ompany of the prisoners and their
warders. The handsome young director of prisons usually accompanied
us, ostensibly but to bear us company, though doubtless he was acting
on higher orders, and had instructions to see that our eccentricities
did not go too far.

We organised sports on some occasions, chiefly consisting of putting
the weight, _i.e._ a large stone, but they _would_ swindle and
invariably overstepped the limit line, declaring that they hadn't
afterwards.

But it was their stories that we loved to listen to. They were mostly
harmless quarrellers, for we shunned the debased thieving criminal; a
man who could steal was vigorously excluded from our circle. There was
one exception, however, and he was a Hungarian, a deserter from his
regiment. That in itself is not a punishable crime, but he had eased
the regimental cash-box of a thousand kronen at the time of his
departure, and was awaiting the result of investigations. He
maintained that the money was his, and was quite indignant when it was
hinted that he must have stolen it; but unluckily he destroyed any
belief in his honesty by invariably contradicting himself as to how he
came by it. But he was such a good-natured, pleasant-spoken man that
we let him sit by our side and prevaricate, till we bade him cease
from further blackening his soul.

We gleaned a lot more information from the young director of the
prison, and amongst it the method of recapturing escaped prisoners. In
the central prison at Podgorica, if a prisoner escapes, the rest of
the criminals are sent out to catch him. Very often they find him, and
never has a prisoner abused this privilege, all punctually returning
by a given date.

We stayed at Reinwein's inn, an unpretentious building, both as
regards the exterior and interior, but as Reinwein himself is a
Viennese, and has been for twelve years in the service of the Prince,
acting often as cook, it is quite safe to say that at his house the
best cooking in the whole of Montenegro is to be found. Coming into
the country this would not be so noticeable, but after months in other
Montenegrin towns the cooking is most appreciable. We spent very happy
evenings in his bare little dining-room, with a decidedly cosmopolitan
gathering. The most noticeable feature was the number of languages in
use. Even Dalmatia, Bosnia, and the Hercegovina, where a
three-languaged man is the rule, paled into insignificance. There was
a Turkish official stayi