eive."--SCOTT.

The Great Serbian Idea--the scheme for the reconstruction of Tsar
Dushan's mediaeval Empire--now began to sprout and germinate. In
truth that Empire had been constructed by Dushan by means of
mercenary armies, partly German, by aid of which he temporarily
subdued Bosnians, Albanians, Bulgars and Greeks. And he paid those
armies by means of the silver mines, worked largely by Italians.
Great Serbia was an incoherent mass of different and hostile races,
and it broke to pieces immediately on his death. But five centuries
of Turkish rule in no way modified the hate which one Balkan race
bore for another. Each, on gaining freedom, had but one idea--to
overthrow and rule the other. Milosh Obrenovitch had already begun
to toy with the Great Serbian Idea when he refused to support the
Greeks in their struggle for freedom. The success of the wars of
1876-77 raised fresh ambitions.

But now there were two possible heads for Great Serbia--Milan
Obrenovitch, who had been raised to kingship, and who owed his
position to Austria; and Nikola Petrovitch, recognized as Prince of
an independent land, and "the only friend" of the Tsar of All the
Russias. The bitter rivalry, not yet extinct, between the two
branches of the Serb race--Serbia and Montenegro--now began.

One thing the Serb people have never forgotten and that is that in
Dushan's reign Bulgaria was Serbia's vassal. The reconstruction
simultaneously of Big Bulgaria and Great Serbia is impossible. And
neither race has as yet admitted that a middle course is the safest.

The Zaitshar affair had shown King Milan pretty clearly that the
blood of the murdered Karageorge still howled for vengeance. His
position was further complicated by the fact that his beautiful
Russian wife, Natalie, was an ardent supporter of the plans of her
Fatherland.

He made a bold bid for popularity. Filled with exaggerated ideas of
his own prowess, and flushed by victories over the Turks, he rushed
to begin reconstructing Great Serbia by attacking Bulgaria, which,
though newly formed, had already shown signs of consolidating and
becoming a stumbling block in Serbia's path to glory. The
declaration of war was immensely popular. Had Milan succeeded, the
fate of the Obrenovitches might have been very different. But he and
his army were so badly beaten that only swift intervention by
Austria saved Serbia from destruction.

Pashitch, it should be noted, remained in Bulgaria during this