said. "I have too high an idea of the skill
of your Foreign Office to believe they would send a man at such a
moment to visit the bazar for no purpose!" And it took me ever so
long to talk him round. Having settled Russia and got rid of him, in
came Mr. Summa, our Vice-Consul, also deeply troubled. The Vali had
asked him for an explanation of the policy of Great Britain. He,
too, was of opinion that the Foreign Office could not have concocted
such a plan as a visit to the bazar, except for some deep and
obscure purpose. The Young Turks having made a Constitution,
naturally expected Great Britain, also a Constitutional country,
etc. etc. Why had not the British envoy visited the Vali? In fact,
you could hardly blow your nose in Scutari without being suspected
of political intentions.

Then came a message from Petar Plamenatz, who was ill, and wished to
see me. The Slav kettle gets hot in a minute. Petar, who was not
such a big pot as he imagined, was boiling over. His Prince, his
country, and--worst of all--himself, had all been insulted. Why had
he, who was Consul-General for Montenegro, not been called on? With
Petar, as usual, I was very firm. "This gentleman," said I,
"doubtless heard of your illness in Cetinje. He came here as a
tourist, and so naturally did not wish to disturb you. Why should
he, when he came not on official business, but merely to see the
bazar?" Petar was squashed. The whole episode illustrates the fact,
which few people in West Europe appreciate, namely, that in the Near
East politics are a nervous disease.

I left for Cetinje shortly afterwards. My last letter said: "The
war-clouds are thickening. The people here who foretell the future
in sheep's bladebones and fowls' breastbones have foretold nothing
but blood for weeks. ... It is said that by the end of four months
Austria will occupy the Sanjak as far as Mitrovitza."

"To save us," say the Albanians, "if the Serbs are allowed to have
it, it will at once be Russian. We should be lost, and our religion
crushed. If Montenegro declared war the Albanians will at once
reoccupy Dulcigno; that forced cession of Dulcigno, engineered by
Gladstone, has done more to keep up hatred here than anything else."

"I gather from the Press cuttings that none of the reviewers like my
idea that the Constitution can't last. But so far as I can make out,
only the English and the French papers believe--or pretend to
believe--in it." To me it seemed, indeed, cl