Many of the Bulgars were as eager to associate themselves with
Michael. In 1862, when Belgrade was bombarded by the Turks, Rakovski
got together a Bulgarian legion which would fight in Serbia against
the common foe; in 1867 the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee at
Bucharest, where these leaders of the people had sought sanctuary,
proposed the union of Bulgaria and Serbia under Michael. "Between the
Serbs and the Bulgars," says the first article, "there shall be
established a fraternal union calling itself the Yugoslav Kingdom." If
this idea had been put forward by any one but Rakovski one might
consider it a mere fantastic notion, but the Bulgars who elected this
extraordinary man to be their chief were, as is the habit of the
Bulgars, nothing if not practical.