tract the attention of the
Balkan Governments. They began preparations for counteracting its
influence, even for its destruction. So they organized armed bands,
commanded by army officers "on furlough," or, in some cases, by the
very brigand chiefs whom the committee had driven out. These bands
were sent across the frontier to "arouse the national spirit" among
the peasants.

From the very first the Bulgarian bands fought the forces of the
committee as did the Greeks. Neither ever penetrated very far into
the country from their respective frontiers, for the peasants were
opposed to them and would not feed them, though they had plenty of
money and did succeed in bribing some. They did, however, do a great
deal of damage among the villages near the frontiers and, instead of
arousing any national spirit, only planted a deep hatred in the
hearts of the Macedonians for their respective governments. But of
the three forces, Greek, Bulgarian, and Serbian, the Bulgars and
Greeks were by far the most ferocious. The Serbs were inclined to
fight fair, attacking only the committee's bands and such villages
as sheltered them. The Greeks and Bulgars knew no such restrictions.
They burned whole villages, massacred whole communities, including
women and children, and frequently outraged women. And wherever they
left their bloody marks behind, there they also left the official
seal of their master, rudely drawn on rocks or charred timbers--a
bishop's miter and cross.

Between the committee's armed forces and the propagandist bands sent
over by Prince Ferdinand's Government there were open hostilities.
The peasants complained to the committee that some of Ferdinand's
band leaders, those who had formerly been brigands, were beginning
to resort to their old practices, though now they described their
robberies as "contributions to the cause of the revolution." The
Macedonians fought Bulgars as bitterly and fiercely as they fought
Greeks and Serbs. For months a bloody war was waged in the mountain
forests of northern Macedonia. The committee's forces had the
support of the population. The invaders had the advantage of a
bigger supply of arms and ammunition, and that finally told. Little
by little the bands of the committee were driven back. And just at
that juncture an authority of the organization, the Executive
Committee, was betrayed by a Greek spy. These leaders, who had
charge of the organization's funds, were arrested and imprisoned