We left next morning, at nine, for Prishtina. Progress was very slow,
the road being more than ever blocked with columns and refugees. The
cold all day was bad enough, and but for straw-covered stirrups and
my wonderful rubber canvas boots, worn over three pairs of stockings,
I must have had frozen feet, but between 4 and 10 p.m. the cold was
intense.
Amongst many memorable days, that day stands conspicuous, for at dusk
we began to cross the historic battlefield of Kossovo. Upon this
desolate plain, which extends southwards to Skoplye, was fought, in
1389, the Waterloo of Serbia, the battle of Kossovo Polye (the field
of blackbirds). Upon this plain, the Serbs had suffered, at the hands
of the Turks, a defeat which robbed them of nationhood during nearly
500 years; a defeat which must have been the harder to bear because it
came after 200 years of flourishing empire; this empire had begun with
the Nemanya dynasty, under Stephen, in 1196, and had reached its zenith
under another famous Stephen--Stephen Dushan--who died mysteriously in
1355.
It was only in 1878, and, strangely enough, through the Treaty of
Berlin, that the Serbs regained their independence.
This Kossovo battle, more than any other in Balkan history, seems to
have gripped the imagination of both Turks and Serbians, conquerors
and defeated. Poets relate that the Turkish Amurath the First, though
a Sultan, and presumably accustomed to such pastimes, was enjoying a
honeymoon when he received news that the Serbs and Albanians had routed
his legions, in the fastnesses of the Black Mountain; he, therefore,
bade a hurried farewell to his bride, and, as there were no cars or
aeroplanes in those days, he galloped to Kossovo, accompanied, it is
said, by so many men "that a horseman could not ride from one wing of
his army to the other in a fortnight. The plain of Kossovo was one mass
of steel; horse stood against horse, man against man; the spears formed
a thick forest; the banners obscured the sun; there was no space for a
drop of water to fall between them."
But also on King Lazar's side, many Serbs, Bosnians, and Albanians
were banded together. They must have made a formidable array, for
legends record that at the last moment, Amurath hesitated to attack
the allied hosts, and that his doubts were only allayed by a dream
which came to one of his counsellors, bidding him to "conquer the
infidels." Lazar, also, seems to have been in touch with the heavenly
powers. They, metaphorically, rang him up just before the battle should
have begun, and asked him if he would rather have a heavenly, or an
earthly kingdom. If he chose the latter, he would be victorious over
the Sultan, but he could not have both, and if he wanted a heavenly
kingdom, he must submit to being defeated by the Sultan. Lazar appears
to have asked the exchange to hold the line whilst he made up his
mind; he finally decided upon the Kingdom of Heaven. The poets seem
universally to have approved his choice, but though it may have been
wisdom for himself, it was bad luck for his army, his dukes, and his
nine brothers-in-law, who perished with him. He should either not have
fought, or he should have fought meaning to win.
And now, when we set foot upon that steppe, it seemed that those 500
years that had passed since the first Kossovo day, had been expunged.
For the Serbian Army, now defeated by the allies of those same Turks,
was still, like a ghost from the past, fleeing across the silent
plain. The panoplies had fallen from their horses, the armour from
their men: it was now a skeleton army, in skeleton clothes, but it
was carrying the same soul, of the same nation, to guard as a holy
treasure, till the day of the Lord shall come. In the darkness, the
physical wonders of the place would have been hidden, but for the white
snow which outlined the low hills, and transformed their rolling ridges
into the foamy waves of a tempestuous sea, which seemed, on both sides
of the narrow road, to be advancing in tidal waves to engulf us, as we
moved slowly onwards, co-partners in that spectral flight.
At every few yards, corpses of oxen and of horses, and bodies of
oxen and of horses not yet dead, but unable to rise, kept the image
of Death foremost in the mind; and then, as though to give her cold,
green-blooded sanction to the scene, the moon rose over the hillocks,
sailed defiantly across the sky, revealed dead horrors of the present,
and recalled to the eye of the imagination, horrors which had lain
hidden during 500 years.
The moon revealed, also, one picture of dumb and hopeless misery never
to be forgotten. Apart from our funeral procession, nothing living, not
even the famous blackbirds, had been visible during mile after mile,
mile after mile, in all the wide expanse till, at a turn in the road,
I saw, a hundred yards to our left, standing up to his fetlocks in the
snow, abandoned, because it could no longer pull, a lean bay horse. It
was too weak to move, and it knew that if it lay down it would never
rise, but must succumb to a lingering death from cold and hunger; so
it stood, staring into nothingness, knowing that no help would come.
It was the dumbness of the misery that appealed, and I realised that
the misery of many of us who are suffering in this war, is almost as
dumb as the misery of that poor beast. And we shall remain dumb until
we have the courage to wrest the flaming sword from the hands of the
cherubim who guard the Tree of Life. The dictionaries tell us that
cherubim are second-class angels, so there ought to be no difficulty,
if the attack were only determined enough.
It was 9 p.m. when, cold and hungry, we sighted the picturesque town
of Prishtina, with its square-roofed houses and narrow streets. At
the entrance there was bad congestion--a phalanx of wagons were all
struggling to pass through a narrow alley, and whilst waiting our turn,
one of our men, who had gone on with the cars in advance, gave me a
shock. He told me that our two women doctors, and the nurses, were all
in a Turkish harem. It was true, and they much enjoyed the hospitality
of a kindly old Turkish gentleman.
The only possible site for the wagons for the night was in a muddy
square. I slept, as always, in the car, in one of the side streets, but
not till our faithful cook had given me some much-needed supper, as we
sat on little stools in the mud, round a fire which the soldier-cook,
Demetrius, had lighted for us in the street.
Next morning, early, a camping-site must be found, and I rode with
Vooitch along the Prizrend road. Very soon we saw, on our left, a large
hospital building, with an open grass space between it and the road.
This was the military hospital; we went in and asked the commandant to
allow us to encamp in the garden. He agreed, and he also kindly gave
us a room in the hospital for sleeping quarters for the doctors and
nurses, and in the garden a round summer house, which could be used as
kitchen, dining-room and sleeping-room for some of the men.
At Prishtina we were now, as I understood, at the parting of the ways.
If there was still hope of our joining the Allies, the Army would
continue on its southward journey, _via_ Prizrend, and we noticed, on
our arrival at the hospital site, that all the convoys were passing
along this road, in front of our camp, and that was a good sign. But
if this hope must be abandoned, then all hope of victory and all hope
of saving Serbia was at an end, and the only aspiration would be to
save the Army; for this there was only one road of salvation open--over
the mountains of Montenegro and Albania to the coast. This road, which
branched off from the Prizrend road, nearly opposite our camp, was at
present lifeless, and that was good.
In the town we met, to our astonishment, our Doctor MacMillan and Mr.
Rodgers. They gave us the news that Nurse Clifton had been accidentally
shot (as before mentioned). She was now lying ill at Mitrovitza, and
they had been to Prishtina for stores, and were now on their way
gallantly to rejoin her and Doctor Iles, and Nurse Bainbridge, with
the certainty of being taken prisoners by the Austrians, as "Ginger,"
though better, was too ill to be moved. (They returned safely to London
in February, 1916.)
Next day a young German officer strolled into our mess hut. He was
a prisoner, but the only restraint upon him was that he must report
himself at the military station every night. During the day he was as
free as we were, and he came and took meals with us several times.
His views upon the military position were interesting: the war had
been brought on by England; France had been the first to violate
Belgian territory; and the war would be finished in a month; there was
no chance at all for the Allies; we could not win; the Germans had
practically won already. Our hospital party would certainly be taken
prisoners in a few days. We told him that some of us had enjoyed one
experience of being prisoners in German hands, and that, though we had
no intention of being taken prisoners by anybody, we would rather fall
into the hands of the Bulgarians, the Turks, or the Austrians, than of
the Germans. We told him of our devil-major at Tongres, and he replied,
"Ah! you'll find you will be much better treated this time; you mark my
words." We have marked them ever since.
Other visitors were two blue-jackets from Admiral Trowbridge's unit,
which had done such fine work on the Danube. They were now, with their
guns, also in the general retreat, and were encamped near Prishtina.
But all day long, columns were still passing along the road in front
of us, towards Prizrend. "Terrai! Ide! Desno! Levo!" ("Get on! Make
a move! To the right! To the left!") was in our ears all day and all
night.
The difficulty of getting hay for the animals became greater every
day. I found this evening, when I went my round, that nothing had been
provided for the oxen, or the horses, for the night, or for the next
morning. So I routed Sandford out of his slumbers, and sent him to
neighbouring villages to search for fodder. He must have hated me. But
I have never wished to be popular; popularity is a drag on the wheel of
effort.
Prishtina was, of course, in process of being evacuated, and though we
were too late for food stores, we secured for the soldiers, from the
Red Cross depôt, a number of under-garments which were much needed.
There were, unfortunately, no boots, and the men's footgear was
deplorable.
November 20th arrived, and still I received no order to move. I was a
little uneasy lest the message should have miscarried, as the P.M.O.
had told me, when we first arrived, that we should be moving on at
once, and I noticed that the convoys which had, a day or two ago,
passed along the southern road to Prizrend, were now returning, and
taking the western road towards Montenegro. That was disquieting, for
I guessed that it might mean that the dice were loaded against us, that
the Allies had failed us, and that the intention of the Serbian Army to
continue southwards, through Prizrend to Monastir, there to join with
the Allies, must be abandoned. The Bulgarians were already at Skoplye,
and it was obvious that, if the Serbian Army risked encountering the
victorious Bulgars, and was not successful, the fate of the Army would
be sealed, for the road of retreat to Montenegro and Albania would then
be blocked by the Germans and the Austrians.
The moment of decision for the Headquarters Staff, between going south,
and risking the annihilation of the Army, upon which the existence of
a future Serbia depended, or going west, and abandoning their beloved
country to the enemy, must have been as bitter as any moment even in
Serbia's tragic history. We should learn the decision when our order
came to move.
But still no order came, though the columns all around us, artillery,
cavalry, and the pontoons on the other side of the hospital building,
had all gone. All the staff of the military hospital had gone. The
Secretary was a Russian. He was very bitter, and consequently unjust,
to the French and English. He said that the former were drinking
absinthe, and the latter whisky, at home, whilst Serbia perished. He
was busy evacuating his hospital, and he kept urging me to go, and
not to wait for the order. He said we should certainly be cut off by
the Bulgars, if we did not get away at once. Convoys which had gone
towards Prizrend, had been recalled, and all were now hurrying to the
Montenegrin frontier. Could I not hear that the Bulgarian guns sounded
louder and louder as they drew nearer every hour? But I wouldn't go
till the order came.
All that day I tried in vain to procure more oxen and wagons, as the
men said our oxen could not possibly carry all the material, but
without success, and I was obliged at last, reluctantly, to abandon the
large brown tent. The Russian Secretary allowed me to put it in his
hospital, which was then empty.
And still no order came. On the evening of Sunday the 21st, I sent
an orderly to try and find the Headquarters Staff, and to enquire if
there were any instructions for us. The man came back saying that
our order had been sent yesterday. "Has the P.M.O. sent the order
by you now, or given you a message?" "No, he said it would come." I
could not, therefore, leave, as I had not instructions as to where to
go, and didn't even know whether our road would be towards Prizrend,
or Montenegro. I couldn't send the orderly again that night, as the
Headquarters were a long distance away. We only had three riding horses
now, and they were exhausted, and must be spared for the next trek. And
every hour the Bulgarian guns thundered louder and nearer on one side
of us, and the German guns on the other.
Early next morning (Monday, November 22nd) I sent the orderly to
Headquarters, and told him that he must this time bring back a written
order, and at 7 a.m. he returned with the small white envelope. He had
seen the Divisional Commander, who was very angry when he heard that we
had received no order. We ought, he said, to have left two days ago,
and I must now make up for lost time.
Then came an exciting moment; were we to go towards Prizrend or
Montenegro? I have never opened an envelope with more acute anxiety,
for the fate of the Serbian Army, and of the Serbian people, would be
disclosed. And if the fate of my own army and my own people had been
contained in that small envelope, I could not have felt more deeply
concerned.
The order said: "Take your column at once to Petch (near the
Montenegrin frontier) _via_ Valorno Han, Kievo, Lapushnik, and Dresnik,
and _don't halt till you get to Dresnik_." That was, I knew, the
temporary death sentence of the Serbian nation. It meant that our
backs, the backs of the Serbian Army, would now be turned to hope,
Allies, and victory, and we must face--better not think of what we
might have to face. Thoughts and energies must be concentrated in
saving all we could of the Serbian Army, for future effort. This
thought must be our beacon to lead us on with firm step and determined
heart.
We were ready to start when the messenger returned at 7 a.m. (Monday,
November 22nd), but the difficulty of getting into the line was great,
because convoys and fugitives were now converging from all directions,
on this one road of escape.
The cars went on first; they were to wait for us after half an hour's
run; but when we came to the first cross road, we discovered that they
had taken the wrong turn, so I had to send messengers flying after
them, and we waited for them, with the column, by the side of the
road, on an open plain. The cars returned, but we could not get back
on to the road or regain our position in the line. We were by then
surrounded by a solid block of convoys, on the plain beside the road. A
glove could not have been dropped clear, amongst that chaos of wagons,
horses, oxen, soldiers and refugees.
When the cars arrived I sent for the sergeant; he couldn't be found,
so I searched, and found him playing cards with the sergeants of
other columns. He said it was hopeless to expect to move to-day; some
of the columns had been already waiting here for two days; we had
better make up our minds to spend the night here. It was true that the
columns around us had outspanned their oxen, and the men were sitting
complacently round their ubiquitous fires, though the Bulgarian guns
were dinning louder and louder every minute in their ears. It certainly
looked hopeless to expect that jumble of wagons, animals and men, ever
to disentangle themselves and break away into the serried line of
convoys, artillery, transport, and refugees, which were all streaming
without a break, along the road beside them. A more complete nightmare
it would be difficult to picture. But I told the sergeant that we must
get on at once; our oxen must not be outspanned; I didn't care what
other columns did; if they chose to be taken by the Bulgars, that
was their affair. He said it was impossible to get on to the road;
we couldn't move either forward or backward, and between us and the
road, and parallel with the road, was a broad deep ditch. There was,
he said, nothing to be done but to wait patiently--the fatal doctrine
of Kismet, by which he had been all his life impregnated. He was never
resourceful, and now despair had paralysed him. But I had no intention
of calmly letting the column be captured by the Bulgars, so I examined
the ditch near to us, sent for some of the soldiers, told them to bring
spades, and then ordered them to level the ditch. This was soon done. I
then warned the column to be ready to move at a moment's notice, and,
with Vooitch, I stood on the road watching an opportunity to break in.
We stopped an officer who was commanding a passing column and asked
him to insist on our having a place after his column; as we were a
hospital we had, by right, precedence over many others. He responded
by immediately stopping the columns behind him, and he gave us a place
just behind the carriage in which was riding the General of the Kossovo
Division. I heard afterwards that some thousands of the people whom we
left behind on the plain, when we crossed that ditch, were captured by
the Bulgars.