en, now a radiant Montenegrin bride and
Christian. Several Turks had been caught endeavouring to approach the
church with revolvers concealed, but were promptly turned back.

And so ended an eventful week.

One day, quite by accident, we discovered the arrest-house, or place
where prisoners are detained pending their trial and sentence. We were
passing a door which led down by a few steps into a courtyard, when an
acquaintance of ours accosted us.

We went inside and spoke to him for some minutes. He was a merry
individual and a clerk in a Government office.

He requested us to bring our camera and photograph him on the next
day. Then he moved and a chain clanked. Neither of us had realised
that this was a prison till that moment, though we had passed that
door many times.

Next day we came again, and took a picture of our genial friend, whom
we found seated and playing the gusla to a crowd of other prisoners,
some exceedingly heavily chained.

One or two guards came up and we spent an hour in a pleasant chat.

Our friend was only "in" for a few days for making a rude remark about
the Chief of Police. The chained men were mostly murderers, if we may
use such a harsh term for those who are compelled to kill their
enemies by the relentless laws of the vendetta, and who would be
punished by the laws of man should they prove themselves guilty of
cowardice.

The vendetta in Montenegro is a legal anomaly. Men are punished in
either case.

CHAPTER XVIII

S. Vasili and Ostrog--Our drive thither--Joyful pilgrims--Varied
costumes--We meet the Vladika of Montenegro--The ordeal of hot
coffee--A real pilgrimage--The shrine of S. Vasili--The ancient
hermit--A miracle--Niksic--The gaudy cathedral and the Prince's
palace--We are disappointed in Niksic.

Though we visited the famous Monastery of Ostrog at the very beginning
of our visit to Montenegro, and Niksic at the conclusion, both places
lie so near together that we put them now in this order for the sake
of simplicity.

It was our good fortune to be enabled to witness the annual pilgrimage
to the shrine of S. Vasili, which takes place during the Greek
Whitsuntide.

Ostrog is the Lourdes of the Balkans, as many equally miraculous cures
take place as at the Roman Catholic rival in the Pyrenees. The
Serb-speaking races from far and near flock there in enormous numbers,
as well as many Mahometans and Catholics.

S. Vasili (or Basil) was a native of the Herc