These had been busy days for Nikita and his sons. A royal order was
issued to the Montenegrin military and police authorities, commanding
them to prevent the population from giving or selling any provisions
to the Serbian army. "Ne bogami, svetoga mi Vassilija ne!" ["Goodness
gracious, no! And by St. Basil, no!"] was the phrase which greeted the
Serbs;[98] and when they remonstrated with the Montenegrins for
demanding eleven Serbian dinars in silver for ten Montenegrin
perpers--the exchange was at par, but the people were acting under
orders--"If I had ten sons I would give them to King Peter," was the
usual reply, "but money is money." Yet the Austrians were not as
grateful as they might have been. Nikita was intending, after the
annihilation of the Serbs, to conclude a separate peace with Austria
and to rule, as an Austrian satrap, over an enlarged territory. But
they ignored his aspirations; they did not take into account that he
had been so kind to them at Lov[vc]en and elsewhere. They swarmed over
his country--this time he was not play-acting when he showed his
indignation--and the deceived deceiver was forced to fly. On January
10, Lov[vc]en had fallen. A characteristic telegram:
Ku[vc]a mi gori,
Ku[vc]i mi trebaju--
["My house is burning, I want the Ku[vc]i"] was sent by Nikita to his
best fighting men, the Ku[vc]i, whom he had left in reserve at
Danilovgrad. When General Gajni['c] received this he marched all night
with his brigade and reached Cetinje in the morning. Nikita met them
and announced that, after all, he did not require them. He would
conquer without them. And Lov[vc]en fell.
That Adriatic Gibraltar, which rises gaunt and sheer to some 6000
feet, was entrusted by Nikita to his youngest son, Prince Peter, a
young man of marvellous vanity. He used to deny, after the surrender
of Lov[vc]en, that he had consorted at Budva with Lieut.-Colonel
Hupka, the former military attache at Cetinje, whom the Austrians
brought specially from the Italian front for this purpose. The
well-known patriot, Dr. Machiedo of Zadar, who happened to be confined
during the summer of 1915 by the Austrians in the fortress of
Gora[vz]da, which lies above Kotor, read in the telephone book certain
messages from Prince Peter, asking for an interview with Hupka--these
messages were carried by a patrol to the lines and thence telephoned
to Gora[vz]da. When the Prince at last acknowledged that he had been
meeting Hupka--which he naturally had done at his father's command--he
stated that it was with the object of preventing the bombardment of
open towns by Austrian aeroplanes. Between him and Hupka the
arrangements were made; many of the Austrians exchanged their military
boots for the Serbian national sandals, so that they could more easily
scale the rocks; and Peter sent verbal orders to his two outlying
brigadiers that they must not resist. General Pejanovi['c] demanded,
however, that this should be put in writing, and the document is
extant. Thirteen Austrians lie buried in a little graveyard on the
slopes of Lov[vc]en, mostly men who missed their footing; and this was
the price that Austria paid for the tremendous mountain that she had
coveted for years; she had been willing, more than once, to let the
Montenegrins, in exchange for it, have Scutari. The great picture of
"The Storming of Lov[vc]en," which Gabriel Jurki['c], the Sarajevo
artist, was commissioned by the Austrians to paint, was never painted;
and when Nikita motored out from Cetinje to meet the men who were
retiring from Lov[vc]en he had the hardihood to rebuke them as
traitors. "It is not we who are traitors," shouted a colonel, "it is
you and your sons!" "Oh! that I must hear such words!" groaned the
King, "I want to die!" But he did not die; on the contrary, he went to
Paris. His eldest son had announced, early in the campaign, that he
was unwell, and he had gone to France by way of Athens. There he was
very accurately told by Constantine in which month Mackensen and the
Bulgars would descend upon Serbia. When the Prince arrived at Nice he
mentioned this to his friend, Jovo Popovi['c], the former Montenegrin
Minister at Constantinople, and to Radovi['c]. They advised him to
inform the Entente, in order to rehabilitate himself. But when he
telegraphed to his father the reply was "Be quiet." Prince Danilo has
never denied the allegations that while he was at Nice, Signor
Carminatti, the Montenegrin Consul-General in Milan, conducted
negotiations on his behalf at Lugano with a certain Herr Bernsdorf of
the Deutsche Bank, with a view to a separate peace by Montenegro. The
amount of the financial consideration is not known. And the
business-like Prince, realizing that it would be impossible for him to
return to his native land, secured himself against the future by
selling, through a couple of confidential agents, his real estate to
the Austrians. He likewise disposed of a good deal of forest which is
alleged to have belonged not to him but to the State, and when his
father heard of the resulting sum of a hundred million francs he was
exceedingly annoyed that this robbery and trafficking with the enemy
during the War had only replenished Danilo's and not his own
exchequer. When his political opponents heard of these transactions he
denied, over and over again, that they had taken place; but we have
his autograph letter on the subject to Danilo. Before the King left
Montenegro he found another opportunity for a grandiose attitude. He
appeared at Podgorica where he made an eloquent speech, exhorting his
people to march on the morrow against the hated Austrian and assuring
them that their old King would fire the first shot, whereas he
decamped in the night for Scutari, which is in the opposite direction.
He and the Queen, Prince Peter and Miu[vs]kevi['c], the Premier, fled
the country; while Prince Mirko, the remainder of the Cabinet, the
National Assembly and--above all--the army had instructions to remain
behind. How much easier it would have been for his army than for the
Serbs to reach Corfu. But this terrible old man delivered 50,000 of
the best Yugoslav soldiers to the enemy. On January 21 he sailed away.
I do not know if anybody sang the National Anthem--"Onamo! Onamo!"
["Yonder! Yonder!"]--which in his youth Nikita had himself composed.
And a few years later when the gallant Montenegrins could again lift
up their voices and sing "Onamo!" how many of them thought of him who
was skulking and of course intriguing yonder in France.
We have alluded to the treatment which in their distress the Serbs
received from their Italian Allies; but in Albania the Italian army
did render a certain amount of assistance--every day at eleven o'clock
the Austrian aeroplanes would reach Durazzo, and the Italian soldiers,
sentries and all, would rush helter-skelter from the plentiful food to
which they were just sitting down. The Serbs, many of them, after
their privations, looking like grey ghosts, were always in the
neighbourhood of the Italian barracks and very glad they were to see
those aeroplanes which permitted them to enter in and enjoy a
bounteous meal. When the senior Italian officer complained to his
Serbian colleague, "Surely," said the latter, "you have a sentry at
the door. He can prevent anyone from going in." At some distance
inland a Serbian major, a friend of mine, was resting on the side of
the road; he had eaten nothing for four days. A spick-and-span Italian
lieutenant of _gendarmerie_ paused in front of him and was clearly
interested. The major wondered whether he would have some food about
him. But the lieutenant did not even offer him a cigarette. "Pardon
me," he said with a friendly smile, "but will you allow me to take a
photograph?" Large numbers of mules were brought over by the Italians
and apparently it gave them pleasure to cut their throats. The
officers purchased many Serbian horses--their owners were too
destitute to bargain. But in fairness it must be said that some
Italian ships worked with the French and British vessels in conveying
the Serbs, soldiers and civilians, from the coast of Albania.
As for the Montenegrin King, he had attempted, before his departure,
to put the whole blame on the shoulders of Colonel Pe[vs]i['c]. He
sent--in order to make more certain the success of the Austrian
army--a telegraphic command[99] to the Voivoda Djuro Petrovi['c], the
chief of the Herzegovinian detachment, in which he required him to
destroy his cannons and machine guns and then (although the enemy was
exerting no pressure upon him) to withdraw towards Nik[vs]i['c]. This
order was issued in the name of Colonel Pe[vs]i['c], the signature
being forged. In fact Nikita thought his Serbian Chief of Staff was
quite a useful personage. But there exists a letter in which the
Colonel wrote that, in order to avoid capitulation, a supreme effort
would be necessary at certain positions which he indicated and anyhow
the army should be withdrawn to Scutari and the defence of the town
organized. Scutari, by the way, was the scene of another of Nikita's
exploits: he caused the Bank of Montenegro to send money to the
Austrian Consul there, the cash being delivered by Martinovi['c], the
Montenegrin Consul. It was used to incite the Albanians to take
military action against the Serbs between Prizren and Djakovica. When
this affair was exposed all the Montenegrins knew by what traitors
they were governed. The fall of Montenegro had been brought about more
swiftly by the Austrian submarines which in the Gulf of San Giovanni
di Medua torpedoed practically every ship that carried food or
munitions, while other boats were not molested. An investigation
showed that the shipping news had been telegraphed to Prince Peter,
and he in his turn handed it on to the Austrians. The Prince's
egregious parent wanted to be in a position to say that, owing to the
lack of food and munitions, he had been compelled to surrender. One of
his final acts was to summon the Skup[vs]tina, as he did not wish to
be saddled with the responsibility of making peace. At a secret
sitting on December 11, 1915,--when the retreating Serbs were in San
Giovanni, Scutari and Podgorica,--the Government declared that they
had no resources, that the Entente could not assist them and that they
would wage war for so long as they had the means--in other words, that
the war would cease. It was continued, however, by those Montenegrin
troops between Kola[vs]in and Bielo Polje, who--even after the fall
of Lov['c]en on January 10, and the flowing of the Austrian army
towards Scutari--were ordered to make a counter-offensive, during
which they had over 1500 dead and wounded. The reason for this was
that Nikita wished to prevent his army from escaping to Scutari; he
was afraid lest, if they escaped with the Serbs, they would dethrone
him forthwith. Afterwards he gave an explanation that he had ordered
the Chief of Staff, Yanko Vukoti['c], to rescue the army, which order
he alleged he had wirelessed from Brindisi. Vukoti['c], together with
Prince Mirko and the Ministers who stayed behind, declared in the
_Pester Lloyd_ that Nikita was lying. They added that he could have
sent no wireless from Brindisi, because there was at that time no
receiving station in Montenegro, the French one at Podgorica having
been destroyed at the order of the British Minister, Count de Salis,
the doyen of the diplomatic corps. The King, by the way, had
endeavoured for some time to rid himself of the diplomats, who were
inconvenient witnesses of what was in progress. On December 31 a
telegram was sent by the Ministers of France, Great Britain, Italy and
Russia, in which they said that "Apparently our presence is
displeasing to the King and he is trying to disengage himself from us.
He has begged us on several occasions to depart and last night he
insisted, with the asseveration that in forty-eight hours it would be
too late. We suspect that His Majesty is playing a very ambiguous
game...." And on January 9 the French Minister telegraphed, among
other things, that "My Russian and English colleagues are of opinion
that the King is merely performing a comedy with us and that this
comedy will end in a tragedy for the belligerents." Nikita, on his
arrival in France, proposed to settle down at Lyons, but the French
authorities did not care for him to be so close to Switzerland, which
was one of his intriguing centres. So they placed at his disposal a
chateau near Bordeaux and it was not until he had made repeated
requests that they permitted him to come to Neuilly, a suburb of
Paris. He replaced Miu[vs]kevi['c] as Premier by Radovi['c], the
former victim of the Bomb Trial, hoping by this move towards the Left
to silence his critics. But in August 1916 Radovi['c] presented a
memorandum in favour of the formal union between Montenegro and
Serbia, under King Peter's son and King Nicholas' grandson, Prince
Alexander. The Montenegrin monarch was enraged at this and, after
Radovi['c] had resigned, one after another all the Montenegrins of any
standing withdrew from Nikita, who was openly working against the
Serbs. He and the Princess Xenia conducted all the Government
business, though he distributed among his tiny clique of adherents
various empty titles. An aged friend of his, Eugene Popovi['c], a
native of Triest and a naturalized Italian, was made Premier, to give
pleasure to Italy; a more active person was the War Minister,
Hajdukovi['c], a former shipping contractor in Constantinople, where a
long time ago he had been one of those young Montenegrins who, to the
number of twenty, the Sultan used to educate--a process which, in the
case of idle boys, was not very irksome. During the Great War
Hajdukovi['c] was invited by the Allies to quit Salonica, as they had
certain suspicions against him. He had also, on behalf of his King,
urged the Montenegrin volunteers who had managed to get to Salonica
not to allow themselves to be commanded by Serbian or French officers,
but to demand Montenegrin officers, of whom there was no adequate
supply. These men had ultimately to be sent to Corsica and kept there
till the end of the War. What Hajdukovi['c] performed at Salonica,
another royal agent, one Vukovi['c], a bootmaker, attempted at
Marseilles, where he continually went on board the vessels that were
bringing Montenegrins and, to a smaller extent, other Yugoslavs from
the United States and South America to the Salonica front. These
travelled men were less easily influenced than those who obeyed
Hajdukovi['c]; but 300-400 did refuse to proceed. They were installed
in a factory at Orange, where the Montenegrin Government fed them and
paid them. Now and then they were encouraged by being told that if
they had gone to the Front the Serbian officers would have flogged
them.... And so the little Court at Neuilly occupied the years with
many a congenial intrigue. Feelers were stretched out to this country,
where an English edition of Radovi['c]'s _Montenegrin Bulletin_, the
pro-Yugoslav organ, was being published by my friend Vassilje Buri['c]
to the furious indignation of the busybodies who supported the King
and of the Italian Embassy. From these two sources and from Neuilly
the Foreign Office was bombarded with protests, begging it in the name
of justice, etc., to put a stop to this dire scandal. One day a
charming Foreign Office clerk, an acquaintance of mine, had Buri['c]
to lunch at the Royal Automobile Club; in the course of the meal he
suggested that, as Buri['c] was not looking well, they two should have
a little holiday in France. Buri['c] said he would be very glad to go
with him, but he thought it would be nice to stay in England. The
charming official held out for the Continent, and with such obstinacy
that Buri['c] at last put his hand upon his arm and invited him to
promise that they would both of them come back to England. Thereupon
the host acknowledged that a perfect flood of letters had been pouring
on the Foreign Office with respect to the _Montenegrin Bulletin_, and
they were weary of receiving them.... Sometimes the Neuilly Court was
plunged in gloom, as when old Tomo Oraovac's little book appeared with
seventy-five awkward questions to Nikita. For three days the King shut
himself up in his room, trying to decide as to whether he should issue
an answer. He decided to do nothing. Now and then a French review or
newspaper referred to him. "The official courtesies extended by the
French Government to Nicholas I. and his family should not deceive the
public," said the eminent publicist Monsieur Gauvain in the _Revue de
Paris_ (March 1917). M. Gauvain showed that the Petrovi['c] dynasty
constituted the sole obstacle to a union of Montenegro with Serbia and
the rest of the Yugoslav lands. As Nikita drove past the office of the
_Revue de Paris_ he may have been thinking, rather wistfully, of that
brave afternoon at Nik[vs]i['c].[100] ... Sometimes the old man was
worried by his sons. Peter, for example, who had been the spoilt child
and who had been given posts for which he was unfitted, now discovered
in himself, during the autumn of 1918, a great desire to obtain a
certain Madame Violette Brunet, the legal wife of Monsieur Brunet, who
was in Nikita's service. The ardent lover, regardless of the ancient
Montenegrin custom which inflicted stoning on the guilty married
woman, while the husband sometimes cut her nose off, wrote to his
parents, asking them to arrange the matter, and when the ex-King
raised objections, Peter blackmailed him by threatening to divulge to
the world at large all the unsavoury details connected with Lov['c]en.
"My dear son," wrote Nikita in November 1918,[101] "You write again
asking me to send an emissary to represent myself and your mother in
suing for the hand of the woman of your choice, failing this, you say
you will make a scandal whereby the honour of both of us and of the
whole family will suffer; to obviate this unpleasant possibility we
may see our way to agree to your wish, but under the following
conditions...."