little or no interest in Serbia. She was
devoting all her energy and diplomacy to the creation of a big
Bulgaria, which should ultimately serve her as a land-bridge to the
coveted Constantinople. She had no use then for Serbia, and was no
friend of the Obrenovitches, and in the Treaty of San Stefano dealt
so scurvily by Serbia that Prince Milan opposed the Treaty and said
he would defend Nish against Russian troops if necessary.

At the Berlin Congress, Milan called for and obtained a good deal
more land than Russia had allotted him--territory which was, in
fact, Bulgar and Albanian. He, moreover, made a Convention with
Austria by which the frontiers and dynasty of Serbia were
guaranteed. One of those many "scraps of paper" which fill the
World's Waste Paper Basket.

It was now plain that Milan, if allowed to gain more power, would be
an obstacle to Pan-slavism in the Balkans.

The claims of the disinherited and exiled Petar Karageorgevitch
began to be talked of. Nikola Pashitch, hereafter to be connected
with a long series of crimes, now appears on the scenes. Of
Macedonian origin, he soon became one of Russia's tools, and was
leader of the so-called Radical party, though "pro-Russian" would
be a more descriptive title. It was "radical" only in the sense that
it was bent on rooting up any that opposed it. Things began to move.
In 1883 Prince Nikola married his daughter to Petar Karageorgevitch,
and that same year a revolt in favour of Petar broke out at the
garrison town of Zaitshar. Oddly enough it was at Zaitshar in 1902
that I was most pestered by the officers to declare whom I thought
should ascend the Serbian throne should Alexander die childless. By
that time I was wary and put them off by saying "The Prince of
Wales!"

I have often wondered how many of those suspicious and swaggering
officers were among those who next year flung the yet palpitating
bodies of Alexander and Draga from the Konak windows while the
Russian Minister looked on.

The revolt of 1883 was quickly crushed and Pashitch, along with some
other conspirators, fled into Bulgaria for protection. Others were
arrested in Serbia and executed. The pro-Russian movement was
checked for a time.

Pashitch owed his life to Bulgaria, and not on this occasion only.
His subsequent conduct to that land has not been marked with
gratitude.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE GREAT SERBIAN IDEA

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to dec