filled to overflowing. The South strove to throw off Greek
influence, and at Elbasan a school for training teachers was opened
with mixed Moslem and Christian staff. As the Albanian poet had
sung, it was a case of:

Awake, Albanians, awake!
Let not mosques nor churches divide you.
The true religion of the Albanian is his national ideal.

Nationalism gained in Scutari by the death of the old Austrian
Archbishop, and the elevation in his place of Mgr. Serreggi, an
Albanian patriot.

Fighting was going on in Kosovo vilayet, but the Christians of
Scutari firmly believed that Austria, as protector of the Catholics,
would never allow the Turkish army to enter the Catholic districts.
In the town the Turks pursued a foolish policy. Only one per cent,
of the Christians understood Turkish, and about 20 per cent, of the
Moslems, and but few could read or write it. Nevertheless the Turks
gave out all notices in Turkish, and the people did not even trouble
to ask their meaning.

Then came a grave event. One Sunday morning my old Marko, in whose
house I lodged, announced solemnly: "Last night Teresi had a
terrible dream about you. To-day you will have important news from
England. God grant nothing bad has happened to your noble family." I
chaffed the old man, saying: "There is no post to-day!" And then
came a knock at the door, and the old blue kavas from the British
Consulate handed me a note from M. Summa. "I regret to inform you of
the death of our beloved Sovereign, Edward VII, which I have just
learnt by telegraph from Salonika." Teresi's reputation as a dreamer
became immense.

King Edward VII, in a short reign, had largely contributed towards
bringing Great Britain from a state of "splendid isolation" into a
tangle of--to me--very doubtful associates. I wrote: "The King's
death knocks out one's ideas of what sort of a position England is
going to hold. . . . Poor George ascends the throne in an awfully
difficult time, with internal and foreign politics both in a regular
tangle. A far more difficult beginning than Edward had. For, then,
we had not upset the whole balance of power in Asia and Europe by
making that alliance with Japan. I always hated it. The result . . .
the predominance of Germany in Europe, is going to cost us dear. And
when Japan has got all she can out of us, she will turn round and
bite."

And in the same week I noted: "The newly-appointed British Minister
is coming here to-morrow. Thank goodne