ks and
Montenegrins and Serbs, far from sympathizing with Albania's wish
for freedom, were incensed by it. The Greeks blockaded Valona, and
cut the telegraph. The yacht of the Duc le Monpensier, however, ran
the blockade, and took off Ismail Kemal, Gurikuchi, and that gallant
chieftain Isa Boletin. He had fought on the side of the Serb till he
saw what Serb victory would mean. The three pleaded their cause in
the capitals of Europe. Europe meanwhile seethed with intrigue.

Russia's plans were overset by the premature outbreak of the Balkan
war. But she was bent on getting all she could out of it for her
side, and dragged France along with her. At the beginning of the
Italy-Tripoli war, Izvolsky had written: "We must even now not only
concern ourselves with the best means of preserving peace and order
in the Balkans, but also with the matter of extracting the greatest
possible advantage to ourselves from coming events."

The Powers called a Conference of Ambassadors in London to try to
arrange a Balkan settlement. The Russian Ambassador in London
reports, February 25, 1913, that England wishes peace and a
compromise. Of France he states that M. Cambon "has directed himself
in reality entirely to me. . . . When I recall his conversations and
. . . add the attitude of Poincare, the thought comes to me that of
all the Powers, France is the only one which, not to say that it
wishes war, yet would look on it with least regret. . . . The
disposition of France offers us on the one hand a guarantee, but on
the other it must not happen that the war breaks out on account of
interests more French than Russian, and in any case not under
circumstances more favourable to France than to Russia."

The Conference inevitably became a struggle by Russia to obtain all
possible lands for her proteges regardless of the wishes of the
inhabitants. Possession of land for a short time in the Middle Ages
was given as reason for handing it over now.

"We might as justly claim Calais," I said to a Podgoritza
schoolmaster, "for it was ours at the same time!"

"Why don't you," said he. "You have a navy?"

Sir Edward Grey, in the interests of justice, stood out against Slav
rapacity, but Russia insisted on having either Scutari or Djakovo
for the Slavs; though Djakovo, a town of between two and three
thousand houses, contained but one hundred Serb families. Nor was
there a single Serb village near it. All were Albanian Moslems or
Catholics, but