, but
he could never save enough money to make the journey. This was an
obvious falsehood. But the story of his coming to Montenegro seemed
true. He was a sergeant of an Austrian infantry regiment, and had
attempted to cut down his superior officer in a fit of rage, severing
his ear with a sabre. He fled to the Montenegrin border, which was
quite close to his garrison, and has been in Montenegro ever since,
wearing the national costume and married to a girl of the country.
Stephan was certainly a most violent-tempered man, but he was often
entertaining, full of fun, a decent cook, and could sing a host of odd
songs and snatches picked up in Austrian garrison towns. Otherwise he
was a thorough Montenegrin, though he considered himself vastly their
superior. His temper at other times would be vile, but the mastery
over himself was really great, and after a sharp remonstrance he could
change his mood completely.

Taking the omnibus of the Anglo-Montenegrin Trading Company, rudely
dubbed "the Hearse," to Plavnica, the station for Podgorica on the
Lake of Scutari, we transferred our luggage to a huge barge, or
"londra," and were slowly punted out on to the lake through one of
those extraordinary canals which intersect the marshy land at this end
of the lake. There the good ship _Danitza_, owned by the same company,
awaited us, and conveyed us to Virpazar, past our island of Vranjina
and its little chapel.

[Illustration: VIRPAZAR]

Virpazar is the scene of the Montenegrin Vespers in 1702, and one of
the richest villages in the district. Prettily situated up a long
estuary of the lake, it is nothing but a collection of about twenty
small houses, with arched ground floors, the people living on the
first floor. The village is frequently flooded in the winter.

The importance of this village lies in the fact that it is the
connecting link--and a very bad one at that--between the rest of
Montenegro and the sea. But no road connects it with the mainland, and
travellers from Cetinje or Podgorica must take the steamer from either
Rijeka or Plavnica to Virpazar, and from thence a good road leads over
the Sutormann Pass to Antivari. A road which is being built between
Virpazar and Rijeka will supply a long-felt want. At present, when the
Prince or Crown Prince wish to visit their favourite residence on the
sea at Topolica, near Antivari, the horses have to be sent by a
roundabout mountain path from Rijeka, taking many hours, whil