Prince
and his father, Grand Voy voda Mirko.

In London in 1900 it was nearly impossible to find a teacher of
Serb, and a New Testament from the Bible Society was the only book
available. Finally a Pole--a political refugee from Russia and a
student of all Slav languages--undertook to teach me. English he
knew none, and but little German and had been but a few weeks in
England.

I asked for his first impressions. His reply was unexpected. What
surprised him most was that the English thought Russia a Great Power
and were even afraid of her. I explained that Russia was a monster
ready to spring on our Indian frontier--that she possessed untold
wealth and countless hordes. He laughed scornfully. In halting
German he said "Russia is nothing--nothing. The wealth is
underground. They have not the sense to get it. Their Army is large,
but it is rotten. All Russia is rotten. If there is a war the
Russian Army will be--will be--" he stammered for a word--"will be
like this!" He snatched up a piece of waste paper, crumpled it and
flung it contemptuously into the waste paper basket.

I never forgot the gesture. Later, when folk foretold Japan's
certain defeat if she tackled the monster, and in 1914 talked
crazily of "the Russian steam-roller" I saw only that crumpled rag
of paper flying into the basket. By that time I had seen too much of
the Slav to trust him in any capacity. But this is anticipating.

CHAPTER TWO

MONTENEGRO AND HER RULERS

In days of old the priest was King,
Obedient to his nod, Man rushed to slay his brother man
As sacrifice to God.

THE events seen by the casual traveller are meaningless if he knows
not what went before. They are mere sentences from the middle of a
book he has not read. Before going further we must therefore tell
briefly of Montenegro's past. It is indeed a key to many of the Near
Eastern problems, for here in little, we see the century-old "pull
devil-pull baker" tug between Austria and Russia, Teuton and Slav,
for dominion.

In 1900, Montenegro, which was about the size of Yorkshire,
consisted of some thirty plemena or tribes. A small core, mainly
Cetinaajes, Nyegushi, Rijeka and Kchevo formed old Montenegro. To
this was added the Brda group, which joined Montenegro voluntarily
in the eighteenth century, in order to fight against the Turks.
These are mainly of Albanian blood and were all Roman Catholics at
the time of their annexation, but have since been converted to t