h. Danilo therefore bribed heavily Gligor
Milanovitch the arambasha of a brigand band, who accused Marko
Gjurashkovitch and another of a treasonable plot against Danilo's
life. The two were at once arrested and executed in spite of their
protestations of innocence. The Gjurashkovitches fled into Turkish
territory where the two still held official posts under the Turkish
Government till 1912.

Danilo found his scheme for accepting Turkish suzerainty now so
unpopular that he dropped it and the Turks consequently at once
attacked Montenegro. The land was saved by the valour of Danilo's
brother, Grand Voyvoda Mirko, whose exploits are still sung by the
peasants. A great battle was fought at Grahovo. The retreat of the
Turkish army was cut off and the whole was slaughtered or captured.
The prisoners, according to Montenegrin custom, were hideously
mutilated and the British report of them as they passed Corfu on
their return struck horror in Europe. By this victory Montenegro
gained more land, but owed it to the valour of Mirko rather than to
Danilo.

Danilo's best work was the codification and reformation of the
unwritten law of the land. Code Danilo is rude enough, but an
advance upon the laws of Vladika Petar. It was printed in Italian
as well as Serb. Italian, till the beginning of the present century,
was the only foreign tongue that had made any way in Montenegro.

When Danilo had refused the spiritual headship of the land and had
chosen marriage, the superstitious foretold that no good would come
of this and that no heir of his body would succeed him.

The prophecy came true. He was assassinated in the summer of 1860 on
the shore of the Bocche di Cattaro, and left but two daughters. The
assassin, a Montenegrin, was arrested and executed and died without
giving any explanation of his deed. It has been ascribed both to
Austria and Russia--but was far more probably an act of private
vengeance.

Danilo was succeeded by Nikola I the present King of Montenegro, son
of Voyvoda Mirko.

Two main points stand clear from this brief sketch.

(1) That the history of Montenegro, as that of all the Balkan
peoples, is but a part of the gigantic racial struggle of Slav and
Teuton for command of the Near East. The Slav ever pressing
Southward and Westward, the Teuton standing as a bulwark for West
Europe and holding back the advancing hordes. The one non-Slavonic
lace in this group, the Albanian (with the exception of a few
C