ents very well. But Petar Plamenatz
never ceased quibbling over the French translation of the terms, and
inciting the tribesmen to quite impossible demands. Repeated
messages brought me varying dates for the commencement of
hostilities. Montenegro meant war. But Montenegro could not wage it
alone. Which Power was shoving her? I was fairly certain that
Bulgaria and Montenegro had some sort of an engagement, and learnt
later I was right.

Baron de Kruyff, Dutch correspondent and head of the Foreign
Journalists Society which visited Podgoritza in 1911, told me that
when he left Montenegro in June (1911) King Nikola, on hearing he
was going to Sofia, asked him to convey a letter thither, addressed
to a private individual, and to open it on crossing the frontier. On
doing so he found it contained another addressed to King Ferdinand,
with instructions to deliver it into the King's hands. He had an
audience, and did so. The letter contained the first proposals for a
Bulgar-Montenegrin agreement, by means of which each monarch should
aid the other to achieve his ambitions, and Nikola hoped to reign at
Prizren. King Ferdinand favoured de Kruyff with a long audience, and
asked him to convey the reply. De Kruyff objected that his sudden
return to Cetinje without obvious reason would excite suspicion. It
was therefore arranged that he should meet Popovitch as Montenegrin
envoy in Trieste. Which he did. I wonder if Russia knew this? I
fancy not.

Russia was now working for a Balkan Alliance, which, though
primarily directed against Austria, had for its ultimate goal the
acquisition of Constantinople. Nicholas II of Russia, like Nikola I
of Montenegro, was obsessed with a city. Russia was recuperating
rapidly. She was financed by France, and sure of military aid. She
had entangled England. The secular enmity of the Balkan peoples was
the one weak spot in her plan. To amend this she transferred
Hartwig, Russian Minister in Teheran, to Belgrade.

He had successfully worked the ruin of Persia. He was now to compass
that of Turkey. Hartwig was a man to stick at nothing. Dr. Dillon
tells us that his methods were so abominable that even the Russian
Foreign Office protested. "People asked how he dared oppose the
Foreign Office on which he depended. The answer was that he was
encouraged, and put up to it by the Tsar. When at last M. Izvolsky
extracted permission to recall the rebellious minister, Nicholas II
decorated him, and told him