r and the news flashed through Montenegro. It
was in the Glas and the Korbiro (correspondence bureau), the ne plus
ultra of fashionable intelligence. Excitement reached boiling-point
when it was reported that King Edward in person had seen "our Mirko"
and his wife off at the station and promised to call on them in
Montenegro. Montenegro felt it had not lived in vain. So the
villagers called for "God save the King" endlessly, and under the
stars at night tried quite unsuccessfully to learn it, for
Montenegrin music is not on our scale and flows weirdly in semitones
and less than semitones, and in spite of strenuous efforts our
national anthem always trailed off into a hopeless caterwaul. But we
all agreed that King Edward would be very much surprised when he
heard the song and the "monogram" among the rocks of Nyegushi.

He never heard it. For meanwhile strings were pulling and fortunes
changing. I returned to England, leaving the Montenegrins hopeful
that he would come some day, and extorting from me a promise to be
there with the "monogram".

Briefly, the history of my 1905 holiday may be summed up thus.
Russia was powerless, and the dismayed Balkan States could not move
without her. Austria had a free hand, and seemed likely to take
advantage of Russia's plight. (It should be remembered to her credit
that she did not.) There was very marked discontent in Montenegro
against the Prince, and it was quite obviously engineered from
Serbia, and perhaps from Russia too. The struggle for supremacy
between father-in-law and son-in-law, Nikola and Petar, had begun.
But Montenegro still believed itself as indubitably the head of
Great Serbia. Even the malcontents wanted only to lead Montenegro to
Prizren and glory, and were possibly unaware they were being used as
cat's paws. Hatred between Serbia and Bulgaria was growing in
intensity, and a war-spirit was very evidently stimulated by the
fresh arrival of Russian arms in Montenegro.

That the Prince himself was aware of the undercurrent of feeling
against him was shown a little later by his sudden bid for
popularity. To the surprise of all the land and of the foreign
Ministers, including Russia, he granted the Ustav (Constitution) in
November, on St. Luke's Day. Montenegro was to elect a Parliament in
which each tribe would be represented. He would teach his people
self-government before he left them. It was admirably intended.
Montenegro, astonished and excited, at once sur