ely on the side of Russia, and at the outset the hope
of all Bulgarians was for a close friendship with the great Power that
had effected their liberation. These sentiments, however, speedily
cooled. The officers appointed by the Czar to organise the Principality
carried out their task in a high-handed way that soon irritated the
newly enfranchised people. Gratitude is a feeling that soon vanishes,
especially in political life. There, far more than in private life, it
is a great mistake for the party that has conferred a boon to remind
the recipient of what he owes, especially if that recipient be young and
aspiring. Yet that was the mistake committed everywhere throughout
Bulgaria. The army, the public service--everything--was modelled on
Russian lines during the time of the occupation, until the overbearing
ways of the officials succeeded in dulling the memory of the services
rendered in the war. The fact of the liberation was forgotten amidst the
irritation aroused by the constant reminders of it.

The Russians succeeded in alienating even the young German prince who
came, with the full favour of the Czar Alexander II., to take up the
reins of Government. A scion of the House of Hesse Darmstadt by a
morganatic marriage, Prince Alexander of Battenberg had been sounded by
the Russian authorities, with a view to his acceptance of the Bulgarian
crown. By the vote of the Bulgarian Chamber, it was offered to him on
April 29, 1879. He accepted it, knowing full well that it would be a
thorny honour for a youth of twenty-two years of age. His tall
commanding frame, handsome features, ability and prowess as a soldier,
and, above all, his winsome address, seemed to mark him out as a natural
leader of men; and he received a warm welcome from the Bulgarians in the
month of July.

His difficulties began at once. The chief Russian administrator,
Dondukoff Korsakoff, had thrust his countrymen into all the important
and lucrative posts, thereby leaving out in the cold the many
Bulgarians, who, after working hard for the liberation of their land,
now saw it transferred from the slovenly overlordship of the Turk to the
masterful grip of the Muscovite. The Principality heaved with
discontent, and these feelings finally communicated themselves to the
sympathetic nature of the Prince. But duty and policy alike forbade him
casting off the Russian influence. No position could be more trying for
a young man of chivalrous and ambitious natur