1813 was a fatal year for Napoleon and for this first attempt to build
a Yugoslavia. It was a fatal year for the first effort to construct
again a Serbian State. Burning with the hope of liberation, no less
than four Serbian armies had assembled and advanced victoriously
against the Turk. One of the most outstanding episodes was the heroic
death of Stephen Sindjelini['c] at T[vs]egar, near to Ni[vs]. As he
was in a hopeless case, no reinforcements having come, he told his men
that they must die, but as the Turks outnumbered them so more of these
must perish than of Christians. He waited till the Turks pressed
closely round him and then fired the magazine. In vengeance for this
deed the Turks piled up a pyramid of Serbian soldiers' heads; they
called it Tchele-Koula (Tower of Skulls), and for many years it was at
Ni[vs] a veritable Turkish monument. King Milan built a wall around
it; afterwards it was removed. And so the Serbs continued their long
fight. It seemed to some of them that the authority of Kara George had
grown excessive. They convoked a national assembly, which decided to
set up a Ministry of six and a tribunal. Kara George was--in agreement
with his Ministers--to nominate the prefects of the various
departments. While the Serbs were settling these internal matters,
Russia made her peace in 1812 with Turkey. As for Serbia, it was
arranged that the new fortresses would be demolished and the towns be
occupied by Turkish garrisons. Thus all that Serbia had won, and at
the cost of so much blood, would now be stolen from her. Once again
did Kara George and his companions take the field, but this time they
were overpowered. Many fled to Hungary, among them Kara George, and
were imprisoned. Others stayed in Serbia, and of these a great many
were slaughtered by the Turks. They say that sixty were impaled on
each side of the road which enters Belgrade, among them priests and
monks, whose bodies were consumed by dogs.
But Illyria and Serbia lived as inspirations.
* * * * *
Nearly thirty years after the Austrians came back to Illyria they, at
the request of the Sultan, forbade the use of that name, except as
one of their Emperor's string of titles. Turkish susceptibilities were
not ruffled if he chose to call himself King of Illyria. Was he not
also King of Jerusalem? There had been anxiety at Constantinople as to
the effect which the name of Napoleon's province was producing on the
Slavs of Bosnia. Considering the Austrian policy, this was not a
glittering diplomatic triumph for the Turks. Had they approached the
Austrians much earlier it is improbable that they would have been met
with any very strenuous refusal. In their own phrase, a phrase that
was used by Osman Pasha when he heard of the violent disputes between
the Russians and Roumanians as to which of them had been the first to
batter the defences down and take by storm the mighty Plevna--"Any
pig," said he, "can walk in at an open door."