und, and where the chance of even
shelter was any thing but certain. Add to which, my companion in arms
was taken with a violent cold; so we felt obliged to restrain our
military ardour for one day, and proceeded to seek such recreation as
the metropolis afforded. Cettigna, the seat of the government of
Montenegro, and residence of the Vladika, is yet a city of no great
magnitude. It is situated prettily enough on a little plain, around
which the rocky summits of the mountains rise in the form of an
amphitheatre; not to any great height, however--the elevation of the
plain itself being very great. The most ancient building, indeed the
only one which seems not to have been erected within these few years,
is the monastery. This was till very lately the residence of the
Vladika and his predecessors, and it was here the King of Saxony
lodged when he visited Montenegro in 1836.[11] It is situated on the
side of the rocks which bound the plain, and consists of several
buildings of different periods joined together. The oldest has two
rows of arched passages, or cloisters, in front, one above the other.
Behind the convent, a wall runs up the hill, and encloses a small
circuit of rocky ground. The whole is in a very uncertain state of
repair. On the summit of a small rock immediately above, is a round
tower, built apparently for ornament at no very ancient date, but
never finished or roofed. It does not owe its decorations to the hand
of the architect. They are of a rarer kind. From the ends of poles
fastened into the top of the wall, two or three dozen heads, in all
stages of decay, overlook the residence of a Christian bishop. These
are Turks or Albanians who have fallen in different encounters, or
possibly in cold blood, as the Montenegrians never spare the life of a
prisoner. It was with somewhat doubtful feelings that I contemplated
these trophies. Around, the earth was strewed with skulls and other
relics of humanity. It was said that no head had been put up for
nearly two years. Certain it is, that the Lord Vladika did _not_ cause
to be placed there the heads of eighteen Turkish commissioners, who,
in the August previous, entered Montenegro to discuss a boundary
question. But why should I tell tales? I was hospitably received, and
treated, me and mine, with civility and kindness, not only by the
Vladika, but by every individual I met, and returned with my head
undisturbed by the trip. Some of the countenances still bore t