the train lumbered over the plains north of the Save, on the way

to Belgrade, my fellow travellers, too, thought I was bound on a mad

and impossible errand. As is usual in the Near East they all

cross-examined me about my private affairs with boring persistency,

and their verdict was that not even a British passport would see me

through. "You will never see Serbia," they declared. I did though.

For, being wholly innocent of any plots, all the efforts of all the

multitudinous police of Serbia failed to turn me from my plan. "The

wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous is as bold as a

lion."

The train thundered over the iron bridge at night and deposited me

in Belgrade. I had to give up my passport and my troubles began. I

had come to see Serbia, and finally saw the whole of it and have

described it in another book. But for obvious reasons I did not then

recount all that befell me; I did not even understand it all.

Looking back on that tour I can only wonder at the dogged

persistence with which I overcame all the obstacles which the Serb

police put in my way. Short of forbidding me to travel they did all

they could.

In accordance with my promise to M. Militchevitch, "To do nothing

without consulting the British Consul," I went to the consulate,

where I found a nice young man, who had but recently arrived and

seemed to know nothing whatever about the country. He was playing

with a dachsdog and told me cheerfully I could go anywhere I liked

"and none of them will dare touch you." But he warned me that it

would be very expensive as carriages were two pounds a day. I

suggested mildly that the land being a poor one this could not

possibly be the regular charge, but that people sometimes had to pay

extra for the privilege of being British Consul; which apparently he

had never thought of. It proved correct though. Serbia in those days

was the cheapest spot in Europe. Never again in all probability will

the peasant be so well off.

But before starting up country I meant to see Belgrade, and began by

asking at the hotel where the King was to be seen. For a King, in

1902 at any rate, was still an object of interest, and one of the

"show sights" of most European countries. The waiter replied "You

want to see our King? You won't see him. He dares not come out of

the Konak. He is probably drunk." Nor in fact during the time I

spent in Belgrade did he ever come out.

In Belgrade the first thing I learnt was that I was "shadowed" by

the police. To the uninitiated this is most uncanny. The same man

keeps turning up. He does it very badly as a rule. You sit and have

coffee on one side of a street and he sits and drinks beer at the

restaurant opposite. You wander on and think: "What an ass I was to

think he was following me!" and meet him at the next corner. Most

disquieting of all perhaps is to come suddenly out of your bedroom

and almost tumble over him in the corridor. All these and more were

my experiences in the first weeks of my tour. And always I said to

myself in triumph: "They can't do anything to me for I have not done

anything." I could not even buy a railway ticket for a day's outing

without being cross-examined as to my purpose, my father, my uncles

and other relatives. The officials in Vain assured me that there was

nothing to see in the place I wished to visit. I played the card

which had succeeded with Militchevitch and asked if it were

dangerous. I could not enter a village without being at once asked

by the local policeman for my passport. Blankly ignorant of what was

behind these proceedings I steadily pursued my way, smiling at all

questions and supplying at demand long biographies of various

members of my family. No; my father had not been in the diplomatic

service, nor my uncles, nor brothers, nor cousins. No; none of them

were officers.

"I have come to see Serbia," said I, in return to the enquiry of a

police officer. "But what do you see?" he asked, gazing wildly

round. "I see nothing!"

Every official I think in every village, saw my sketch book,

demanded an explanation of why I had selected such things as wells,

gravestones, carts and cottages to draw, and remained mystified. For

the common objects of Serbia were of no interest to them. I merely

looked on all these vagaries as so many peculiar and silly Serbian

customs--wondered what the Serbs would do if a hundred or so

tourists appeared, for then there would not be enough police to go

round--and did not allow myself to be ruffled even when three times

in one day I had to show my passport to individuals who pounced down

on me in the street.

When I arrived at the' least bad hotel in Nish the hotelier said he

did not wish to be mixed up in the affair; gave me the worst room in

the house and told me I had better leave by the first train next

morning. I said I was going to stay and did. And explored Nish

conscious of "guardian angels" at my heels.

But it was here that I realized that there was something sinister in

the background, for so suspicious were the hotel people that when,

for two days I was seriously unwell, not one of them would come in

answer to my bell but an old woman, who flatly refused to bring me

anything and never turned up again. I lived on Brand's beef lozenges

till I was well enough on the evening of the second day to crawl

downstairs and bribe a waiter to fetch me some milk. Once recovered

I went to Pirot by rail in spite of pressing requests that I would

return to Belgrade. I wanted to see the Pirot carpet factories, but

of course no one believed this. They all imagined, as I learnt

later, that I was bound for Bulgaria with evil intentions: messages

from Montenegro for the undoing of Serbia. I was quite unaware at

the time that Prince Ferdinand and Prince Nikola were plotting

together. Arrived at Pirot it was obvious that I was considered

dangerous. I was stopped in the station by police and military

authorities, who had doubtless been warned of my arrival, and told

that I was not to go near the Bulgar frontier, much less cross it.

Only after some argument did they consent to let me stay two days in

the town. Then I was to leave for Belgrade by the early morning

train, and to make sure that I could not escape by any other route,

they confiscated my passport and said it should be returned to me at

the station when I left.

Tension between Serbia and Bulgaria was obviously extreme. By way of

warning, I was told that a Bulgar spy had just been caught and was

in prison. But I had come to see the carpet making and I saw it. The

carpets are very interesting. They are made in no other part of

Serbia and are in truth Bulgarian in origin. Pirot before its

annexation to Serbia in 1878 was an undoubtedly Bulgar district. Old

books of travel call Nish Bulgar. In Pirot a distinctly Bulgar cast

of countenance and build is to be seen. And the neighbouring

peasants play the bagpipe, the typical Bulgar instrument. The type

extends not only into the south of Serbia (of 1902), but in the east

spreads over the Timok. The population along the frontier and around

Zaitchar I found Bulgar and Roumanian, the flat-faced, heavily built

Bulgar with high cheekbones and lank black hair predominating--all

being Serbized, of course. Having seen the carpet making at Pirot, I

obediently appeared at the railway station at the appointed time as

bidden. Suddenly, the whole atmosphere changed. The same officials

who had received me so inimically now wanted me to stay! Having

first worn my quite respectable supply of patience almost

threadbare, the Serbs turned right round and did all they could to

efface first impressions. The whole thing seemed to me childish and

astonishing. But I profited largely by it and went the rest of my

way in comparative comfort.

By this time I had learnt that Serbia was in a state of intense

political tension, and that my ingenuous statement that I had come

straight from Cetinje had gone badly against me.

Stupid officials asked me so many leading questions that they

revealed far more than they had learnt and showed me quite clearly

that a plot to put Prince Mirko on the throne of Serbia at no

distant date, was believed to exist.

That most wily of Royal stud-grooms, Prince Nikola, had so married

his family that he undoubtedly believed that "What he lost on the

roundabouts he would gain on the swings," and that his position as

Head of Great Serbia was assured.

Having heard so much of the Petrovitches as the natural lords of

Great Serbia, this plan did not seem to me so unreasonable. But I

soon found it had very little support in Serbia. Only in the extreme

south--at Ivanjitza, Studenitza and thereabouts did I find

Montenegro at all popular.

Elsewhere it was looked on with jealousy and suspicion. The

Montenegrins, folk said, were incurably lazy and very dirty, and

their immigration into the country was not desired.

Some Montenegrin students came to the Serbian schools, but were

denounced as ungrateful and impossible. A Montenegrin, I was told,

was a lout who would sit all day on the doorstep wearing a revolver

and doing nothing, and would expect high pay or at least good keep

for so doing. In 1898 the Serb Government had actually forbidden the

immigration of Montenegrins.

In brief, it was clear Serbia would not accept a Montenegrin Prince

at any price, and Mirko's chances were nil.

Montenegro was despised. Bulgaria was hated--was the enemy, always

had been and always would be.

But even after I had been accepted by the country strange things

still happened.

At Kraljevo there was almost a fight over me between the Nachelnik

(Mayor) who ordered me to leave next day, and a man to whom I had

been given a letter of introduction. He said I should stay: the

other that I was to go, and they shouted at each other till both

were scarlet.

When mentioning this later to a company of Serbs they asked "What

was the name of the man you had an introduction to?" I gave it. They

exchanged glances. "That family was in trouble formerly about the

murder of Prince Michel" was all that was said. He was in point of

fact a partisan of the Karageorgevitch family. And the Mayor was a

pro-Obrenovitch.

At Kragujevatz I fell right into the Karageorgevitch party. That I

met them in strength in Kragujevatz is now a matter of interest. At

the time I little dreamed that from this straggling big village--it

could hardly be called a town--would emanate bombs that would set

Europe on fire.

The Royal Arsenal is at Kragujevatz, and when I was there in 1902

the place was certainly a centre of disaffection. It was here that I

was told outright that Alexander must either divorce Draga--or go.

What was to follow was uncertain. They wished, if possible, to avoid

a revolution. I was even begged to work a propaganda in favour of

Petar Karageorgevitch in England. Above all to write to The Times,

and my informants said they trusted to my honour not to betray their

names.

Had I pursued the subject I have now little doubt that I might have

learnt much more and even have got in touch with the leaders of the

movement--if indeed I had not already fallen into their hands! But

it was my first contact with a plot of any kind and I instinctively

recoiled from having anything to do with it. It is almost impossible

for those who have led a peaceful life to realize that real human

blood is going to be shed. The thing sounded more like melodrama

than real life. But it was definitely stated that "something was

going to happen" and that I should watch the papers and see at no

distant date.

My new acquaintances were vexed that I should have$ been so harassed

in the early stages of my journey, but oddly enough ascribed it not

to the folly of their own officials, but to the fact that the

British Consul had not given me letters of introduction! "If your

own Consul will not guarantee you, of course it seems suspicious!"

This remark alone is enough to show the abyss that separated Serbia

from West Europe. Politics in the Near East are an obsession--a

nervous disease which may end in acute dementia and homicidal mania.

Having decided to confide in me, folk then began pouring out

disgusting tales about Queen Draga. So disgusting that I soon cut

all tales short so soon as her name occurred. Nor is it now

necessary to rake up old muck-heaps. One point though is of

interest. Among many races all over the world there is a widespread

belief that sexual immorality, whether in the form of adultery or

incest will inevitably entail most serious consequences not only

upon the guilty parties, but upon the community as a whole, and even

menace the existence of a whole people. Thebes, for example,

suffered blight and pestilence owing to the incest of Oedipus. I

found it widely believed in Serbia that before marrying Alexander,

Draga had been his father's mistress and was told emphatically that

the marriage must bring a curse. Serbia could never flourish while

she was on the throne. It is highly probable that though the

subsequent murders were arranged and carried out for a definite

political purpose by an organized gang, they were acquiesced in by

the ignorant mass for the above reason--a genuine belief that there

was a curse on the land that would be removed only by Draga's death.

The country, I was told, was in a terrible state. None of the

officers had been paid for six months. Draga, it was said, took all

the money to buy diamonds. The wretched woman's little collection of

jewellery which was sold at Christie's after her death, proved,

however, the falsity of this tale. But it doubtless accounted partly

for the unbridled ferocity with which the military gang fell upon

her.

That there was not enough money to pay them seemed to me not

surprising, for the land swarmed with officers. I was told that in

proportion to its size there were more officers in Serbia than in

Germany and noted in my diary at the time "the whole land seems

eaten out of house and home with officers who seem to have nothing

on earth to do but play cards. It is a great pity for the country.

As soon as the peasants learn a little I expect they will turn

Socialist." An army is an expensive luxury and "Satan finds some

mischief still for idle hands to do" is a true saying. Serbia has

paid dearly for the lot of swankers, clad in most unnecessarily

expensive uniforms, whom I saw gambling in the cafes from morning

till night.

All these points are noteworthy in the light of the present. One

other may yet strongly influence the future of the Serb race. That

is their religious fanaticism, which then surprised me. It was not

astonishing that the Serbs hated Islam, but that they should

fiercely hate every other Christian Church I did not expect.

It is but one more instance of the fact that it was largely to the

fanaticism of the Orthodox Church that the Balkan people owed their

conquest by the Turks. Evidence enough there is to show that when

their fate was in the balance the Orthodox of the Balkans regarded

the Turk as a lesser evil than the Pope. Even in 1902, though a few

mosques were still permitted to exist, no Catholic Church was

tolerated save that attached to one of the Legations over which, of

course, the Serb Government had no control. Most of the foreign

women I met, who had married Serbs, told me frankly that for the

sake of peace they had had to join the Orthodox Church; "you cannot

live here unless you do."

The American missionaries who have done so much for Bulgaria and

were permitted to work freely under the tolerant Turk, were only

allowed to travel through Serbia on condition they held no services.

I was astonished at the intense bitterness with which the ex-Queen

Natalie's conversion to Rome was spoken of. As the poor woman had

led a wretched life in Serbia and had left it for ever, her religion

could be no concern whatever now of the Serbs. But it seemed to be

considered on all sides as an insult to the nation.

Nor was it, so far as I could see, because the people were devout

believers--the upper classes certainly did not appear to be--but

because the Church was Serbian, and represented a frenzied and

intolerant Nationalism. To such an extent was this carried out that

a Catholic Albanian, of whom I subsequently saw a good deal, had to

add "itch" to the end of his name and conform to the Orthodox Church

outwardly in order to obtain leave to open a shop in Belgrade.

That frenzied Nationalism and not religion is at the base of this

intolerance is further proved by hatred of the Serb for the

Bulgarian Church, which on all points of dogma and doctrine and in

its services is precisely the same as that of the Serbs.

And this same frenzied Nationalism, if persisted in, may yet lead to

Serbia's undoing.

On looking back I see that my tour in Serbia was a turning point in

my Balkan studies. Till then the Balkans had been a happy hunting

ground filled by picturesque and amusing people, in which to collect

tales, sketch and forget home miseries for a time in a quite new

world.

I left Serbia with very mixed feelings. Much of the tour I had

enjoyed. After the police difficulties of the beginning I had met

with great hospitality and much kindness and it is always a pleasure

to penetrate an unknown land, ride through great forests and see the

new view open at the top of the pass. When the Belgrade police

visaed my passport for the last time they bade me a friendly

farewell. But I was severely disillusioned as to Great Serbia.

Instead of brethren pining to be united, I had found a mass of dark

intrigue--darker than I then knew--envy, hatred and all

uncharitableness. No love was lost between Serb and Montenegrin.

Alexander was to divorce his wife or go. "Something" would happen

soon. And I knew that if Prince Mirko really aspired to the throne

of Serbia he would be disappointed--no matter which way the cat

hopped.

The Balkans were in future to be to me a Sphinx--an asker of

ceaseless riddles each of which led to one yet more complicated;

riddles which it took long to solve.

The riddle of my strange reception in Serbia was not explained until

four years afterwards. And the tale fits in rightly here.

It was Militchevitch who told me--he who had signed my passport in

the spring of 1902. I did not see him again till 1907. "I have been

reading your book," he said. "I wondered if you had noticed what

happened. I see you did at once."

"Noticed what!" I asked.

"That from the time you left Pirot you were differently treated." He

laughed. "Now it is all over long ago you may as well know. You have

no idea the excitement you caused. The Serbian Government spent a

small fortune in cypher telegrams about you." And he told this

astonishing tale: Among the banished members of the Karageorgevitch

family was a certain woman who came to England and studied at an

English college. She wore her hair short. When therefore I arrived

at Belgrade, as ignorant as any babe of the dark undercurrent of

politics, the Serbian police at once leapt to the conclusion that I

was the lady in question come on a political errand. My passport

bothered them as they could find no flaw in it. It was arranged to

keep me under supervision and Militchevitch was at once telegraphed

to. What did he know about the so-called Englishwoman whose passport

he had signed? He could only reply "Nothing." Followed an angry

telegram asking what business he had to sign the passports of people

of whom he knew nothing, and that in fact he had let one of the

Karageorgevitch gang get into the country, who was about to be

arrested. Much alarmed, he replied that he was under the impression

I was certainly English, and that it would be rash in the highest

degree to arrest me without further evidence. They then did all they

could to prevent my tour, short of forbidding it. My imperturbable

persistence thwarted them. Telegrams flew backwards and forwards.

London to Belgrade, Belgrade to London. Militchevitch was ordered to

make enquiries about me of the police, who knew nothing at all about

me, which surprised him. He ascertained, however, that persons of my

name actually lived at the address I had given and were locally of

good repute. He implored that my arrest--which was imminent--should

be delayed lest international complications ensued. Why the Serb

authorities did not impart their doubts to the British Consulate in

Belgrade must remain a Balkan mystery. Instead of doing so the Serb

police replied, "We are having her followed everywhere. The names of

all she speaks to are noted. She goes everywhere. She talks to any

one who will talk to her. She draws all kinds of things for what

purpose we cannot ascertain. She speaks Serbian very badly, but it

is evident she does so on purpose and that she understands

everything." My arrest was almost decided on, when some one had a

brilliant idea. A photograph of the suspected Serbian lady was

somehow obtained in England and Militchevitch was then able to swear

that it had no resemblance to the Englishwoman whose passport he had

signed. Serbia was saved--that time! I was then in Pirot. Orders at

once flew over the country that the treatment should be at once

reversed and that the unpleasant impression that had been produced

should be, as far as possible, obliterated.

The episode gives a clear idea of the state of nervous tension that

existed.

The sublime folly of the Serbian police consisted in thinking that

if I were really an agent of Prince Mirko, bringing messages and

intending to take them on to Sofia I should have been such a fool as

to tell every one I met that I had just come from Cetinje. But

perhaps they judged others by themselves. The semi-oriental mind is

born to suspicion and can conceive of no straightforward action. In

truth "DORA" hails from the Near East. Is not her very name of Greek

origin?

To me it was a useful experience for it hardened me to being

"shadowed," and I bore it serenely ever afterwards. So much so in

fact that when in 1915 at Marseilles I was twice cross-examined by

the French Intelligence Officers and three times and very minutely,

by the English ones, I thought it funny, which surprised them. They

would have been still more surprised had I told them that they

reminded me of the police of Belgrade, and asked them why they were

called "Intelligence."

Their efforts were as vain as those of their Serb forerunners and

for the same reason. I had no plots to reveal.

CHAPTER FIVE.

WHAT WAS BEHIND IT ALL

It is a strange Desire to seeke Power and to lose Libertie. . . .

The standing is slippery, and the Regresse is either a Downefall, or

at least an Eclipse. Which is a Melancholy Thing.--BACON.

I went to Serbia as a tourist, but, thanks to the misdirected energy

of the Serb police, was made aware for the first time of the unseen

forces which were at work in the Balkans. What these forces were we

must now consider. Since the end of the seventeenth century Russia

and Austria had competed for expansion into the Balkans. Each had

gone to war nominally, "to free Christians from the Turkish yoke,"

but actually in order to annex these populations themselves. Each,

by promoting risings in Turkish territory and by financing rival

Balkan sovereigns, had silently and ceaselessly worked towards the

same goal.

In the great game Montenegro, as we have seen, hall been Russia's

pawn since the days when Peter the Great sent his Envoy to Vladika

Danilo. Montenegro had become Russia's outpost in the West. Russia

was Montenegro's God--and her paymaster. "The dog barks for him that

feeds him!" says an Albanian proverb. Montenegro barked, and bit

too, at Russia's behest.

Serbia throughout the nineteenth century was rent by the ceaseless

blood-feud between the Karageorgevitches and the Obrenovitches, a

history bloody as that of the Turkish Sultans, the results of which

are not yet over--one that has so largely influenced the fate of yet

unborn generations that we must understand its outlines in order to

follow modern events.

Serbia, at the end of the eighteenth century, was bitterly

oppressed, not so much by the Turkish Government, as by the

Jannisaries, the insolent and all powerful military organization

which had broken loose from restraint and was now a danger to the

Turkish Empire. The Jannisaries actually elected their own chiefs

and were semi-independent. And of all the Jannisaries of the Empire

none were more opposed to the Sultan than those of Belgrade. Their

commanders called themselves Dahis and aimed at complete government

of the province.

It is a singular fact, and one which should be emphasized, that the

Jannisaries were themselves to a very large extent, of Balkan

origin. Their ancestors had been either forcibly converted or had,

as was not infrequent, voluntarily adopted Islam. The Moslem Serb

was a far greater persecutor of the Christian Serb than was the

Turk. We find that the leading Dahis of Belgrade hailed from Focha

in the Herzegovina.

Sultan Selim in, terrified of the growing power of these

Jannisaries, sided with his Christian subjects, sent troops against

them, and forcibly evicted them from Belgrade. A Turkish Pasha,

Hadji Mustafa, was appointed as Governor, whose rule was so just and

beneficent that the land was soon at peace and the grateful Serbs

called him "Srpska Majka"--the Serbian Mother.

But the Jannisaries had retired only as far as Widin which was

commanded by the brigand leader Pasvanoglu, whose savage hordes were

devastating the country-side in defiance of the Government. Together

they attacked the Serbs. Hadji Mustafa, true to his trust, organized

the Serbs to resist. The Serbs were now by no means untrained to

war, for many had served in the Austrian Army during the late

campaigns against the Turks. But the spectacle of a Turkish Pasha

inciting Christian rayah against an army of Moslems aroused the

wrath of the Faithful throughout the Empire. They demanded the

deposition of Hadji Mustafa and the re-admission of the Jannisaries

to Belgrade. The Sultan was unable to resist and the Jannisaries

returned. Thirsting to avenge the humiliation of their forced

retirement they assassinated Hadji Mustafa, seized power, and to

prevent a further Serb rising, fell upon the Serb villages and

murdered numbers of the headmen. By so doing they precipitated what

they wished to prevent.

The Serbs rose in mass and called Karageorge, grandfather of the

present King Peter of Serbia, to be their leader. He refused at

first, saying that his violent temper would cause him to kill

without taking council first. But he was told that the times called

for violence. Born of peasant stock about 1765, his upbringing was

crudely savage; his ferocity was shown from the first.

In 1787 a panic seized the peasants when an Austrian attack upon the

Turks was expected. To save themselves and their flocks from the

approaching Turkish army they fled in crowds, hurrying to cross the

Save and finding safety in Austria. George's father was very

reluctant to go, and on reaching the river would not cross it.

George, in a blind fury, refusing either to stay himself and make

terms with the Turks, or to leave his father behind, snatched the

pistol from his sash and shot the old man down. Then, shouting to a

comrade to give his father a death-blow, for he was still writhing,

George hurried on, leaving behind him a few cattle to pay for the

burial and the funeral feast.

On his return later to Serbia he took to the mountains for some time

as a heyduk or brigand.

Such was the man called on to lead the Serbs. Rough and completely

uneducated, he yet possessed that strange power of influencing men

which constitutes a born leader. His practice as a heyduk and a

natural capacity for strategy enabled him for long to wage

successful guerrilla warfare, which baffled the Turks. The dense

forests and the roadless mountains were natural fortresses of which

he made full use.

Alternating with astonishing outbursts of energy and ferocity, were

periods of sullen silence during which he sat for days without

speaking, gnawing his nails. That there was a strain of insanity in

his genius appears certain--an insanity which has reappeared in his

great-grandson and namesake who, subject to similar fits of loss of

control, used to terrorise the populace by galloping furiously

through village streets, and was finally forced to abdicate his

right to the throne in March 1909, after the brutal murder of his

valet. A case worth the study of students of heredity.

A contemporary of old Karageorge thus describes him:

"His bold forehead bound with a tress of black hair gave him a look

rather Asiatic than European. . . . This man was one of the bold

creations of wild countries and troublous times--beings of impetuous

courage, iron strength, original talent and doubtful morality."

The might of his personality overcame all obstacles. He appealed to

Russia for aid, and a Russian Minister was sent to Serbia along with

money and men. He freed and ruled over a large tract of land. But

his rule was not much milder than that of the Jannisaries, and his

harsh tyranny made him many enemies. When his wrath was once aroused

it was unrestrainable, and he struck down and killed many of his own

followers. Discontent arose and spread.

The Serbs divided into many parties, each with rival leaders.

Russia, who had supported Karageorge, was now herself engaged in a

life and death struggle with Napoleon. The Russian regiment which

had been quartered at Belgrade, left the country. The turn of the

Turks had now come. They attacked the Serbs in force. With no aid

from without to be hoped for, the country was in greater danger than

ever. But even common danger, as history has again and again shown,

does not suffice to cure that fatal Slav weakness--the tendency to

split into rival parties led by jealous chieftains. There was no

union among the Serb forces now, at the very hour when it was most

needed. And for some never explained reason Karageorge failed to

appear.

His Voyvodas struggled with the foe and were beaten back and

suddenly, in October 1813, Karageorge, the chosen leader of the

Serbian people, fled into Austria with a few followers, without even

having struck a blow.

This tragic and most fatal failure was due in all probability, to a

mental collapse to which his unstable and unbalanced nature would be

peculiarly liable.

The Austrians promptly interned both him and his men in fortresses,

but released them at the intercession of Russia, and they retired

into Bessarabia.

Meanwhile, his place was taken by Milosh Obrenovitch, also a

peasant, who led the Serb rising of 1815 with such success that he

was recognized as ruler, under Turkish suzerainty, of a considerable

territory. And as a ruler, moreover, with hereditary rights.

It is said that Russia never forgave the Obrenovitches that they

were appointed by the Sultan and not by herself. Scarcely was Milosh

well established when Karageorge returned from his long absence.

The break-up of the Turkish Empire had begun. The Greeks were in a

ferment. Russia supported them. The Hetairia had been formed and a

plan was afoot for a great simultaneous rising of Greeks and Serbs

and Roumanians. Karageorge was to be one of its leaders.

But Milosh was in power, id did not mean to relinquish it. And he

dreamed already of wide empire. He examined the question with

sangfroid and decided that if the Greek revolution succeeded in its

hopes, an Empire would be reborn in the East which would regard

Serbia as its province and might be more dangerous than the Turk.

Did not the Greeks, in the fourteenth century, call the Turks to

Europe to fight the "Tsar of Macedonia who loves Christ?" Milosh

remained faithful to the Turk, saying "Let us remain in Turkey and

profit by her mistakes." He suppressed all pro-Greek action,

executed twenty pro-Greek conspirators, and exposed their bodies at

the roadside, and--in an evil hour for Serbia--had Karageorge

assassinated and sent his head to the Pasha.

From that day onward the feud between the two houses raged with ever

increasing fury. Until to-day every ruler of Serbia has been either

exiled, murdered, or has had his life attempted.

"Family tradition comes first" says Vladan Georgevitch. "All the

families of Serbia have, from the beginning, been followers of

either the Karageorgevitches or the Obrenovitches." As time went on,

the Obrenovitches became the choice of Austria, while Russia

supported the Karageorges, and the puppets jigged as the Great

Powers pulled the wires.

Milosh's subjects revolted against his intolerable tyranny and

exiled him in 1839. His son Michel succeeded him, a cultivated man

who strove to introduce Austrian educational methods. He was evicted

in 1842, and the Karageorges again swung into power. Alexander,

father of King Petar, was put on the throne, only in his turn to be

chased out in 1858. And old Milosh came back and died in 1860

--fortunately for himself perhaps--for he was the same old Milosh,

and his renewed tyranny was again provoking wrath.

Serbia had now come to a parting of the ways. There was a Prince of

either line, and each had already occupied the throne. Michel

Obrenovitch was re-elected. All agree that he was the most

enlightened Prince that had as yet occupied the throne, but the

blood of old Black George was unavenged, and Michel paid the

penalty. He and his cousin, Madame Constantinovitch, and his

aide-de-camp were all assassinated on June 10, 1868, in the Park

near Belgrade. So set were the murderers on fulfilling their task

that they hacked their victim's body with forty wounds. The

complicity of Alexander Karageorgevitch and his son Petar--now King

--was proved. The plot was engineered by means of Alexander's

lawyer, Radovanovitch. The Shkupstina hastily summoned demanded the

extradition of the two Karageorgevitches of Austria, whither they

had fled, and failing to obtain it outlawed them and all their house

for ever and ever, and declared their property forfeit to the State.

Fifteen accomplices arrested in Serbia were found guilty and

executed with a barbarity which roused European indignation. We can

scarcely doubt what would have been the fate of the two principals

had they fallen into Serb hands. The grotesque fact remains that it

is to Austria that King Petar owes not only his crown, but his life!

It was an odd fate that thirty years afterwards gave me an

introduction to a relative of one of the conspirators, and almost

caused a fight to take place over me at Kraljevo.

The Karageorgevitches having been exiled by the unanimous vote of

the Shkupstina for ever--till next time--Milan, cousin of the

murdered Michel, succeeded him on the throne at the age of fourteen.

And there was a Regency till 1872.

Milan was a handsome dashing fellow with not too much brain--a

typical, boastful, immoral Serb officer.

As a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, in which, however, he

displayed little military skill, Serbia was raised from a

principality to a Kingdom.

Russia at this time showed little or no interest in Serbia. She was

devoting all her energy and diplomacy to the creation of a big

Bulgaria, which should ultimately serve her as a land-bridge to the

coveted Constantinople. She had no use then for Serbia, and was no

friend of the Obrenovitches, and in the Treaty of San Stefano dealt

so scurvily by Serbia that Prince Milan opposed the Treaty and said

he would defend Nish against Russian troops if necessary.

At the Berlin Congress, Milan called for and obtained a good deal

more land than Russia had allotted him--territory which was, in

fact, Bulgar and Albanian. He, moreover, made a Convention with

Austria by which the frontiers and dynasty of Serbia were

guaranteed. One of those many "scraps of paper" which fill the

World's Waste Paper Basket.

It was now plain that Milan, if allowed to gain more power, would be

an obstacle to Pan-slavism in the Balkans.

The claims of the disinherited and exiled Petar Karageorgevitch

began to be talked of. Nikola Pashitch, hereafter to be connected

with a long series of crimes, now appears on the scenes. Of

Macedonian origin, he soon became one of Russia's tools, and was

leader of the so-called Radical party, though "pro-Russian" would

be a more descriptive title. It was "radical" only in the sense that

it was bent on rooting up any that opposed it. Things began to move.

In 1883 Prince Nikola married his daughter to Petar Karageorgevitch,

and that same year a revolt in favour of Petar broke out at the

garrison town of Zaitshar. Oddly enough it was at Zaitshar in 1902

that I was most pestered by the officers to declare whom I thought

should ascend the Serbian throne should Alexander die childless. By

that time I was wary and put them off by saying "The Prince of

Wales!"

I have often wondered how many of those suspicious and swaggering

officers were among those who next year flung the yet palpitating

bodies of Alexander and Draga from the Konak windows while the

Russian Minister looked on.

The revolt of 1883 was quickly crushed and Pashitch, along with some

other conspirators, fled into Bulgaria for protection. Others were

arrested in Serbia and executed. The pro-Russian movement was

checked for a time.

Pashitch owed his life to Bulgaria, and not on this occasion only.

His subsequent conduct to that land has not been marked with

gratitude.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE GREAT SERBIAN IDEA

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,

When first we practice to deceive."--SCOTT.

The Great Serbian Idea--the scheme for the reconstruction of Tsar

Dushan's mediaeval Empire--now began to sprout and germinate. In

truth that Empire had been constructed by Dushan by means of

mercenary armies, partly German, by aid of which he temporarily

subdued Bosnians, Albanians, Bulgars and Greeks. And he paid those

armies by means of the silver mines, worked largely by Italians.

Great Serbia was an incoherent mass of different and hostile races,

and it broke to pieces immediately on his death. But five centuries

of Turkish rule in no way modified the hate which one Balkan race

bore for another. Each, on gaining freedom, had but one idea--to

overthrow and rule the other. Milosh Obrenovitch had already begun

to toy with the Great Serbian Idea when he refused to support the

Greeks in their struggle for freedom. The success of the wars of

1876-77 raised fresh ambitions.

But now there were two possible heads for Great Serbia--Milan

Obrenovitch, who had been raised to kingship, and who owed his

position to Austria; and Nikola Petrovitch, recognized as Prince of

an independent land, and "the only friend" of the Tsar of All the

Russias. The bitter rivalry, not yet extinct, between the two

branches of the Serb race--Serbia and Montenegro--now began.

One thing the Serb people have never forgotten and that is that in

Dushan's reign Bulgaria was Serbia's vassal. The reconstruction

simultaneously of Big Bulgaria and Great Serbia is impossible. And

neither race has as yet admitted that a middle course is the safest.