he throne. It is highly probable that though the
subsequent murders were arranged and carried out for a definite
political purpose by an organized gang, they were acquiesced in by
the ignorant mass for the above reason--a genuine belief that there
was a curse on the land that would be removed only by Draga's death.

The country, I was told, was in a terrible state. None of the
officers had been paid for six months. Draga, it was said, took all
the money to buy diamonds. The wretched woman's little collection of
jewellery which was sold at Christie's after her death, proved,
however, the falsity of this tale. But it doubtless accounted partly
for the unbridled ferocity with which the military gang fell upon
her.

That there was not enough money to pay them seemed to me not
surprising, for the land swarmed with officers. I was told that in
proportion to its size there were more officers in Serbia than in
Germany and noted in my diary at the time "the whole land seems
eaten out of house and home with officers who seem to have nothing
on earth to do but play cards. It is a great pity for the country.
As soon as the peasants learn a little I expect they will turn
Socialist." An army is an expensive luxury and "Satan finds some
mischief still for idle hands to do" is a true saying. Serbia has
paid dearly for the lot of swankers, clad in most unnecessarily
expensive uniforms, whom I saw gambling in the cafes from morning
till night.

All these points are noteworthy in the light of the present. One
other may yet strongly influence the future of the Serb race. That
is their religious fanaticism, which then surprised me. It was not
astonishing that the Serbs hated Islam, but that they should
fiercely hate every other Christian Church I did not expect.

It is but one more instance of the fact that it was largely to the
fanaticism of the Orthodox Church that the Balkan people owed their
conquest by the Turks. Evidence enough there is to show that when
their fate was in the balance the Orthodox of the Balkans regarded
the Turk as a lesser evil than the Pope. Even in 1902, though a few
mosques were still permitted to exist, no Catholic Church was
tolerated save that attached to one of the Legations over which, of
course, the Serb Government had no control. Most of the foreign
women I met, who had married Serbs, told me frankly that for the
sake of peace they had had to join the Orthodox Church; "you cannot
live here unless you