THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A JOURNALIST, VOLUME II

IN TWO VOLUMES

WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN

1901

[Illustration: W. Stillman]

CONTENTS

CHAP. 

 XX. CONSULAR LIFE IN CRETE

 XXI. THE CRETAN INSURRECTION

 XXII. DIPLOMACY

 XXIII. ATHENS

 XXIV. ROSSETTI AND HIS FRIENDS

 XXV. RETURN TO JOURNALISM

 XXVI. THE MONTENEGRINS AND THEIR PRINCE

 XXVII. THE INSURRECTION IN HERZEGOVINA

 XXVIII. A JOURNEY IN MONTENEGRO AND ALBANIA

 XXIX. WAR CORRESPONDENCE AT RAGUSA

 XXX. THE WAR OF 1876

 XXXI. RUSSIAN INTERVENTION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1877

 XXXII. A JOURNEY INTO THE BERDAS

 XXXIII. THE TAKING OF NIKSICH

 XXXIV. MORATSHA

 XXXV. THE LEVANT AGAIN

 XXXVI. GREEK BROILS--TRICOUPI--FLORENCE

 XXXVII. THE BLOCKADE OF GREECE

XXXVIII. CRISPI--A SECRET-SERVICE MISSION--MONTENEGRO REVISITED

 XXXIX. ITALIAN POLITICS

 XL. ADOWAH AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

CHAPTER XX

CONSULAR LIFE IN CRETE

Cholera was raging all over the Levant, and there was no directcommunication with any Turkish port without passing throughquarantine. In the uncertainty as to getting to my new post byany route, I decided to leave my wife and boy at Rome, with anewcomer, --our Lisa, then two or three months old, --and go on anexploring excursion. Providing myself with a photographic apparatus, Itook steamer at Civita Vecchia for Peiraeus. Arrived at Athens I foundthat no regular communication with any Turkish port was possible, andthat the steamers to Crete had been withdrawn, though there had notbeen, either at that or at any previous time, a case of cholera inCrete; but such was the panic prevailing in Greece that absolutenon-intercourse with the island and the Turkish empire had beeninsisted on by the population. People thought I might get a chance atSyra to run over by a sailing-boat, so I went to Syra. But no boatwould go to Crete, because the quarantine on the return was not merelyrigorous but merciless, and exaggerate to an incredible severity. Noboat or steamer was admitted to enter the port coming from any Turkishor Egyptian port, though with a perfectly clean bill of health, andall ships must make their quarantine at the uninhabited islandof Delos. Such was the panic that no one would venture to carryprovisions to that island while there was a ship in quarantine, andduring the fortnight I waited at Syra an English steamer withoutpassengers, and with a clean bill of health, having finished her term, was condemned to make another term of two weeks, because a steamer hadcome in with refugees from Alexandria, and had anchored in the sameroadstead. Mr. Lloyd, the English consul, protested and insisted onthe steamer being released, and the people threatened to burn hishouse over his head if he persisted; but, as he did persist, the shipwas finally permitted to communicate with Syra, but not to enter theharbor, and was obliged to leave without discharging or taking cargo, after being a month in quarantine. 

At last an English gentleman named Rogers, who lived at Syra, anex-officer of the English army, offered to carry me over to Caneaon his yacht of twelve tons, and take the consequences. I found theconsulate, like the position in Rome, deserted, the late consul havingbeen a Confederate who had gone home to enlist, I suppose, for hehad been gone a long time, and the archives did not exist. There wasnothing to take over but a flag, which the vice-consul, a SmyrnioteGreek, and an honest one, as I was glad to find, but who knew nothingof the business of a consul, had been hoisting on all fête days fortwo or three years, waiting for a consul to come. I was received withgreat festivity by my protégés, the family of the vice-consul, andwith great ceremony by the pasha, a renegade Greek, educated inmedicine by the Sultana Valide, and in the enjoyment of her highprotection; an unscrupulous scoundrel, who had grafted on his Greekduplicity all the worst traits of the Turk. As, with the exception ofthe Italian consul, Sig. Colucci, not one of the persons with whom Iacted or came in contact in my official residence survives, unless itmay be the commander of the Assurance, an English gunboat, of whosesubsequent career I know nothing, I shall treat them all withoutreserve. 

The Pasha, Ismael, I at once found, considered it his policy toprovoke a conflict with any new consul, and either break him in orbuy him over; and the occasion for a trial of strength was notlong coming. The night patrol attempted to arrest the son of thevice-consul in his house, in which I had been temporarily residingwhile the house which I took was being put in order, and over whichthe flag floated. I at once demanded an apology, and a punishment forthe _mulazim_ in command of the patrol. The pasha refused it, and Iappealed to Constantinople. The Porte ordered testimony to be takenconcerning the affair, and the pasha took that of the mulazim and thepoliceman on oath, and then that of my witnesses without the oath, the object being, of course, to protest against their evidence onthe ground that they would not swear to it. I immediately had theirevidence retaken on oath and sent on to Constantinople with the rest. The Porte decided in my favor, and ordered the apology to be made bythe mulazim. As the affair went on with much detail of correspondencebetween the _konak_ and the consulate for some weeks, it had attractedthe general attention of our little public, and the final defeat ofthe pasha was a mortification to him which he made every effort toconceal. He denied for several weeks having received any decision fromthe Porte, in the hope, probably, that he would tire me out; but asI had nothing to do, and the affair amused me, I stuck to him astenaciously as he to his denials, and he had to give in. It was a verysmall affair, but the antagonism so inaugurated had a strong effect onthe Cretans, who found in me an enemy of their tyrant. 

Ismael was cruel and dishonorable; he violated his given word andpledges without the slightest regard for his influence withthe population. I have since seen a good deal of Turkishmaladministration, and I am of the opinion that more of the oppressionof the subject populations is due to the bad and thieving instincts ofthe local officials than directly to the Sublime Porte, and that thesimplest way of bringing about reforms (after the drastic one ofabolishing the Turkish government) is in the Powers asserting a rightof approbation of all nominations to the governorships throughout thewhole empire. When, as at certain moments in the long struggle ofwhich I am now beginning the history, I came in contact with thesuperior officers of the Sultan, I found a better sense of the policyof justice than obtained with the provincial functionaries. 

Ismael Pasha had only one object, --to do anything that would advancehis promotion and wealth. He regarded a foreign consul, with the rightof exterritoriality, as a hostile force in the way of his ambitions, and, therefore, until he found that one was not to be bought orworried into indifference to the injustice perpetrated around him, hetreated him as an enemy. I always liked a good fight in a good cause, and I had no hesitation in taking up the glove that Ismael threw down, and my defiance of all his petty hostile manoeuvres was immediatelyobserved by the acute islanders and put down to my credit andexaltation in the popular opinion. The discontent against his measureswas profound, and the winter of my first year in the island was one ofgreat distress. Ismael had laid new and illegal taxes on straw, wine, all beasts of burden, which, with oppressive collection of thehabitual tithes (levied in accordance not with the actual value of thecrops, but with their value as estimated by the officials), and shortcrops for two years past, made life very hard for the Cretan. Eventhis was not enough; justice was administered with scandalous venalityand disregard of the existing laws and procedure. Not long after myarrival at Canea, the hospital physician, a humane Frenchman, informedme that an old Sphakiot had just died in the prison, where he had beenconfined for a long time in place of his son, who had been guilty of avendetta homicide and had escaped to the Greek islands. According to acommon Turkish custom, the pasha had ordered his nearest relative tobe arrested in his place. This was the old father, who lay in prisontill he died. 

The capricious cruelty of Ismael was beyond anything I had ever heardof. One day I was out shooting and was attacked by a dog whom Isaluted with a charge of small birdshot, on which the owner madecomplaint to the pasha that I had peppered accidentally one of hischildren. Ismael spread this report through the town, learning which Imade him an official visit demanding a rectification and examinationof the child, which was found without a scratch. The pasha, furious atthe humiliation of exposure, then threw the man into prison, and ashe, Adam-like, accused his wife of concocting the charge, he orderedher also to prison for two weeks, without the slightest investigation, leaving three small children helpless. I protested, and insisted onthe release of the man, who had only obeyed the wish of the pasha inmaking the charge against me. 

Having no occupation but archaeological research and photography, Idecided to make a series of expeditions into the mountain district, and to begin with a visit to the famous strongholds of Sphakia. Thepasha protested, but as I had a right to go where I pleased, I paid noattention to his protests, and he then went to the other extreme, and offered to provide me with horses, which offer I unfortunatelyaccepted. The horse I rode and the groom the pasha sent with him wereequally vicious. The man, when we saddled up the first day out, putthe saddle on so loosely that as we mounted the first steep rockyslope the saddle slipped over the horse's tail, carrying me with it, and the horse walked over me, breaking a rib and bruising me severely, and then tried to kick my brains out. I remounted and kept on, butthat night the pain of the broken rib was such, and the fever so high, that I was obliged to give up the journey and go back to Canea. Ifound that the pasha had anticipated a disaster, and heard of it withgreat satisfaction. 

As soon as restored, I set out on a trip to the central district ofRetimo, then perfectly tranquil, the agitation in Sphakia, whichpreceded the great insurrection, having already begun, and makingmy venturing there imprudent. I was anxious to see something of theprovincial government of the island, as, in Canea, where the foreignconsuls resided, there was always the slight check of publicity on thearbitrariness of the official, though what we saw did not indicate avery effective one. I had a dragoman in Retimo, a well-to-do merchant, who served for the honor and protection the post gave him, and hishouse was mine _pro tem_. , and over it, during my stay, floated theflag of the consulate. We made an excursion across the island to theconvent of Preveli, situated in one of the most beautiful valleysin the island, sheltered on the north, east, and west by hills, andlying, like a theatre, open to the south, and looking off on theAfrican sea. The entrance was by a narrow gorge, and here we witnessedone of those natural phenomena that still impress an ignorant peoplewith the awe from which, in more ancient times, religion received itsmost potent sanction. The wind passing through some orifice in thecliff far above our heads, even when we felt none below, produced amysterious organ-like sound, which the people regarded as due to somesupernatural influence. As all the modern sanctuaries in that part ofthe world are founded on the ruins of ancient shrines, I have no doubtthat our hospitable shelter of that night was on the site of sometemple to one of the great gods of Crete. 

That journey gave me a sight of one of the remarkable Cretan women, whose reputation for beauty I had always regarded, judging from thewomen in the cities, as a classical fable. I had been making a visitto the _mudir_ of the province through which we were passing, and, after pipes and coffee, and the usual ceremonies, I mounted my horse, and, at the head of my escort, rode out of the mudir's courtyard, whenmy eye was caught by the flutter of the robes of a woman in a gardenacross the road. Around the garden ran a high hedge of cactus, and asI leaned forward in my saddle to look through one of the openings, agirl's face presented itself to me at the other side of it, and westared each other in the eyes for several seconds before she--aMussulman girl--remembered that she must not be seen, when, wrappingher veil around her head, she flew to the house. The vision was ofsuch a transcendent beauty as I had, and have since, never seen inflesh and blood, --a mindless face, but of such exquisite proportion, color, and sweetness of modeling, with eyes of such lustrous brown, that I did not lose the vivid image of it, or the ecstatic impressionit produced, for several days; it seemed to be ineradicably impressedon the sensorium in the same manner as the ecstatic vision I haverecorded of my wood-life. I suppose such beauty to be incompatiblewith any degree of mental activity or personal character, for theprocess of mental development carries with it a trace of struggledestructive to the supreme serenity and statuesque repose of theCretan beauty. Pashley tells of a similar experience he had in themountains of Sphakia, and he was impressed as I was. 

On our arrival at the city gates, returning to Retimo, we had anexperience of the mediaeval ways of the island, finding the gateslocked and no guard on duty. We called and summoned, --for a consul hadalways the privilege of having the gates opened to him at any hour ofday or night, --but in vain, until I devised a summons louder than oursticks on the gate, and, taking the hugest stone I could lift, threwit with all my force repeatedly at the gate, and so aroused the guard, who went to the governor and got the keys, which were kept under hispillow. The next day we had an affair with Turkish justice whichillustrates the position of the consuls in Turkey so well that I tellit fully. The dragoman and I had gone off to shoot rock-pigeons inone of the caves by the seashore, leaving at home my breech-loadinghunting rifle, then a novelty in that part of the world. When we gothome at night the city was full of a report that some one in ourhouse had shot a Turkish boy through the body. I at once made aninvestigation and found that the facts were that a boy coming to thetown, at a distance of about half a mile from the gate, had been hitby a rifle ball which had struck him in the chest and gone out at theback. No one had heard a shot, and the sentinel at our doors, setnominally for honor, but really to watch the house, had not heard anysound. The boy was in no danger, and he declared that the bullet hadstruck him in the back and gone out by the chest. My Canea dragoman, who was reading in the house all the time we were gone, had heardnothing and knew nothing about it; but, on examining the rifle, Ifound that some one had tried to wipe it out and had left a ragsticking half way down, the barrel. This pointed to a solution, and aninvestigation made the whole thing clear. The dragoman's man-servanthad taken the gun out on the balcony which looked out on the port, and fired a shot at a white stone on the edge of the wall, in thedirection of the village where the boy was hit. 

The _kaimakam_ of Retimo sent an express to Canea to ask Ismael whathe should do, and received reply to prosecute the affair with theutmost vigor. He therefore summoned the entire household of thedragoman, except him and myself, to the konak, to be examined. As theywere all under my protection I refused to send them, but offered tomake a strict investigation and tell him the result; but, knowingthe rigor of the Turkish law against a Christian who had wounded aMussulman, even unintentionally, I insisted on being the magistrate tosit in the examination. The pasha declined my offer, and I forbade anyone in the house to go to the konak for examination. I then appearedbefore the kaimakam and demanded the evidence on which my housewas accused. There was none except that of the surgeon, who was aCatholic, and a bigoted enemy of the Greeks, and especially of thedragoman, with whom he had had litigation. He declared that the shotcame from the direction of the town, while the boy maintained thecontrary; and as, in the direction from which the boy had come, therewas a Mussulman festival, with much firing of guns, I suggestedthe possibility that the ball came, as the boy believed, from thatdirection, and put the surgeon to a severe cross-examination. I askedhim if he had ever seen a gunshot wound before, and he admitted thathe had not. Thereupon I denounced him to the kaimakam, who had begunto be frightened at the responsibility he had assumed, and the manbroke down and admitted that he might be mistaken, on which thekaimakam withdrew the charge. 

I knew perfectly well that the servant was guilty, but I knew, too, that for accidental wounding he would have been punished byindefinite confinement in a Turkish prison, as if he had shot the boyintentionally. The refusal of the pasha to permit me to judge thecase, as I had a right to do, he being my protégé, left me only theresponsibility of the counsel for the prisoner, and I determined toacquit him if possible. The bullet had, fortunately, gone through theboy and could not be found; and, as the wound, though through thelungs, was healing in a most satisfactory manner, and would leave noeffects, I had no scruples in preventing a conviction that would havepunished an involuntary offense by a terrible penalty, which all whoknow anything of a Turkish prison can anticipate. The governor-generalwas very angry, and the kaimakam was severely reprimanded, but theycould not help themselves. My position under the capitulations wassecure, but it made the hostility between the pasha and myself themore bitter. 

The accumulated oppressions of Ismael Pasha had finally the usualeffect on the Cretans, and they began to agitate for a petition to theSultan, a procedure which time had shown to be absolutely useless asan appeal against the governor; and, while the agitation was in thisembryonic condition, I decided to go back to Rome and get my wife andchildren. We were still in the state of siege by the cholera, andthere was still no communication with the Greek islands, so that Iaccepted the offer made by my English colleague, the amiable andgratefully remembered Charles H. Dickson, of whose qualities I shallhave to say more in the pages to come, of a passage on a Brixhamschooner to Zante. Sailing with a clean bill of health, we had to makea fortnight's quarantine in the roadstead, and, taking passage on theItalian postal steamer to Ancona, I was obliged, on landing, to makeanother term of two weeks in the lazaretto, though we had again aclean bill; and, on arriving on the Papal frontier by the diligence, we had to undergo a suffocating fumigation, and all this in spite ofthe fact that no one of the company I had traveled with had been at acity where cholera had existed at any time within three months, or ona steamer which had touched where the cholera was prevalent. At thattime there was no railway northward from Rome, and traveling wasconducted on the system of the sixteenth century, except for seatravel. 

I was not long cutting all the ties that bound me to Rome, though Ileft a few sincere friends there, and, drawing a bill on my brotherfor my indebtedness to the kind and helpful banker, an Englishmannamed Freeborn, to whose friendship I owed the solution of most of thedifficulties and all the indulgences I had enjoyed while in Rome, Istarted on my return to Crete in the problematical condition of onewho emigrates to a foreign land through an unknown way. I had moneyenough to get through if nothing occurred to delay me, and no more, for, with the high rate of exchange on America, I felt distressed atthe burthen I was laying on my brother, though I had always been toldto consider myself as to be provided for while he had the means, andby his will when he died. His death took place at this juncture, and, curiously enough, the draft reached him in time to be accepted, but hedied before it was paid. His will made no mention whatever of me, butleft all his property to his wife during her lifetime, and to threeSeventh-day Baptist churches after her death. 

In our consular service there was no allowance for traveling expenses, or provision of any kind for the extraordinary expenses which mightfall on the consul from contingencies like mine. The salary at Crete, which had been $1500 during the war, was reduced to $1000 at itsclose, and in future I had only that and what my pen might bringme. Arrived at Florence on our way to Ancona, we found the Italiangovernment being installed there; and our minister to Italy, Mr. Marsh, knowing my circumstances, insisted on my taking a thousandfrancs, though his own salary, which was, as in my case, his onlyincome, was always insufficient for his official and social positionat the capital. I accepted it, and it was ten years before I paid itall back. 

Looking back on this period of my life from a later and relativelyassured, though never prosperous condition, I can see that most of mystraits in life have been owing to my having accepted the miserableand delusive advantage of an official position under my government. Iwas not indolent, and asked for an appointment not to escape work, but to be put in the way of work which I wanted to do; and when I wasdisappointed in the appointment to Venice I should have set to work athome. But my position was a difficult one. The arts were for thewar times suspended; I could not get into the army, my mother in anextreme old age was a pensioner at my brother Charles's house, and mysister-in-law refused to allow me to remain in my brother's house. Ihad, at an earlier date, in obedience to my brother's urgings and indeference to the Sabbatarian scruples, refused all offers to go intobusiness, as he regarded me as his heir, and had formally and at morethan one juncture assured me that my future was provided for and thatI need have no anxiety as to money. 

My brother had urged my acceptance of the post at Rome, and all thedisasters of my subsequent life came from that error. My temperamentand the habit of my life had always prevented me from anticipatingtrouble, and I never hesitated to go ahead in what lay before me, trusting to the chapter of accidents to get through, incessantactivity keeping anxiety away. I have never flinched from a duty, if Isaw it, have never done an injustice to man or woman, intentionally, and at more than one moment of my career have accepted the worse hornof a dilemma rather than permit a wrong to happen to another; and ifI have been erratic and unstable it has not been from selfish orperverse motives. I have always been what most people would callvisionary, and material objects of endeavor have not had the valuethey ought to have had in my eyes. As I look back upon a career whichhas brought me into contact with many people and many interests not myown, I can honestly say that I have not been actuated in any importanttransaction by my own interest to the disadvantage of that of otherpeople, though I have probably often insisted too much on my own wayof seeing things in undue disregard of the views of others. Confrontedwith opportunities of enriching myself illicitly, I can honestly saythat they never offered the least temptation, for I have never caredenough about money or what it brings to do anything solely for it;and, if I have been honest, it has not been from the excellence of myprinciples, but because I was born so. 

But if I could have conceived what this Cretan venture was to bringme to, I should have taken the steamer to America rather than to theLevant. The few days we remained in Florence, then still crowded bythe advent of the court, with its satellites and accompaniments, gaveme an opportunity to know well one of the noblest of my countrymen ofthat period of our history, Mr. George P. Marsh. It is difficult evennow, after the lapse of many years since I last saw him, to do justiceto the man as I came, then and in later years, to know him and comparehim with other Americans in public life. As a representative of ourcountry abroad, no one, not even Lowell, has stood for it so noblyand unselfishly; Charles Francis Adams alone rivaling him in theseriousness with which he gave himself to the Republic. Lowell was notless patriotic, but he loved society and England; Marsh in those daysof trial loved nothing but his country, and with an intensity that wasill-requited as it was immeasurable. He took a great interest in ourlittle Russie, whom he pronounced the most remarkable child for beautyand intelligence he had ever seen, and his interest followed us in thetragedy of our Cretan life. 

We sailed by the Austrian Lloyds' steamer to Corfu, with a bill ofhealth in perfect order, but on arrival at Corfu were ordered intoquarantine, because six months before cholera had made a briefappearance at Ancona. Our consul, Mr. Woodley, came off to the steamerto see me, for the American flag was flying from the masthead, as iscustomary in the Levant when a consul is on board, and he proposed tohire a little yacht for us to make the quarantine in, as otherwise weshould have to go to a desert island at the head of the bay, where theonly shelter was an ancient and dilapidated lazaretto overrun by rats, and where we should have to pass two weeks dependent on the enterpriseof the Corfiotes for our subsistence. The yacht was accepted, and cameto an anchor off the marina, two or three hundred yards from the quay, and we transshipped at once, as the steamer continued her voyage. Theputting us in quarantine was a monstrous injustice. We came from aclean port, on a steamer which had not for several months touched at afoul port; but the panic was such amongst the people that there was noreasoning with them. We had not lain a day at the anchorage when thefright of the Corfiotes at our proximity, as great as if we had theplague on board, caused a popular demonstration against us, and thehealth-officer coming off in a boat ordered us from a distance to moveoff to the lazaretto island. I replied that if he was prepared to comeand weigh the anchor and navigate us there he might do so, but that noone of the yacht's people should touch the anchor, and on that Istood firm; and, as no one dared come in contact with the yacht incontumacy, there we remained. The panic on shore increased to such apoint that Woodley and the health-officer had a quiet consultation, and it was agreed to give us pratique immediately. We went that nightto the hotel, and the question was forgotten by the next day. TheCorfiotes are certainly the most cowardly people I have ever known, and in later years we had other evidence of the fact; but, as theydisclaim Hellenic descent, and boast Phoenician blood, this does notimpeach the Greek at large. 

We left Corfu by the steamer of the Hellenic Navigation Company on theeve of the Greek Christmas, my family being the only passengers, andwithout the captain of the steamer, who pretended illness, in order tobe able to enjoy the festa with his family; the command being takenby the mate, a sailor of limited experience in those waters. Theengineers were English or Scotch, the chief being one of the Blairs. What with the Christmas festivities and the customary dawdling, we didnot sail till 10 P. M. , instead of at 10 A. M. , and, to make up for thedelay, the commander _pro tem. _ made a straight course for the port ofArgostoli in Cephalonia, our next stopping place. We made the islandabout 10 A. M. Of the next morning, and were well in towards the shorewhen we were caught by one of the sudden southwesterly gales which arethe terror of the Mediterranean, and more dangerous than a full-grownAtlantic gale. The cliffs to the north of Argostoli were in sight, looming sheer rock above the sea line, and the wind, rapidlyincreasing, blew directly on shore, bringing with it a quick, sharpsea, and getting up before long a cross sea by the repercussion fromthe cliffs, so that in the complicated tumult of waters the old, heavypaddle steamer rolled and pitched like a log, the water pouring overthe bulwarks with every roll either way. Soon, what with the wind andthe sea, she made nothing but leeway. They put her head to the wind, and we soon found that even to hold her own was more than she coulddo, while our port lay ten miles away dead on the beam, and the cliffsdead astern. 

The plunging and rolling of the ship made it impossible to stand orwalk on deck, and I sent Laura and the children to their stateroom andto bed, lest they break their bones. The wind, a whistling gale, cutoff the caps of the waves and filled the air with a dense spray, andthe main deck was all afloat. There were no orders heard, none given, nothing but the monotonous beat of the paddles and the roar of thewind, and the crew were all under shelter, for it was no longer aquestion of seamanship, but of steam-power; only the commander pacingthe bridge to and fro, like a polar hear in a cage, and the engineerschanging their watch, broke the monotony of the merciless blue day, for, except a little flying scud, the sky was as blue as on a summerday. 

I walked aft to the engineers' mess-room, on the upper deck, and foundBlair and the two assistants off duty, seated round the table, noteating, but mute, with their elbows on the table and their heads intheir hands, looking each other in the face in grim silence. We hadmade friends on leaving Corfu, and were on easy terms, so that, as Ientered and no one spoke to me, but all looked up as if I were theshadow of death, I began to rally them for their seamanship, but gotno word of retort from one of them. "What's the matter with you all?"I said; "you look as if you had had bad news. " "The matter is we aregoing ashore, " said the chief engineer. "This--fool of a mate has gotcaught in shore and we can't make steam enough to hold our own againstthis wind. " I had not thought of this; I was chafing at the delay andthe discomfort to Laura and the children. What was the worst in thecase was still to be known. The boilers of the steamer were old androtten, and had been condemned, and, but for the sharp economy ofthe Greek steamship company, would have been out already. The chiefengineer, when he found that the engines at ordinary pressure did notkeep the steamer from, going astern, had tied the safety valve downand made all the steam the furnaces would make. "If we don't go aheadwe are done for just as much as if we blow up, " said he; "for if wetouch those rocks not a soul of us can escape, and we shall touch themif we drift, just as surely as if we blow up. "

I went out of the mess-room with a feeling that it was a dream, --sobright, so beautiful a day, --we so well, so late from land, and sonear to death! "Bah!" I said to myself. "They are fanciful; the cliffsare still a couple of miles away, and something will come to avert thewreck. " I went down to the stateroom; Laura and the boy were unableto raise their heads from extreme sea-sickness, but baby Lisa wasswinging on the edge of her berth, delighted with the motion, andsinging like a bird, in her baby way. I sat down in my berth--therewere four berths in each room--and watched her, and somehow the faithgrew in me that we were not going that way at that time, that thehour had not come; and I went back to the mess-room to try to inspireconfidence in my friends. 

The afternoon was now wearing on. Since 10 A. M. We had made no headwaytowards our port, and when I looked at the cliffs it was clear thatthey were getting nearer, and the wind showed no signs of lulling. Ouronly hope lay in being able to drift so slowly that the wind mightfall before we struck, and if that did not take place before nightfallit probably would not till the next morning. Rationally I understoodthis perfectly, but I could not feel that there was imminent danger. Ihad no presentiment of death, and nothing that I could do would enableme to realize the real and visible danger. 

The wind never lulled an instant or blew a degree less furiously; itcame still from the blue sky, and still we plunged and buried our bowsand shipped floods at every plunge; the wheels throbbed and beat asever, and no one moved on deck. The engineers changed their watchesand the captain unrelieved kept up his to and fro on the bridge. I amconfident that of all the men on board I was the only one who was notpersuaded that death was near. My wife never knew till long after whatthe danger had been. We could already see that the water beneaththe cliff was a wild expanse of breakers, coming in and recoiling, crossing, heaving, surging, --a white field of foam, where no humanbeing could catch a breath. The waves that swung in before this galerose in breakers against the cliff higher than our masts. We might goup in their spray if we reached the rocks, but no anchor could checkour crawling to doom. To this day I look back with surprise at thecomplete freedom, not from fright, but even from a recognition of anyreal danger impending over us, which I then felt; it was not courage, but a something stronger than myself or my own weakness; it wasnot even a superstitious faith that I should be preserved from thethreatened peril, but a profound and immovable conviction thatthe danger was not real; and the whole thing was to me simply amagnificent spectacle, in which the apprehension of my shipmatesrather perplexed than unnerved me. 

In half an hour more, the captain said, our margin of safety would bepassed, --drifting as we then drifted our stern would try conclusionswith the cliffs of Cephalonia. The sun was going down in a wild andlurid sky, a few fragments of clouds still flying from the west, when, almost as the sun touched the horizon, there came a lull; the windwent out as it had come on, died away utterly, and as we got our bowsround for Argostoli we could hear the roar of the great waves thatbroke against the cliffs, and could see in the afterglow the tallbreakers mounting up against them. In ten minutes we were going withall the steam it was safe to carry for Argostoli, where we ran in withthe late stars coming out, and our engineers broke out into festiveexuberance of spirits as we sat down to dine together at anchor inthe tranquil waters of that magnificent port, where the Argonauts hadtaken refuge long before us. Blair shook his head at my rallying him, as he said in his broad Scotch tongue, "Ah, but no man of us expectedever to see his wife and bairns again; that I can assure ye. " We wereagain indebted to private courtesy for a trip from Syra to Canea, though the delay was long. I had made an appeal to the commander ofour man-of-war on the station to see us back to my post, but receiveda curt and discourteous refusal. I am not much surprised when Iremember some of the occupants of the consulates in those days. 

CHAPTER XXI

THE CRETAN INSURRECTION

Returned to Canea, I found that the Cretan assembly had begun itsdeliberations at Omalos. The real agitation began (ten days after myarrival) on its coming down to Boutzounaria, a little village on theedge of the plain of Canea, where it could negotiate with the governorand communicate with the consuls. There was a plateau from which theplain could be overlooked, so that no surprise was possible, and onwhich was the spring from which Canea got its water, an aqueduct fromthe pre-Roman times bringing it to the city. It was cut by Metelluswhen he besieged Canea, and at all the crises of Cretan history hadbeen contested by the two parties in its wars. Long deliberation wasrequired to formulate the petition to the Sultan, but it was finallycompleted, and a solemn deputation of gray-headed captains of villagesbrought to each of the consuls a copy, and consigned the original tothe governor for transmission to Constantinople. He, in accepting it, ordered the assembly to disperse and wait at home for the answer. He had on a previous occasion tried the same device, and when theassembly had dispersed he had arrested the chiefs, called a counterassemblage of his partisans, and got up a counter petition, which hesent to the Sultan. They, therefore, refused this time to separate. The reverence of the Cretans for their traditional procedure was suchthat when the assembly had dissolved, its authority, and that of thepersons composing it, lapsed, and the deputies had no right to hopefor obedience if they called on the population to rise. The assemblywould have to be again convened, elected, and organized in order toexercise any authority. 

As the plan of the pasha was to provoke a conflict, he orderedthe troops out, and called a meeting of the consuls, to whom hecommunicated his intention of dispersing the assembly by force. Asthis meant fighting, the consuls opposed it, with the exception ofDerché, the French consul, who took the lead in approving the pasha'sproposals. The English consul, Dickson, an extremely honest and humaneman, but tied by his instructions to act with his French colleague, could only say that the assembly thus far had acted in strictaccordance with its firman rights, and he hoped that they would berespected, but he did not join in the opposition with the rest of us. Colucci, the Italian, the youngest of the consular body, said that hehad information that the committee of the assembly had expressed theirwillingness to disperse on receiving assurance that they would not, asin the former case, be molested for the action they had taken; and asthey had committed no illegal act, he considered this their due. Hisexcellency dodged the suggestion, and, rising, was about to dismissthe meeting, when, seeing that nothing had been done to avert thecollision, I arose and formally protested against the attempt todisperse the assembly by force, and against any implied consent ofthe consular body to the programme he had announced. The Italian, theRussian, and one or two of the other consuls followed, supporting myprotest, and the pasha, disconcerted by the unexpected demonstrationagainst him, sat down again, and we renewed the discussion, whenDickson said that what he had said was implied in the position, andthat as the assembly had done nothing to deserve persecution, it couldnot be supposed that they would be subjected to it, and he regardedthe assurance of immunity as uncalled for. And so the conference brokeup, leaving me in the position of the defender of Cretan liberties, but the troops were not sent out, and the report spread through theisland that the pasha and the consuls were at loggerheads. 

The real reason for the insistence on the formal promise being made tothe consuls was that a list of the agitators indicated for arrest hadbeen found by the daughter of the Greek secretary of the pasha, inwhich, amongst the names of the persons to be arrested, was her lover, to whom she gave the list. It was possible even then that the Cretanswould have submitted but for the influence of two Greek agents in thecamp of the assembly. These were one Dr. Ioannides and a priest calledParthenios Kelaïdes, a patriotic Cretan, but long resident in Greece. These urged the assembly to extreme measures, and promised supportfrom Greece. When, later, hostilities broke out, Parthenios went intothe ranks and fought bravely, but Dr. Ioannides disappeared from thescene. The next device of Ismael was to call the Mussulmans of theinterior into the fortresses, and when we protested against this asdangerous and utterly uncalled for, the pasha sent a counter order;but the bearers of it met the unfortunate Mussulmans by the way, having abandoned everything, thrown their silkworms to the fowls, andleft their crops ungathered, and being ready to vent their hostilityon the innocent Christian population, whom they made responsible forthe disaster. The call to come in was then renewed, and the entireMussulman population gathered in the three fortresses of Canea, Candia, and Retimo. A panic on the part of the Christians followed, and all the vessels sailing for the Greek islands were crowded withfugitives. The pasha called for troops from Constantinople, though noviolence had been even threatened, and several battalions of Turkishregulars with eight thousand Egyptians arrived and disembarked. Withone of the battalions was a dervish fanatic, carrying a green banner, who spread his praying carpet in every public place in Canea, preaching extermination of the infidels. I took a witness and went tothe general in chief, Osman Pasha, and protested against this outrage, and the dervish was at once shipped off to Constantinople. 

The military chiefs were reasonable, and the Christian populationtotally unprepared and averse to hostilities, but the plan atConstantinople was, as we soon found, to provoke an insurrection inorder to justify a transfer of the island to Egypt. Later we had fromConstantinople all the details, but for the moment we could onlyconjecture the Egyptian collusion in the plan by the presence ofSchahin Pasha, the general-in-chief of the Egyptian army, and ministerof war of the viceroy, and the very important part taken by him in theensuing negotiations. He came in great state and pomp, and immediatelyassumed the lead in the negotiations with the islanders, which werecarried on in secret and through Derché. Ismael Pasha, who wasprobably not in the Egyptian secret, had another plan of his own, equally secret, and the two conflicted. Ismael, as we later learned, intended to raise and subdue an insurrection, which he hoped todo easily, and then, on the strength of his Greek blood and theprotection he had at Stamboul, to be named the Prince of Crete. TheEgyptian plan was, on the contrary, conciliatory, and depended mainlyon direct bribery and the promise of concessions to the Cretans. Ithad been, as I learned from Constantinople, concocted between theTurkish government, the Marquis de Moustier, the French ambassador, and the viceroy, and proposed to coax or hire the Cretans to ask forthe Egyptian protection, when, on the application of the plebiscite, the island was to be transferred to the viceroy on the payment of£400, 000 down and a tribute of £80, 000. The French diplomatic agent inEgypt had arranged the details in consultation with Derché, but nonewould fit. Derché thought that all the Cretan chiefs could be bought, and the Egyptian pasha began by distributing £16, 000 amongst thechurches, mosques, and schools, without forgetting handsome baksheeshto the leading chiefs, who accepted the money, but promised nothing, and made no responsive move. Ismael, meanwhile, was doing his best toprovoke hostilities, and finally succeeded in getting up a collisionbetween Cretan Christians and Mussulmans at Candanos, in thesouthwestern part of the island. 

As the Egyptian overtures did not seem to succeed, Schahin Pashaconsulted some of the principal merchants of Canea, and was informedthat Derché was of no weight or influence, and that if he wantedto move the Cretans he must do so through the American or Russianconsuls; whereupon he came to me and frankly told me the whole plan, and that the viceroy proposed to build a great arsenal and navalstation at Suda, and fortify the bay, the work being already plannedby French engineers. He promised me whatever compensation I shouldask if I could help him out. I sent the details to our ministerat Constantinople, who laid them before Lord Lyons, the Englishambassador, who, I presume, put his foot on the whole affair, as itwas never heard of more in the island; but the condition of activehostilities which had supervened at Candanos continued. 

An Egyptian division of 4000 men had been posted at Vrysis, --a veryimportant point in the Apokorona, near the position to which thecommittee of the assembly had retreated, --under a pretext of SchahinPasha that it would facilitate negotiations and protect the committee. The agitation increased, and isolated murders began to take place atvarious points. The exodus of the Christians to Greece went on, and ofthe poorer class, who had not the means of emigrating, great numberstook refuge at the friendly consulates, chiefly the Italian, as mypremises were very small and offered little shelter. Multitudes alsofled to the mountain, pursued by the Mussulman rabble, and many werekilled on the plain in their flight. I had taken a little house inKalepa (a suburb of Canea where most of the consuls lived) adjoiningthat of the Greek and near that of the Italian consul, whose wife, being an American, strengthened the alliance which held good betweenus to the end. The Mussulman populace, already supplied with arms andammunition _ad libitum_, chafed at being confined within the cities, for the pasha, aware of the danger of an open outbreak at the capital, had several times shut the gates to prevent a _sortie en masse_ of therabble intent on attacking the consulates, for we were now known asdivided into two parties; the Russian, the Italian, the Greek, andmyself friendly to the Cretans, and Derché and Dickson to the pasha;the Austrian and Swedish completing the corps, --both old men, thelatter having witnessed the insurrection of 1827-30, --taking littlepart in the discussions. The Russian, Dendrinos, a Greek by race andalso an old man, was of a timidity which prevented him from taking anyinitiative even in discussion, while he was intensely active in theintrigues which kept up a running accompaniment to the fight betweenthe pashas. 

I had not long before received a present from my brother of somesamples of a new revolver and breech-loading hunting rifles, withammunition, some of which I had, at his request, given Schahin Pasha, as they were novelties to him. With the rest I provided for thedefense of my house, barricaded the windows with mattresses, took another cavass guaranteed as faithful by my old one, --HadjiHoussein, --put a rifle and a box of cartridges at each window, besidesorganizing, with Colucci, a strong patrol of Cretans from the refugeesin the consulate, to watch the roads, and waited events. We hadwritten urgently for the dispatch of a man-of-war of one of theEuropean powers, without the protection of which there was imminentdanger that an accident might precipitate a fight, and all thefriendly consuls be murdered. In this request Derché and Dicksonrefused to join, on the ground that the presence of a man-of-war of aChristian power (we had plenty of Turkish at Suda) might encourage theChristian Cretans. These on their side gathered, with such arms asthey had, to protect the committee, sitting in the Apokorona, and faceto face with the Turkish-Egyptian troops, a movement of whom forwardwould at once bring on the collision we were working to prevent andIsmael and Derché to bring on, but which was really prevented by thediscord between Ismael and Schahin. The irregulars, proud of their newrifles, were firing in every direction, and one heard balls whistlingthrough the air, falling on the roofs. On one occasion, when my wife, with other ladies of the consular circle, was walking between Caneaand Kalepa, some of the Mussulmans amused themselves by firing as neartheir heads as it was safe to do. I begged Laura to take the childrenand go to Syra until the troubles were over, but she refused, sayingthat the women gathered around the friendly consulates, seeingher yielding to the panic, would lose all courage and fly to themountains. 

We were then at the end of August, 1866. My vice-consul lived in thecity and provided for our communications, and when I had to go to thekonak I went armed, and with a cavass also armed _cap-à-pie_, but Ireceived several warnings not to be out after nightfall, as the Turkshad decided to kill me, though my known and often ostentatiouslydisplayed skill with the revolver made them timid in any attempt inbroad daylight, lest if their first shot failed I might have thesecond. 

Weeks passed. The nervous strain became very great. I found myselfcontinually going unconsciously to my balcony, which commanded awide range out to sea, telescope in hand, to see if the sail so longimplored was in sight, though five minutes before I had seen nothing. Finally there came a loathing at the sight of the masts of a steameron the horizon, feeling that it would be only a Turkish man-of-war. My children, for months, did not pass the threshold, though Laurainsisted on showing her indifference to the danger by walking out; andone night when some mischievous Mussulmans started a cry of "Death tothe Christians, " in the streets of Kalepa, and the entire Christianpopulation in a few minutes were at our doors, beating to be admitted, the cavasses refusing to open without orders, she had flown to thedoor in her night-dress and thrown it open to the crowd, who passedthe rest of the night sitting on the floor of the consulate. Thesentinel at the city gates, whose duty it was to salute as I passed, turned his face the other way, with a muttered "Dog of a Christian, "on which I called back Hadji Houssein, who was marching in front ofme, and, ordering him to look the soldier well in the face, so that hemight remember him, sent him directly to the governor to repeat whathad passed, and demand summary punishment for the insult. I wasinformed that the man had six weeks of prison. I don't believe he hada day, but the insults were stopped, which was what I wanted. Of thoseweeks of intense, prolonged anxiety the impression remains indelibleto this day. 

The relief from the tension, grown almost unendurable, came with thearrival at Suda of the Psyche, with Admiral Lord Clarence Paget, direct from Constantinople, to inform us that the Arethusa frigate hadbeen ordered to Crete. If the Psyche had been a reprieve the Arethusawas a pardon. The hilarious blue-jackets flying over the plains ofCrete brought all the Mussulman world to its senses, and we took downour barricades; but for the poor Cretans there was no change, --theTurks were so fully persuaded that England was with them that theseverities towards the Christians underwent no amelioration, unlessit be that the ostentatious brutality ceased, as the chiefs knew thatthey must keep up appearances. We attended service on Sunday on boardthe Arethusa and stayed to luncheon, in the midst of which an orderlycame down and whispered to Captain MacDonald, on which he turnedto me, saying, "If you would like to see something pleasant, Mr. Stillman, you may go on deck. " I reached the deck just in time to seethe Ticonderoga round the point of the Suda island, entering Suda Bay. Commodore Steedman, her commander, was an old friend, and, hearing atTrieste of the insurrection, came on his own initiative to give me thesupport my government had not thought worth its while to accord me. He stayed a few days and sailed direct for Constantinople, which soimpressed the authorities that I was no longer annoyed. The Arethusawas followed a few days later by the Wizard, --a small gunboat whichcould lie in Canea harbor, --where, for the next few months, itscommander, Murray, was our sole and sufficient protector. In him andhis successors I learned to honor the British navy as a force incivilization whose efficiency few not situated as we were canunderstand. I have ever since been ready to take off my hat to anEnglish sailor. 

Meanwhile the dissension between Schahin and Ismael intensified. TheEgyptian wanted a show of force with effective conciliation, hopingstill to effect his object of bringing the Cretans to him, and helooked to the consular body for support, while Ismael was urging onthe collision, hoping to defeat the Egyptian plan. We were constantlydoing all in our power to lead the Cretans to conciliation andsubmission, though the hotheads among them were indignant with us. I found on my table one morning a message written in fair English, saying that if I continued to oppose the Cretans, I should lose myinfluence; to which I replied by a messenger, who knew the provenanceof the message, that I was indifferent to my influence if it did nothelp to keep peace. The committee insisted on the withdrawal of theEgyptian troops from Vrysis, where they offered constant danger of acollision. This request we urged on Schahin, and he asked permissionof the governor, who replied by withdrawing the Turkish division whichhad supported him. 

At this juncture the pressure of Ismael had produced a serious fightat Candanos, where the Mussulmans made a sortie and were defeated. Ismael then called on Schahin for a battalion of his troops to supportthe garrison of Selinos. Schahin sent for me to advise him. My advicewas that, as the matter was an affair between the Cretans of the tworeligions, it was not advisable for him to identify himself witheither party, on which he refused the battalion. But the testiness ofthe Cretans on the other side developed a collision where none needhave occurred. They insisted on the withdrawal of the Egyptians fromVrysis, and Schahin came again to demand the good offices of Dendrinosand myself, promising that if his men were left unmolested he wouldtake no part in the action of the Turkish troops. We sent messengersto the Cretan camp, urging this course, but they were not allowed topass the Turkish lines; and the committee, not receiving the message, repeated the summons to the Egyptians to leave Vrysis immediatelyor take the consequences. Schahin refused to withdraw them, and theinsurgents, for such they now became, closed on them, cut off allsupplies and water, and compelled them to surrender at discretion. They were permitted to march out with their arms and equipments andsend the next day for their artillery. 

This was the end of all hopes of peace. I do not know what the realinfluence of Dendrinos had been, for he was a man not to be believed, but we, --the Italian, the Greek, and myself, --had done everything inour power to keep the Cretans within the legal limits. In the face, however, of such provocations as those of Ismael, and vacillation likethat of Schahin, our efforts were useless. The state of the countryon the occurrence of another defeated sortie of the Mussulmans fromCandanos was terrible. Two Christians were murdered in the streetsof Canea, and the remainder in the villages round about fledprecipitately to the mountains. Many were killed, and Mussulmanscoming in from the country reported groups of dead bodies in houses, in chapels where they had taken refuge, and by the roadside. The newGreek consul rode out to Galata, a village three miles from Canea, and counted seven dead bodies naked by the roadside. The publicslaughterhouses were midway between Canea and Kalepa, and there werealways large flocks of ravens battening on the offal which was thrownout on the ground; but for weeks the ravens abandoned the placeentirely, and the flocks were seen only hovering over certainlocalities on the great plain between Canea and the nearest hills. None of the Christians dared take the risk of a voyage of explorationto see what they were feeding on there. 

The Egyptian troops, humiliated at their surrender, attacked thevillages around their camp in the plains, killing the peaceableinhabitants; the governor-general lost his head and gave contradictoryorders, and the confusion became anarchy. The few remaining Christiansin the cities were then forbidden to emigrate, and the Mussulmans inthe city met in their quarter and organized a sortie to massacre allthe Christians outside; the Wizard in the port protecting those inCanea, otherwise it had gone hardly with them. The Christians in theinterior, encouraged by the victories over the Egyptians and Turks, took such arms as they had, and raided down to the plain about Canea, carrying off as prisoners a number of Mussulmans who were gatheringthe grapes in their vineyards. There was no longer any hope of peace, and though I still refused to offer any encouragement to the Cretans, I was obliged to hold my peace, for I saw that there was no roomlonger for negotiations. Neither was there any hope for theinsurrection, Schahin Pasha was recalled, and the great Egyptian planutterly collapsed. 

At this moment arrived Mustapha Kiritly Pasha, the ImperialCommissioner, appointed because he had once governed Crete and had agreat _clientèle_ there, with relatives by marriage. Had he come threemonths before, he might have saved the situation, for then the bloodwas cold. He was a man of merciless rigor, but with a strong sense ofjustice, and was much respected in the island; but now only hisrigor was in place, for there was no room for compromise. Ismael wasdismissed in disgrace, and ordered off to Constantinople, not evenbeing allowed to pack up his furniture. Mustapha enrolled the CretanMussulmans regularly as bashi-bazouks to the number of 5000, gavethe Christian population the choice of going into the mountains orsubmitting and taking the written protections of the government, and made vigorous preparations for a serious campaign. He found theEgyptian army, which had increased by reinforcements to the numberof 22, 000, utterly demoralized by defeat; but he had 12, 000 Turkishregulars, indifferently equipped, but disciplined, and a few hundredAlbanians. Organizing from these a force of 10, 000 men, he marched tothe relief of Candanos, always closely beleaguered by the insurgentforce, which had no artillery and could not attack the fortress, buthad brought it into great straits for food. 

The insurgents retired before the advance of Mustapha, who gatheredthe garrison and all the Mussulman families and began his return. Ihad from my balcony followed his course going out by the smokeof burning villages, and after two weeks, during which we had noauthentic information of his progress, all messengers having beenintercepted by the Christians, I got the first intimation of hisreturn by the same ominous signal in the distance. At Kakopetra, avery difficult pass in the extreme west of the island, he was besetby the bands of the insurrection, and had they been armed adequatelythere had been an end of Mustapha and his army, who managed tostruggle through only after a running fight of several days, withlosses amounting, as one of the surgeons in the hospital assured me, to 120 killed and 800 wounded, most apparently with pistol balls, theCretans having only the old _tufeks_ and smooth-bored pistols of theirfathers. At that moment, there was probably not a rifle in the ranksof the insurgents. 

There was, of course, now no question of conciliation. Both sides hadtheir blood up, and the successes had been mainly for the insurgents. They held the hills above Canea, whence all their movements werevisible, and the next operation of Mustapha was to clear the road totheir headquarters at Theriso, a very strong position in the foothillsof the Sphakian mountains, from which the insurgents raided the plain. From my balcony I could see all the operations, and that the twobattalions sent out, after fighting all day over the first line ofdefenses, were obliged to retire, having effected nothing. The nextday a force of 5000 men went out, before whom the Cretans made afighting retreat to Theriso, where they held their own during the restof the day, the Turks returning to the city after nightfall. The nextmovement was a turning one, taking the position of Theriso on theflank, by Lakus, a strong position, but at which no defenses had beenprepared. The insurgents moved their depot and hospital across thevalley to Zurba, a village high on the mountain-side and impregnableto direct attack, but which Mustapha proceeded to bombard withmountain guns for two days. I could hear every gun-fire, Zurba beingonly nine miles in a direct line from my house, and I counted fifteenshots a minute during a part of the time. 

Three attempts at assault were repelled, and then Mustapha moved on toTheriso, now abandoned by the Cretans, who had just then received thenews of the arrival of the Panhellenion blockade-runner with armsand ammunition, the first open aid they had received from Greece. Aconsiderable body of Hellenic volunteers also came, and the resistancebecame more solid, and the influence of Athens assumed the direction. Up to this time, and indeed much later, I had persistently urgedsubmission, considering the event as hopeless; but with theencouragement from Athens it was wasted breath. I went to seeMustapha, and pointed out to him that his severity was making theposition beyond conciliation, and that every village he burned onlyadded to the number of desperate men who had nothing more to lose bywar and nothing to hope in peace. I saw that he was prejudiced as tomy sincerity, and perhaps I only influenced him to act against mycounsels, though I was ready to do anything in my power to stop what Iconsidered a hopeless struggle. 

To add to the confidence of the Cretans, at this juncture arrived theRussian frigate General-Admiral, Captain Boutakoff, who took a mostimportant part in the subsequent development of the affair. I wasnever able to see that the Russian government did anything at thatstage to stimulate the insurrection, though Boutakoff expressed in themost unreserved manner his sympathies. Later I became convinced thatDendrinos did secretly, and more from antagonism to Derché thanfrom any orders from his government, advise against concession, asParthenios used to come secretly by night to him for consultation. ButI am persuaded that at that time the Russian government had noturged the movement, though a secret visit from Jonine on the Russiandispatch boat at an early stage of affairs was evidence that theposition was being studied by Russia. With Boutakoff I was for severalyears in the closest sympathy, and we subsequently acted together, butnever did I discover any indication of his taking an active part, orbeing aware that Dendrinos had taken one, in the early movement. Infact, the anxiety of the latter that I should keep secret, even fromBoutakoff, his action in the matter, indicated the contrary. WhatRussia had done at Athens I had no opportunity to learn, but in CreteI am convinced that she then did little or nothing. 

Having scoured the plains and lower hilly district west of Canea, Mustapha now organized an expedition against Sphakia, defended by theHellenic volunteers and the bands of the Apokorona and Sphakia atVafé. He obtained a decisive victory with heavy loss of the Egyptiancontingent, but his courage failed him before Askyphó, the greatnatural fortress of Sphakia, and he waited a month at Prosnero in theApokorona, negotiating to gain time, but offering no concessions. Atthis juncture arrived the only man who made any military mark in thewar, Colonel Coroneos, a Greek veteran, and competent commander ofsuch a force as Crete could furnish. As Zimbrakaki, who commanded theGreek volunteers, had assumed the command of the western section, while the chiefs of the eastern section, around and beyond Ida, hadtheir own organization, Coroneos went to Retimo and established theheadquarters of the district at the fortified convent of Arkadi, abuilding of Venetian construction and of sufficient strength to resistany attack not conducted with heavy artillery. Here he established hisdepot, and here the families of the Cretans took refuge when menacedby the Turkish bands. Coroneos himself kept the field and harassed theTurks everywhere in the province, and so annoyed Mustapha that aftera month's indecision he suddenly marched off to the attack of Arkadi, which Coroneos, after having harassed him on the march as much aswas possible, was obliged to leave to its fate, as neither hisorganization nor his outfit, which included no artillery, permittedhim to shut himself up in the little fortress. He had provided asgarrison a small body of Greek volunteers and 150 Cretan combatants, including the priests. Besides these there were about 1000 women andchildren, whom Coroneos had tried to induce to return to their homes, succeeding, however, owing to the opposition of the _hegumenos_ to thedeparture of his own relatives, with only about 400, the rest beingshut in by the sudden investment. To prepare for resistance, the greatgate of the convent had been solidly walled up, and when Mustaphaopened fire with his mountain artillery on the walls he made noimpression on them or on the gate, and, the rifle fire from theconvent being terribly hot and effective, he made the investmentcomplete and sent to Retimo for heavy artillery. It came accompaniedby nearly the entire garrison of Retimo and the Mussulman population, making his total force about 23, 000 men, of whom the most zealouscombatants were the Cretan Mussulmans. 

By this time I had become the recognized official protector of theCretans, although I had always done my best to discourage hostilitiesand persuade the Cretans to leave their wrongs to diplomatictreatment; not that I had great faith in that, but because I couldsee no hope for a success for the insurrection. Around me hadspontaneously formed an efficient service for information, the runnersof the various sections coming to me at Kalepa with the earliestinformation on every event of importance, and I communicated withthe legations at Athens and our own minister at Constantinople. Theexactness of my news was so well recognized that even the grand viziersent regularly to our minister for information, remarking that he gotnothing reliable from his own officials. Now happened one of thosecurious cases of mysterious transmission of news which have often beenknown in the East. Arkadi was at least forty miles, as the roadsgo, from Kalepa, --a long day's journey as travel goes there; but Ireceived news of the fight soon after it began, and information of theprogress of the combat during the day, one of my customary informantscoming every few hours with the details. This service I subsequentlychecked by the information given me by Mustapha's Cretan secretary, who lived in the house next to mine at Kalepa, and by the accountsgiven by some Italian officers of the Turkish and Egyptian regularsengaged in the siege for the final struggle, and found to be correct. I believe the account which I gave the world by the next post, andwhich was the only complete one ever given, is as near the truehistory as history is ever told. 

The heavy artillery soon breached the great gate, and an assault wasordered, but being met by a murderous fire from the convent walls, itwas repulsed with great slaughter; and the succeeding attempts onthe part of the Turkish regulars faring no better, a battalion ofEgyptians was put in the front and driven in at the point of thebayonet by the Turkish troops behind them. The convent was a hollowsquare of solidly built buildings, the inner and outer walls alikebeing of a masonry which yielded only to artillery, and from thewindows and doors of these a hail of bullets at close quarters metthe entering crowd of regulars and swarms of bloodthirsty Cretanirregulars, all furious at the resistance and wild with fanaticism. The artillery had to be brought in to break down the divisions betweenthe houses and cells, and the fight was one of extermination until allthe buildings were taken except the refectory, the strongest of thebuildings. At this juncture one of the priests fired the magazine, with an effect far greater on the outside world than on thecombatants, for it did not kill over a hundred Turks. The insurgentsin the refectory were then summoned to surrender, and, havingexhausted their ammunition, they complied, on the solemn promise ofMustapha that their lives should be spared; but, having handed outtheir rifles, they were all immediately killed. 

One of the Egyptian officers--an Italian colonel--told me manyincidents of the fight, of a sufficiently horrible nature, but hesaid that he saw things which were too horrible to be repeated. Thirty-three men and sixty-one women and children were spared, mostly through personal pleas to Mustapha of ancient friendship. Thesecretary told me of a fanatic of Canea who had volunteered in thehope of being killed in a war with the infidel, and who had been inall the fights of the insurrection, and, escaping from Arkadi unhurt, went home and hung up his sword, saying that Kismet was against himand he was not permitted to die for the faith. He also told me thatall the ravines near Arkadi were filled with the dead, while Retimowas filled with the wounded; and from the report of the hospitalsurgeon at Canea, I learned that four hundred and eighty were broughtto our hospital, being unable to find shelter at Retimo. 

Mustapha immediately returned to Canea, but having sworn not to enterthe city till he had conquered the island, he camped outside. Hecalled a council to devise some means of subduing the insurrectionbefore the effect of the siege of Arkadi should provoke intervention, for he saw that that had been a mistake. The enthusiasm of theinsurgents rose, and for the first time it seemed to me that there wasa chance of the Powers taking their proper position as to Crete, and Ibegan to hope that the bloodshed would not have been entirely wasted. But no effect was produced on the Powers by the horrible event, exceptthat Russia made some effort to provoke intervention; England andFrance, who held the solution in their hands, showing the most stolidindifference, and Russia, as afterwards became clear, only looking atthe occasion as creating more trouble for the Sultan. Greek influencetook entire control of affairs, and the Cretan committee at Athensbegan to pour in volunteers, rifles, and ammunition, without anyattempt at organization or intelligent direction. 

The pasha saw that the situation was critical and demanded hisgreatest energy, and, with one hand offering bribes to the Sphakiotchiefs, with the other he hurried his military preparations. Leavinghis second in command, Mehmet Pasha, at Krapi, the ravine whichapproached Sphakia from the east, he marched all his remaining forcesround to the west, hoping, as he said, to sweep all the rebels andtheir Greek allies into the mountains and either starve or otherwisecompel them to submission. The chiefs of the Greek bands refused tosubmit to a common plan or authority, and wasted their strength in aseries of little combats, Coroneos and Zimbrakaki alone, and only fora very brief period, coöperating for the defense of Omalos, whichwas the depot and refuge of the families, and where the cold of theapproaching autumn and the want of supplies would act as Mustapha'sbest allies. He moved along the coast to the west, relievingKissamos, --a seacoast walled town to which a band of Greek volunteershad, in an insane effort, laid siege, --and, sweeping familiesand combatants together before him, drove them all into the highmountains, where the snow had already begun to fall. In the rapidityof his movements he carried no tents or superfluous baggage, and thepoor Egyptians, clad still in the linen of their summer uniforms, perished in hundreds by cold alone, and even the beasts of burden lefttheir bodies in quantities by the way, forage and shelter for man andbeast alike failing. The volunteers held the pass of St. Irene, bywhich alone from the west the approach to Omalos was practicable; but, ill provided for the rigor of the season, they grew negligent, and, after two weeks of waiting, Mustapha made a sudden dash and took themby surprise in a fog, and occupied Selinos, the volunteers and Cretansretreating to the pass of Krustogherako, which lies between Omalos andSelinos. 

The story of Arkadi had begun to move public opinion all over Europe, but it had no power on the governments, although the consuls friendlyto the Cretans had continually appealed to their governments with thereport of the barbarities which accompanied the march of the Turkisharmy. For myself, under the advice of our minister at Constantinople, I had thrown off all reserve within my consular rights and used allmy influence with my colleagues, especially the honest, if toopro-Turkish, Dickson, and at the same time disseminated the truth asto the condition of the island in every possible way. The Turkishauthorities naturally retaliated to the best of their power, andpatrols of zapties watched my house in front and rear, for the ideahad entered the mind of the governor that I was the postman of theinsurrection. But I held no direct communication with the insurgents, and no letter ever passed through my hands, while the Greek andRussian consuls, unwatched, kept up a regular postal service. Ourminister at Constantinople, who, in the beginning, had been in theclosest personal relations with his English colleague, the just andhumane Lord Lyons, replaced at this juncture by Sir Henry Elliott, finding that nothing was to be expected from England, joined forceswith General Ignatieff, and thenceforward my action was directed bythe Russian embassy. 

In communicating the news of the affair of Arkadi to our government, I had fully explained my actual position and my proposed action onbehalf of the insurgents, and begged that a man-of-war might be sentto convey from the island the refugee families who were dying of coldand hunger in the mountains, or being murdered in the plains. In replyI received the following dispatch (December 25, 1866):--

 W. J. STILLMAN, ESQ. , U. S. Consul, Canea:--

 _Sir_, --Your dispatch No. 32, with regard to the Cretan insurrection and the attitude you have assumed in the matter, has been received. 

 Your action and proposed course of conduct, as set forth in said dispatch, are approved. Mr. Morris, our minister resident at Constantinople, will be informed of the particulars set forth in your dispatch, and of the approval of your proceedings. Rear-Admiral Goldsborough has been instructed to send a ship-of-war to your port. I am, sir, your most obedient servant, W. H. SEWARD. 

Meanwhile the Wizard gunboat had been relieved by the Assurance, --alarger vessel, --the commander of which (Pym) had an American wife, andperhaps had been influenced by her, and certainly shared her sympathywith the Cretans. I showed him Seward's dispatch and fired him withthe desire of distinguishing himself by taking the initiative inthe work of humanity. I then made the strongest possible appeal toDickson, who had by this time come through his own informants torecognize the atrocity of Mustapha's plan of campaign, to order Pym toobey his good impulse; and Pym at the same time informed me that heintended to go, with Dickson's order if possible, but in any case togo. Meanwhile he ran down to Candia to watch events there and protectthe Christians. Dickson in the end obtained the consent of Mustaphato the deportation of the families, and sent the order to Candia, onwhich the Assurance went to Selinos and took on board three hundredand fifteen women and children and twenty-five wounded men, menacedby the approach of Mustapha's army, and carried them to Peiraeus. Mustapha Pasha had given his permission for the ship to take therefugees, and Dickson had given the order, so that Pym's action wasregularized; but he was, nevertheless, punished by his government, being ordered to the coast of Africa, and shortly after retired. I sawhim on his return from the trip, and there was not a man or officerwho would not have given a month's pay to repeat the expedition, butit was peremptorily disapproved by the English government. 

There were at Suda at the time two Italian corvettes, an Austrianfrigate and gunboat; the Russian General Admiral, and a Frenchgunboat; all of which, with the exception of the Frenchman, wereanxious to follow the example of Pym. But the prompt disapproval ofPym's expedition by the English government, and the withdrawal of thepermission given by Mustapha, prevented any of them from repeating thefeat. Ignatieff had, on hearing of Pym's exploit, obtained from thegrand vizier the permission that other ships might follow him, anddispatched at once the embassy dispatch boat with orders to Boutakoffto follow. But a violent storm coming on, the boat had taken refuge atMilos, where she lay four days, and by the time she arrived anotherpost was due from Constantinople. Both Boutakoff and Dendrinoshesitated to execute the order, having learned of the disapprovalof Pym and the revocation of his permission. Dendrinos was a timid, irresolute man, always afraid of assuming responsibility, andBoutakoff's orders were to go only on the requisition of the consul. Iwas very much afraid that under the circumstances the order would berevoked, and had in vain urged the two Russian officials to move. 

At this moment came another act of the Turkish brutality, whichcarried me through. A Turkish man-of-war ran in to the shore wherePym had taken his refugees, flying the English flag, and, when therefugees poured out from their rocky shelter, opened its broadsides onthem. One of my runners came in with the news of this atrocity, inthe morning of the day the post should arrive, and I went at once toDendrinos and insisted on his sending the order to Boutakoff to go tothe relief of the Cretan families at Selinos. The frigate lay atSuda, and I dictated the letter to Boutakoff, saw it consigned tothe messenger, and never left Dendrinos alone till time had elapsedsufficient for the delivery of the message on the frigate, beingcertain that if I left the timid man to himself he would send acounter order. Boutakoff, nothing loath, got up his anchor, andcame round to the roadstead of Canea to await the post and the lastadvices, but I hurried him off without delay, apprehensive of thecounter order from Ignatieff. This did in fact arrive by the post, but three hours too late. The General Admiral carried 1200 women andchildren to the Greek ports, but the repetition was forbidden. 

The insurrection flamed up anew, however, and negotiations were brokenoff, though the deportations were stopped. Mustapha, finding itimpossible to force his way into Sphakia from the west, ordered thefleet round, and transported the army entire to Franco Castelli on thesouthern shore, and bribed the chief of the district to allow him topass to Askyphó without resistance. In this great plain, which is thestronghold of eastern Sphakia, as Omalos of western, he encamped tonegotiate and try a last effort at conciliation. The next day one ofthe captains of the section bordering on Askyphó came to me for adviceas to accepting Mustapha's propositions. I told him I could not advisehim to fight or make peace, but I translated Mr. Seward's dispatch, and assured him that when the ship arrived I would send it at once tothe relief of the families. On his return, resistance was decided on, and all the men of the vicinity gathered to attack the Turks. The passof Askyphó could have been easily blocked, and the army compelled tosurrender, being scantily provisioned, but some spy in the Cretancouncils warned the pasha, and he broke up his camp at midnight andcrowned the heights at the head of the ravine, so that his army wasable to pass, though with terrible losses. 

It was the most disastrous campaign of the whole war, for the troopswere slaughtered almost without resistance, killed by rolling downboulders on them. Bewildered in the intricacies of the defiles, without guides or provisions, and in small parties, they weredispatched, for days after. The army which had set out 17, 850 strong, Egyptian and Turkish regulars, according to Dickson's officialinformation, beside several thousand irregulars, was reported byMustapha, after its return and reorganization, as amounting to6000 men. We saw them as they defiled past Suda coming in, and thecommander of one of the Italian ships took the trouble to count someof the battalions, one of which, consisting of 900 men when it setout, returned with only 300. The losses were certainly not less than10, 000 men, not counting the irregulars. 

CHAPTER XXII

DIPLOMACY

What had become evident, even at Constantinople, was that Mustaphaand his influence, as well as the policy of repression by cruelty anddevastation, had failed. Barbarities continued, and were met by activeresistance on a small scale wherever the Turks attempted to penetrate. Small Turkish detachments were beaten here and there, but no generalplan of operation appeared to offer a chance of ultimate success toeither party. The Porte, therefore, sent its best diplomatic agent, Server Effendi, with a magniloquent and mendacious proclamation and asummons for the election of a deputation of Cretans of bothreligions, to meet at Constantinople to receive the promises ofthe well-intentioned Turkish government for their pacification andcontentment. Server Effendi was an intelligent and liberal man, and webecame very good friends, and if he had been permitted to treat on thebasis of accomplished facts he might have attained something. But hewas compelled to assume that the island had been subjected by arms tothe will of the Porte, and must accept as concession what they had wona right to from an effective resistance, as yet not even partiallysubdued. He was not himself deceived, but the Sultan had passed intoa condition of insane fury, and could not be induced to listen to anyconcessions or entertain any proposition but complete surrender. Hehad, Mr. Morris wrote me, had a model of the island made, which heused to bombard with little cannon, to give vent to his rage. Allthe powers, with the exception of England, now advised the Porte toconcede a principality. The English policy in this case has alwaysseemed to me mistaken, and in questionable faith, for by the protocolof February 20, 1830, the signatory powers bound themselves to securefor Crete a principality like that of Samos. For this defection ofEngland from the general accord of the powers, Greece was, probably, mainly responsible, for at that juncture the influence of Greekdemagogues prevailed in the island to make a compromise difficult, andthe principality would certainly have been refused; still, England waspledged to the offer of it. I find in the record I made at the timethe following passage:--

"The tactics of Greece were of a nature to make the chances of Cretemore precarious than they need have been. The policy of Crete forGreece, rather than Crete for her own good, made confusion andjealousy in the conduct of the war much greater than they need havebeen. What the Cretans wanted was a good leader, arms, and bread. Greece sent them rival chiefs without subordination, a rabble ofvolunteers, who quarreled with the islanders, and weakened thecause by deserting it as soon as they felt the strain of danger andhardship; and if, after the first campaign, they were more wise inenrolling men to go to Crete, they still allowed the jealousies andhostilities of the leaders to go unchecked by any of those measureswhich were in their power. But the radical fault of the Hellenes wasthat they compromised the question by the introduction of thequestion of annexation, and forced it into the field of internationalinterests, disguising the real causes and justification of themovement, and making it impossible for England consistently with herdeclared policy to entertain the complaints of the Cretans withoutalso admitting the pretensions of the Hellenes. If the latter had notintruded their interests into the discussion, the former might havebeen heard; but from the moment in which annexation to Greece becamethe alternative of the reconquest of Crete, the English governmentcould clearly not interfere against the Porte without upsetting itsown work; and, if in some minor respects, especially the question ofthe principality, it had been more kind to Crete, no one could havefound fault with a policy which was in its general tendency obligatoryon it. "

This opinion, formed and expressed while all my sympathies were withthe Greek government, and in complete knowledge of all that it wasdoing for the Cretans, remains as the mildest criticism I can make onthe policy of Athens. At this time, looking over the events of thethirty years which have lapsed since the end of that unhappy affair, Ican see more clearly the matter as a whole, and that the miseries ofCrete especially, and of the Greeks in the Levant in general, havebeen mainly due to the want of commonsense in the race, and theincapacity of individuals to subordinate their personal views andinterests to the general good. The Italians have a proverb, "SixGreeks, seven captains, " which in a pithy way expresses the reasonwhy the Greeks have never been able to succeed in any nationalmovement--the necessary subordination and self-effacement needed forcivic or military solidity are, and always have been absolutely outof the character of the people. Courage they had, but discipline theynever would submit to, nor will they now. 

Server Effendi got his deputies, some by compulsion, some by bribery, and some with good-will, and most of them he succeeded in getting toConstantinople. One escaped and came to my house for asylum, andthere he remained six weeks, and then was smuggled on board a Russiancorvette, in sailor's costume, and carried to Greece; the rest of theChristians when they got to Constantinople took refuge at the RussianEmbassy, declaring that they came against their own free will and thatof the Cretans. At this time a change for the better took place atAthens, the incompetent ministry which had neither known how to do norhow not to do giving place to that in which Comoundouros was primeminister and Tricoupi minister of foreign affairs; and, while theparalysis of utter failure rested on the Turkish administrationin Crete, the policy in Greece became comparatively energetic andintelligent. Comoundouros was a demagogue, without any scruples as tothe means of success, but he was intelligent enough to understand theposition and that a positive policy was necessary. He had opposed anyencouragement to the insurrection in the beginning, seeing no hope forits success; but public opinion all over Europe and in America hadby this time become so pronounced, and committees were beginning sowidely to form to aid the Cretans, that there seemed a chance ofintervention and a certainty of large assistance in money and moralencouragement. He took the responsibility of openly giving aid to theinsurrection, but he still had not the clear understanding of the wantof a concentrated direction in Crete. The bands refused to coöperate, and while Coroneos in the central districts carried on a brilliantsystem of harrying and raiding the Turkish detachments, the chiefs inthe eastern and western sections remained inert, getting the principalportion of the supplies (as the blockade runners went mostly tothe coasts of those districts) but doing the least of the work. Comoundouros dared not risk offending the many political partisansby imposing on the volunteers whom he sent over a competent andconcentrated command. But as a collateral means of pressure the newministry set to work organizing a movement on the Continent, and ithad the courage to face all the probabilities of a war with Turkey. 

At this juncture came the famous blockade runner, the Arkadi, a mostsuccessful contrabandist of the American war, and at every trip shemade she carried away a number of women and children. Meanwhile wewaited for the arrival of the American man-of-war which was to putthe machinery of relief to the non-combatants in operation. She nevercame, and in reply to a telegram to Commodore Goldsborough, who was atNice, I received the information that he knew nothing of any ordersfor Crete. Intrigues had supervened at Constantinople, chief mover inwhich was the dragoman of our legation, a Philo-Turkish Levantine, andthe persistent assailant in various American journals of Mr. Morrisand myself. As the result of these intrigues the order to the admiralwas recalled. In March a corvette, the Canandaigua, came for a shortstay, but the manner of the officers towards me, and the observationsof most of the officers on what they considered a sort of "slavetrade, " i. E. The carrying of women and children, made me very glad tosee her sail again. I made a little use of her, however, by persuadingthe captain to run down to Retimo with me to inspect the condition ofthe refugees in that town, and to distribute the money, etc. , withwhich I had been furnished by the committee at Athens for thatpurpose. I also induced the captain to run over to Peiraeus toreorganize the consulate there, the consul having run away, leavingthe office in the hands of his creditors, from whom I rescued thearchives, the only property on the place, and not liable to seizurefor his debts. I took the same opportunity to exchange views with theGreek ministers, and began a friendship with Tricoupi which lasted aslong as he lived. The captain sympathized with me, but he had had hisorders, and the officers in general (two of the younger ones took anopportunity to tell me how glad they would have been to aid the Cretanfamilies) were pro-Turkish. But the Turks did not know all the facts, and the visit of the Canandaigua was a moral support to me. 

The hostility between Mustapha Pasha and myself had now become soopen that all intercourse ceased. For months my children had notgone beyond the threshold, and I myself was openly threatened withassassination; the butchers in the market were forbidden to serveme with meat, and I got supplies only indirectly. Canea was so wellbeleaguered by land by the insurgents that we had scanty provisionof produce at the best, nothing being obtainable from the territorybeyond the Turkish outposts. The Austrian steamer brought weekly afew vegetables, but the cattle within the lines were famished anddiseased, and there was no good meat and little fish, the fishermen, who were Italians, all going home. I finally sent to Corfu for thelittle yacht on which I had made quarantine, and, pending her arrival, sent Laura and the children to Syra. When the Kestrel arrived, wespent most of our time on board, running between the ports of Creteand between Crete and the Greek Islands, generally followed by aTurkish gunboat, for Mustapha persisted in regarding me as thego-between in Greco-Cretan affairs, and while the zapties watched mydoor, the Cretan post went to and fro through the gates of the cityunsuspected. 

I was no longer of any importance except as a witness of events andwas disposed to resign and go to Greece, for the expense of living hadbecome greater than I could bear, with my income of $1000. The Portethreatened to revoke my exequatur, than which nothing could havepleased me more, for the support of my government had become merelynominal, though I had never varied from my instructions. The grandvizier seemed to understand that, and the threat was withdrawn, whilepressure was applied at Washington to induce the government to recallme, a minister _ad hoc_ being appointed to the United States. Mr. Seward at first consented, being probably by that time thoroughlytired of the Cretan, question, but, the Russian legation applyingpressure on the other side, the consent was revoked and I remained. The Turkish demand included the recall of Morris, but as hisoperations were carried on through me my removal was the principalobject. I had now the satisfaction of seeing the disgrace of MustaphaKiritly, who was recalled as a failure, and Hussein Avni came out as_locum tenens_ for the Sirdar, Omar Pasha, the Croat. With HusseinAvni I made another attempt to enter into conciliatory relations withthe government, and offered my services for any negotiations it mightbe desirous of entering into, but the conviction of my hostility tothe Turkish government was so rooted that I saw clearly that no beliefwas entertained in my good faith. 

Hussein Avni took no steps against the insurgents, but an impatientsubordinate commander, with a division, made an attempt to penetrateinto Selinos, and, being beaten, ravaged the plains about Kissamos, hitherto unmolested. Whole villages, which had submitted withoutresistance, were plundered, the women violated by order of theofficers, in some cases until death ensued. All who were able toescape hid in the caves along the shore, and made their way in smallboats, as opportunity offered, to Cerigotto. I ran over in theKestrel and saw two boats arrive, so freighted that it was almostinconceivable that they should have made a sea voyage of twenty mileseven in calm weather. I saw a man of ninety who had been wrapped incloths saturated with oil, to which fire was set, and who was left toburn, but whose friends came back in time to save his life, though Isaw the fresh scars of the burning over his whole breast. Meanwhilethe Arkadi came and went without interference, and the insurrectionwas practically unmolested. 

Omar Pasha arrived on the ninth of April, and, two days after, 2000insurgents attacked the guard of the aqueduct which supplied Caneawith water, and were repelled, the plan of attack having been betrayedby a miller of the vicinity; but the main object of the Cretans hadbeen to show a sign of virility to the new commander-in-chief, and theobject was attained with the loss of three killed. Omar landed withgreat ostentation, having brought a magnificent outfit, cavalry, staff, horse artillery, etc. , etc. , all in new and brilliant uniforms;but the astute Cretans rejoiced in the change, for the cunning ofMustapha Kiritly was more dangerous to them than Omar Pasha and hisEuropean tactics. 

I went to pay my respects and renew my offers of good services ifconciliation were to be attempted, expecting to see a civilizedgeneral, but I found only a conceited and bombastic old man whohad not the least idea of what he had undertaken. He pooh-poohedconciliation, and assured me that his plans were so perfect thatwithin two weeks after his setting out for the conquest of the islandall would be over and the insurrection at his mercy. I venturedto suggest that he would find the country more difficult than hesupposed, and that the total want of roads would be a grave obstacleto such rapid success. He replied that it could not be more difficultthan Montenegro, and he had conquered that, etc. , and I left himgreatly relieved as to the probability of success in his operations. 

He employed two weeks in his preparations, and then set out for theconquest of Sphakia, moving in two columns, with a total force of15, 000 men, his own division taking the pass of Kallikrati, givingaccess to Sphakia from the east, and held by Coroneos, and that ofMehmet Pasha moving against Krapi, the pass on the north held byZimbrakaki and the Greek bands. Both divisions were driven back tothe plains. The savage excesses which followed this double defeat farsurpassed anything we had known. Villages which had long been at peaceand within the Turkish lines were put to sack, and the last outragesof war inflicted on the unfortunate inhabitants. The cruelties which, under Mustapha, were the occasional deeds of subordinate commanders orthe consequence of partial defeats, became, under Omar, the rule byorder to all the detachments, and Omar himself took his share of thebooty and the pick of the captive girls for his own harem. 

As I had the testimony of European officers in the Turkish servicegiven me freely, in disgust at the proceedings of the sirdar, I didnot depend on insurgent reports of these things. While the Egyptiantroops remained I had constant and detailed information from theirEuropean officers. A German officer, by the name of Geissler, --Omar'schief of artillery, --died of dysentery at Canea during the campaign, and, his effects being sent in to the consulate of France fortransmission to his family, I had the chance to see his diary, inwhich were noted the incidents of the campaign. One entry which Icopied was this: "O. Pasha ordered the division to ravage and rape, "the village being one where the inhabitants had never taken part inthe insurrection. "All villages were burned, " wrote Geissler, and allprisoners murdered or worse. The chiefs of four villages, who came involuntarily to make their submission, were beheaded on the spot, andthe population soon abandoned all villages in the route of the army, which, not being able to make any impression on the insurgent force, avenged itself on the inoffensive Christians whenever any fell intotheir hands. Nothing more savage and needlessly cruel has taken placein the history of the Ottoman empire than the deeds of the SirdarCroat. 

Two changes in the position now took place in favor of the Cretannon-combatants. The influence of Russia at Alexandria induced theviceroy to withdraw his troops in spite of the opposition of Omar, andafter the disastrous end of that campaign the remainder were embarkedfor Egypt, 10, 000 surviving out of the 24, 000 who had landed underSchahin Pasha. The other change was the removal of Derché, whoseuselessness even to his own government had finally become evident. Hissuccessor--Tricou, a quick-witted Parisian, of a character entirelyopposed to the Turcophile Derché--asked permission to follow the armyin the next movement, which was intended to be for the subjugation ofthe central provinces, and Omar bluntly refused. As Tricou had ordersfrom his own government to accompany the army, this impolitic refusalthrew him at once into the opposition with us. 

Omar marched by Retimo towards Candia, watched by Coroneos, and, whenthe army reached the valley of Margaritas, it was surrounded andfuriously attacked by Coroneos and all the bands of the immediatelysurrounding country, and completely bottled up. One of the Europeanofficers with Omar assured me that they had given up all hope ofrescue. The fire of the Cretans penetrated to their tents, and thatof Omar was several times pierced. Omar had, before setting out, sentorders to Reschid Effendi, who commanded at Candia, to come and meethim, and Reschid, a more competent commander, with a strong body ofirregulars, fighting day and night, succeeded in effecting a junctionand opening the way. In this affair, again, the jealousy of the Greekslost a most brilliant opportunity for a victory which would haveundoubtedly finished the war. Petropoulaki, a Mainote _palikari_ ofthe great insurrection of 1827-30, sent over from Greece to directaffairs about Ida, was called on by Coroneos to reinforce theresistance to the passage of Rescind, but refused to move or even sendCoroneos a much-needed supply of ammunition, so that the latterwas obliged to retire. On this march there was a repetition of theincident of the great insurrection, in the stifling of all thefamilies who had taken refuge in one of the caves which abound inCrete, by making a huge fire in the entrance. My informant was anItalian colonel under Omar, who was an eye-witness of the event. 

Omar next announced a comprehensive movement which was to sweep theinsurgents from east to west, and surround them in Sphakia, when hewould finish with them. He began by an attack on the position ofLasithe, where were gathered about 5000 insurgents, --sufficient ifthey had had one commander; having many, they were, after temporarysuccesses, scattered and dispersed east and west, Omar following thosewho went westward. I ran down to Candia, in the Kestrel, to get theearliest news. Harried, and with several partial defeats, the army wasfinally concentrated at Dibaki, on the south coast; but, instead ofsweeping the country as Omar had proposed doing, it was embarked onthe fleet and transported to the eastern foothills of Sphakia, anddebarked at Franco Castelli, the scene of the debarkation of Mustaphain his Askyphó campaign. With much hard fighting, but greatly aided bythe want of coöperation amongst the insurgents and their allies, onedivision penetrated to Askyphó, but was unable to get further, and, being cut off from all communication with its base of supplies, wasobliged to retreat to Vrysis, Omar always remaining on his ironclad, while Reschid, who was by far the most competent soldier in theTurkish army in Crete, was obliged to retreat towards Candia, followedby Coroneos, and, reaching that place mortally wounded in a partingfight with the Greek chief near Melambos, died at Candia a few weekslater. While at Candia I received most of my information from the sonof Reschid Pasha. 

Omar, having ravaged and murdered along the southern coast, wasobliged to take ship and sail round with the entire army to the pointfrom which he had started. He landed at Canea, having lost, mostly bydisease, from 20, 000 to 25, 000 men in a three months' campaign, andeffected nothing except the destruction of six hundred villages andthe murder of hundreds of Cretans. The reports of Tricou had made itnecessary for the French government to recognize the real conditionof affairs, for he had set his agents in the island to collecting theauthentic cases of Turkish barbarity, a ghastly roll. His irritationagainst the sirdar, on account of the discourteous manner of refusalof the permission to accompany the army, was intensified by aninsulting remark which Omar made to Captain Murray, concerning Tricou, and which Murray repeated to me and I to Tricou; and the war wasthereafter to the knife. Tricou crushed the Croat in the end, andthe Russian and French governments came to an accord for thetransportation of the non-combatants to Greece. In consequence, fourFrench ships, three Russian, two Italian, and, not to be left alone, three Austrian and one Prussian, rapidly carried to Greece all whowished to escape from the island. It was unnecessary, as there was nolonger any danger from the Turkish army; but it was, I suppose, inpursuance of some political scheme which had brought France and Russiatogether. The Turkish army was nowhere in force or spirit to penetrateinto the interior, and the demoralization was such that soldiersdeserted from battalions ordered for Crete. The military hospitals inCrete were full, and the troops so mutinous that operations had becomeimpracticable beyond holding and keeping up communication with theblockhouses and posts within easy reach. 

Omar Pasha having failed to make any impression, A'ali Pasha, thegrand vizier, came out in October, 1867, to try conciliation. Heoffered all that the Cretans could desire, short of annexation toGreece, --an assembly of their own, freedom from taxation for a term ofyears, a prince of their own election without reserve, and the half ofthe customs receipts. I waited on him, as I had on the former envoysof the Sultan, as a matter of etiquette, and was surprised by the justand reasonable tone and substance of his propositions. They seemedeven better for the Cretans than annexation to Greece, and I sorepresented them to Mr. Morris. But I received from him the orders ofGeneral Ignatieff to urge the Cretans to reject them, as the certainalternative was their independence and annexation to Greece. I obeyedmy orders without concealing my own sentiments in favor of theacceptance of the offers of the grand vizier. 

A'ali made on me an impression of honesty and justice such as Ihad never seen in any Turkish official. He dissembled none of hisdifficulties, and discussed the questions arising out of the positionwithout reserve. For the first time since the affair began I feltmy sympathies drawn to the Turkish aspect of the political questioninvolved. I had long seen that Crete could not be governed from Athenswithout a course of such preparation as the Ionian Islands had had;they would never submit to prefects from continental Greece; theyfelt themselves, as they really are, a superior race, superior inintelligence and in courage; but the men from Athens had persuadedthem that the only alternative to submission to the Sultan wasannexation, and, meanwhile, the ships of Europe were carrying theirfamilies to Greece, where they were to remain practically as hostagesfor the fulfillment of the Greek plans. The Russian influence was nowstrengthened by the service rendered in the deportation of the womenand children, and the Greek influence by the maintenance of them inGreece. 

The offers of A'ali Pasha were rejected without being weighed. A'aliused no arts; he offered bribes to no one; he showed what the Sultanwas ready to offer and guarantee, and listened patiently to all thatthe consuls or the friends of the Cretans said, but it was too late. Meanwhile fighting had ceased, for the Turks dared not go intothe interior, and the Christians, having neither artillery nororganization, could not attack the fortified posts or the walledcities. The fighting men in the mountains were provided with food fromGreece, and had lost the habits of industry which would have madepeace profitable. Dissensions arose amongst the chiefs, and the bestof them went back to Greece to urge the carrying of the war into thecontinental provinces of Turkey. The conclusion of the war by theproffered autonomy of Crete was utterly ignored by all who had anyinfluence in bringing about a solution. 

The Russian government now concluded to take the direction of matters. Its minister at Athens required Comoundouros to fall in with a planfor a general movement in all the Balkan provinces under Russiandirection, Russia beginning to fear a pan-Hellenic rising. To thisComoundouros gave a peremptory refusal; it was a Greek movement andshould remain under Greek direction. The king of Greece had marrieda Russian princess, and during his stay at St. Petersburg had givenhimself up to the influence of the court. He was a weak, incapableyoung man, and the absolutist atmosphere suited his temperamentperfectly, and the independence of Comoundouros did not. Under therequisition of the Russian minister, the king dismissed the ministryof Comoundouros. The Chamber refused its confidence to the newministry, and the Russian minister then made the formal proposal toComoundouros that if he would accept the programme of St. Petersburghe should come back to power. This proposal was also rejected, andthe Chamber was dissolved, and in the new elections, by the mostoutrageous exercise of all the expedients that could be applied, Comoundouros and all his principal adherents were excluded, and asubservient Chamber elected, under the shadow of a ministry of affairscomposed of men of no party and no capacity. The popular feeling ranso high that an insurrection was imminent, and was averted only bythe formal promises of the ministry to carry on the war in Crete withrenewed energy; but, at the same time, the means were withdrawn fromthe Cretan committee, who were the most capable and honest, as well aspatriotic, people to be found in Athens. Never had the condition ofaffairs been so favorable for the realization of a thorough Greekpolicy. The Greeks on the Continent were ready and all the Turkishempire was in a ferment. Joseph Karam, prince of the Lebanon, waswaiting at Athens on the plans of the Greek government to give theword for a rising in his country. The election having given theministry the majority it desired, it gave place to Bulgaris, theRussian partisan, and colleagues nominated by the Russian minister forthe distinct purpose of suppressing the Cretan insurrection. 

Omar Pasha went home in disgrace in November, and left in chargeHussein Avni, who had a plan of paralyzing the insurrection bybuilding lines of blockhouses across the island and isolating thebands. With much pain and expense a number of blockhouses were builtand roads made in the western provinces; but, with the exceptionof another fruitless attack on Zurba, nothing really serious wasattempted on either side in the island. The Turkish hospitals werefull of fever and dysentery patients, and the insurgents harried allthe country round about with perfect impunity. Most of the housesaround us at Kalepa were occupied as hospitals, and the very airseemed infected by the number of sick; there were 3000 in and aroundCanea. 

In this condition the year 1867 went out and the third year of theinsurrection began. The Greek government sent supplies enough to keepthe men under arms from starving, and the Turkish could send no moretroops, so that there were only, after garrisoning the fortresses, about 5000 troops available for any operations. One of the Europeanofficers told me that the total force remaining out of eighty-twobattalions, of which most had come to Crete full, was 17, 000 meneffective. A party of the consuls and officers of the men-of-war inthe port made a picnic at Meskla in August, and witnessed a fightbetween the Cretans and Zurba and the Turks at Lakus, in the courseof watching which I had a shot fired at me from the Turkish trenches, which came so near that the lead of the bullet striking a rock at myside spattered me from head to foot, and as we returned to Canea wewere surrounded by the insurgents at Theriso, having lost our roadin the dark, and most of the party taken prisoners. I and my veterancavass, Hadji Houssein, broke through with a guest, --ColonelBorthwick, an English officer in the Turkish service, --escaping down abreakneck hillside in the dark to save him and his two orderlies fromcapture by the insurgents, a trifling thing for us who were known asthe friends of the Cretans, but a serious matter possibly for Turkishsoldiers in fez and uniform. We made a reckless race down themountain, leaving our horses and my photographic apparatus under thecare of Dickson, and just succeeded in reaching the Turkish outpostin advance of a party of Cretans who followed the road down to cut usoff. The post which we reached was under the command of a major, andBorthwick, who outranked him, ordered out a relieving party to go upthe road and rescue the consuls, but the frightened major went up theroad, out of sight, and waited there till we were gone, and then cameback. He complained to Borthwick on receiving the order, "But you knowthat is dangerous, "--a fair expression of the feeling of the army asto their service at that time. They were too demoralized to make anyimpression on the insurgents. 

Laura had recently been confined with our Bella, her third child, andour physician--a kindly and excellent Pole, attached to one of thehospitals--ordered us all out of the island as soon as she was able totravel, for, to use his expression, "he would not guarantee the lifeof one of us if we remained in the island two weeks longer. " Wehad been living for over two years a life of the deprivations anddiscomfort of a state of siege. At one time I had been confined tothe house for three months by a scorbutic malady which prevented mywalking, my children had been suffering from ophthalmia brought by theEgyptians, and Laura was in a state of extreme mental depression fromher sympathy with the Cretans, while the absolute apathy prevailing inthe island made me useless to either side. It was most gratifying tome that A'ali Pasha recognized my good faith and comprehension of theposition, for not only did he, before he left the island, give medistinctly to understand that he considered me a friend, but told theTurkish minister in Athens, Photiades Pasha, that the government ofConstantinople had been greatly deceived regarding me, and that ifthey had taken my advice in the beginning they would have avoidedtheir difficulties. I left for Athens in September of 1868, convinced, as were the intelligent chiefs of the Cretans, that the Greekgovernment intended to abandon the insurrection. I left the consulatein the hands of a new vice-consul--an Englishman long resident in theisland, --my Greek vice-consul having died during the insurrection, andI had decided not to return at the end of my leave of absence; but Idid not resign, as I knew that both the Turkish and my own governmentwanted me to do so. 

The agitation in America on behalf of the Cretans had been pushedtoo energetically and under bad management, and had been followed byindifference, and the government would willingly have recalled me, buthad no pretext for doing so, as I had always obeyed my orders. Nothingwas done, however, to make it more possible for me to remain in theisland. I had, in the second year of the war, determined to resign onaccount of the pecuniary difficulties of my position. We were livingin a besieged town, with all necessaries of life at famine prices, and, since my brother's death, I had no fund to draw on for myexcessive expenses. The Cretan committee in Boston, considering myresignation probably fatal to the insurrection, had promised that theywould be responsible for any expenses above my salary, and on thatunderstanding a friend in New York--Mr. Le Grand Lockwood, a wealthybanker--had offered to advance me any necessary sums. In accordancewith this offer I had drawn on him for what I needed, the amountreaching, at the end of my residence in Crete, nearly three thousanddollars. Arrived at Athens I took a tiny house under Lycabettus, which was simply furnished for us by the local and principal Cretancommittee. 

I found the committee convinced that the government of Bulgaris haddecided to stifle the insurrection in pursuance of the Russian plan, and it had sent in its resignation, which the ministry had notaccepted. The minister of foreign affairs came to me at once to begme to persuade them to withdraw the resignation, assuring me that theministry had no intention of abandoning the Cretans, but was evenready to increase the subsidy, and was preparing an expedition on alarger scale than any previous one to revive it, and that it would, toinsure its efficiency, take direct charge of the organization of it. On these assurances, I prevailed on the committee to withdraw itsresignation, which probably averted an insurrection in Athens. Theprovisional government in Crete meanwhile appealed to Coroneos tocome back and take the general direction of the insurrection, and heconsented on condition of being furnished the means required, which heestimated at £10, 000. The ministry rejected the offer, alleging wantof means, and immediately proceeded to organize an expedition whichcost more than double the amount. This was put under the direction ofthe old Petropoulaki, a partisan of Bulgaris, and the chief who hadrefused to help Coroneos in the attack on Omar Pasha at Margaritas. 

The volunteers were so openly enrolled and mustered, and all otherpreparations made with so little disguise, that I was convinced thatthe ministry intended by (what had hitherto been avoided) undisguisedviolation of international law to provoke the Turkish government totake action. The bands paraded the streets of Athens under theCretan flag, passing under the windows of the Turkish legation; thegovernment gave them two guns from the arsenal, and they were openlyembarked in two steamers, and landed in Crete without molestation byany of the Turkish men-of-war. They sent the guns back, and, whenattacked after debarkation, separated into two divisions, neither ofwhich offered any resistance, the smaller being attacked and cut topieces at once, the larger taking refuge in Askyphó, where, withoutwaiting for an attack, they made immediate overtures of surrender, anddid at last surrender unconditionally the island as well as their ownforce, without any communication with or authority from the recognizedCretan provisional government, but carrying with them the insurgentsof the western provinces. There remained about five thousandinsurgents in the eastern part of the island in good condition forresistance. 

In compliance with what was evidently a preconcerted plan betweenthe Turkish and Greek governments, the Englishman Hobart Pasha, theadmiral in command of the blockading fleet, who had not offeredto interfere with the expedition of Petropoulaki, the place ofdebarkation of which was publicly known, waylaid in Greek waters theEnnosis, the blockade runner of the committee, which had replaced theArkadi, captured by the Turkish ironclads, and chased her into theport of Syra, which he then proceeded to close by anchoring acrossthe entrance to the harbor. On the news of this reaching Athens, theCretan committee sent to Syra a blockade runner, lying as a reserve atPeiraeus, with orders to torpedo the admiral, torpedoes having beenprepared for other contingencies at the arsenal of Syra, and Iaccompanied the bearers of the order. A spy in the committee gaveimmediate information to the Turkish minister, and, as our steamerwent out of Peiraeus, we saw the smoke arise from the chimneys of aFrench corvette, lying off the arsenal, and two or three hours afterwe had entered, the corvette arrived and sent off a boat to HobartPasha, who immediately weighed anchor, and went to sea. The Greekgovernment took no action and made no protest against this violationof international law, first by attacking the Ennosis in Greek waters, and then by blocking the entrance to the port. Its conduct left noquestion as to its complicity with the action of Admiral Hobart. 

CHAPTER XXIII

ATHENS

My first leave of absence from Crete had been for two months, afterward extended indefinitely on account of the health of thefamily, the extension being accompanied with the intimation that mysalary would be suspended after a date indicated, unless I returned toCrete. The Cretan committee of Boston, to whom I had, according toour agreement, sent my claim for the excess of expenses over myincome, --the excess amounting after the realization of all my privateresources, sale of my curiosities, etc. , to about $1500, for which Iwas indebted to Mr. Lockwood, --replied that the funds of the committeewere exhausted, and there was nothing to meet my claim. As I had givenmy leisure in Crete to the practice of photography and was providedwith everything necessary to correct architectural work, I set aboutphotographing the ruins of Athens, which I found had never beentreated intelligently by the local photographers, and from the sale ofthe photographs I realized what sufficed, with a sum of 1200 francsaccorded us by the Athens Cretan committee from the remainder of thefunds in hand when the insurrection collapsed, to meet immediatecontingencies. I was in hope that the new cabinet, in which I had awarm personal friend in Judge Hoar, General Grant's attorney-general, would assign me another post, knowing that the Turkish government wasso bitterly opposed to my remaining in Crete; but the new Secretaryof State, Hamilton Fish, was a friend of General King, my discomfitedsuperior at Rome, and he had persistently urged my dismissal asdemanded by the Sultan, though, owing to Hoar's opposition in thecabinet this had not been accorded. But I was never forgiven by thefriends of King, and one day, when Judge Hoar was absent from acabinet meeting, Fish succeeded in getting my successor at Creteappointed, and though the judge made an indignant remonstrance at thenext meeting, it was too late to help us, for Fish obstinately opposedmy having any other appointment, and, as he controlled all nominationsto consular posts, it was impossible for the judge to effect anything. 

My troubles came to a crisis in the sudden death of my wife. Theanxiety and mental distress of our Cretan life, and her passionatesympathy with the suffering Cretans, even more than our privations andpersonal danger, had long been producing their effect on her mind, and the weaning of the baby precipitated the change into a profoundmelancholy, which became insanity accompanied by religious delusionsfrom which she sought refuge in a voluntary death. She was given apublic funeral, and the government sent a caisson to carry the coffinto the grave, but the Cretans claimed the right to take charge of it, and the coffin was carried to the cemetery on the shoulders of theoldest chiefs. The Cretan women looked on her as their best friend, and always spoke of her after her death as "the Blessed "--their formof canonization, for even in Athens they had been her chief care. Thequiet but indomitable courage with which she faced danger in Crete, lest they should be involved in the panic which prevailed all aroundus, was as remarkable as the humility with which she repelled allacknowledgment of any merit on her part. She indulged in no sentiment, had no poetic prepossession concerning the people she protected andworked for, but the dominant sense of duty carried her through alldifficulties. She never gave a thought to personal danger, and thougha fragile creature, not five feet high, she was capable of cowing themost brutal of the barbarians who were gathered around us at Khalepa, and, whether to keep the consulate for me while I was away, or tonavigate the yacht to meet me on my return from my visits to Greece, nothing made her hesitate to do what she thought her duty. In thethree years of almost breaking strain of our residence in the midstof the anarchy of the insurrection, she had only the few days' relieffrom anxiety of her stay in Syra, while waiting the arrival of theKestrel, but in all that time I never saw her make the least displayof trepidation or anxiety, until the dispatch came from SecretaryWashburn to tell us that the salary would be stopped. 

I was asked then, as the reader may ask now, why I did not take heraway when I found that she was failing. I had not the means to pay mypassage to any other country. I was myself nearly prostrated mentallyand physically, and unfit for anything but my photography. I was indebt so deeply that I could not honestly borrow, and my brother wasdead. The American government pays no traveling expenses for itsconsuls, and I had not an article that I could sell for a dollar, forthe furniture of the little house we lived in had been provided by theCretan committee. The Greek government was hostile to me until Laura'sdeath stirred the public feeling so profoundly, but even then the kingwas bitterly opposed to me. I was physically and financially a wreckon a foreign strand, with neither hope nor the prospect of relief. I struggled along as best I could, Mrs. Dickson taking charge of mychildren, and I made my home with the Dicksons. 

In June I had to go back to Crete to make consignment of the consulateto my successor. I found the island materially as I had left it, butalmost deserted and quite desolate, and the local administration inthe hands of the spies and the traitors of the insurrection; all thebrave men in exile and the gloom of death over everything; villagesstill unrebuilt, and the only sign of activity the building in themost accessible districts of military roads and blockhouses. As mysuccessor delayed, I, to pass the time, went to Omalos to carry outthe ancient plan which could no longer be postponed if it was tobe carried out, for I never intended to see Crete again. The newgovernor-general--Mehmet Ali, the Prussian (in subsequent yearsmurdered in Albania)--was an amiable, just, and intelligent man, whowould have saved the position if he had been there in the beginning, but now there was nothing to be done. When he learned that I intendedto go to Omalos he decided, with a more friendly impulse than anygovernor of Crete had ever shown towards me, to join me there and makethe visit pleasant for me. He preceded me, in fact, and I found theposts all warned to show me the customary honors, and when I reachedthe plain I found his tent ready to entertain me. The most sumptuousdinner his resources afforded was served in his audience tent; we hada grand acrobatic and dramatic entertainment of the soldiers and atorchlight _retraite_, and he gave me rugs to cover me, without whichI must have suffered severely, for, though in June, it was bitterlycold at Omalos, and I had brought only one rug to sleep on. Wereturned together next day after I had visited the great ravine ofAgios Rumeli, the most magnificent gorge I have ever seen, never takenfrom the Cretans by an enemy until this betrayal; and, as we wentback, we discussed the condition of the island. I told him freelywhat I thought of the situation, and he so far agreed with me that hebegged me to go to Constantinople and lay my ideas before A'ali Pasha, promising to support them. 

On my return to Athens I raised money enough to get a return ticketto the Turkish capital, and had an immediate audience of the grandvizier, to whom I stated frankly, and without in the least disguisingthe faults committed by his government, the condition of the islandas I saw it, and the remedies necessary for the restoration of itsprosperity. He asked me to give him a written memorandum of my views, which I did, and he then asked me to stay in Constantinople until hecould send a commission to Crete and get a report from it. I repliedthat I had not the means to stay so long, the time he indicated beingseveral weeks, and he offered to pay my expenses liberally if I wouldstay. I went to the office of the "Levant Herald" to ask for work. They knew me well enough there, for I had been their correspondentfrom Crete, and the journal had once been fined £100 for one of myletters, and once confiscated for another. On what I earned I livedfor the time I had to wait for the report of the commission. 

When the report came I was summoned to the grand vizier to receive myreply. A'ali Pasha said that he had found that my statements of thecondition of things in the island were correct, and he approved theremedies I proposed; would I go out to Crete with full powers to carryout the measures I recommended, the chief of which was an amnesty forsuch of the exiles as, knowing them personally, I could trust to carryout my dispositions? He could not give me an official position underthe Turkish government, having been reputed so long as an enemy; but asemi-official position for the definite purpose of the pacification hewas prepared to offer me with an adequate salary and appointments, and_carte blanche_ for the pardon of whomever I saw fit to name. On onecondition, I replied, I would accept the appointment, this being thatthe persons I pardoned and recalled to the island should also beguaranteed from arrest and molestation on civil process for actscommitted in the course of the military operations, such as thetaking of cattle or sheep for the subsistence of the bands, but notcomprehending criminal acts. On this condition we came to a finaldifference, as A'ali said that by the Turkish law the governmentbecame pecuniarily responsible for all such damages by condoning theacts of the offenders, and that they were not prepared to agree to. But it was impossible for me to enter into an agreement to invite achief to the island with his pardon, under my full powers, and thensee him thrown into prison by civil process for acts which the warhad made necessary, as had already happened in several cases, as itimpugned my good faith and made the pardon null and void, as much asif the offense charged were the rebellion. A'ali's confidence and theprospect of doing good to my Cretan friends touched me profoundly, andin my destitute condition the salary of a Turkish official was a heavyinducement, but I had to insist on the condition which divided us, andI withdrew. 

A'ali asked me to come to the treasury and receive the compensationfor my time spent in waiting on his inquiries, but the messengercarrying the money missed or evaded the appointment, or I mistook it;for, after waiting some time, I had to go back empty-handed, andafter waiting two or three days longer to hear of the money, with anunjustifiable suspicion of A'ali's good faith, I took boat again forAthens, more destitute than I had come. I had the additional pain oftelling the chiefs, on whose behalf I had pleaded, that there was nohope of an amnesty. I shall never forget the despair in the face ofold Costa Veloudaki, the chief of the Rhizo district, when I told himof my failure. Tall and straight under his seventy odd years, sickenedwith a terrible nostalgia away from his mountain home, he listenedmute and turned away without a word, bowed with grief and too muchmoved to risk speaking lest tears should shame him. I had known theold man from the beginning of the troubles, for he was the chief ofthe mountain country above Canea, and had been the spokesman of thecommittee when they came to see the consuls, --a noble, honest, andtruly patriotic man, and a hero of all the movements since 1827. Inone of the first battles, fought in view of my house, his son hadbeen killed, and, taking his hand as he lay on the ground they hadsuccessfully defended, he thanked God his son had been worthy to diefor Crete. It was, for me, the hard ending of a tragedy in which I hadhad my part, serious enough to identify myself with my island friends, and I can remember this episode of my life with the consciousness thatthose who suffered more than I did acknowledged that I had been a truefriend and a prudent counselor from the beginning. 

On my return to Athens I found Russie limping from the effects of aheavy fall he had had during my absence, and to which no attention hadbeen paid, though it gave him continual pain. I called in the leadingGreek physician, who, on examination, pronounced it rheumatism, andprescribed exercise and walks. I took the child on all the excursionsI made, to Marathon and other of the local points of interest, for hewas a great reader, and interested in Greek history and archeologyalready, passing most of his time with me in my work on the Acropolis. He limped painfully over all the sites we visited, and presently weaccepted an invitation to Aegina, to the home of the Tricoupis, theparents of the well-known premier of later years. We spent some daysthere, fishing and exploring and photographing the ruins, but Mrs. Tricoupi recognized in Russie's lameness the beginning of hip disease, and, returning to Athens, I had a council on him, when it was placedbeyond doubt that that deadly disease was established, aided largelyby the false diagnosis that substituted severe exercise for theabsolute quiet which the malady required. He was at once put inplaster bandages and we were ordered home. Home! But how? I had notmoney enough to pay a single passage even to England, and had nofriends from whom I could ask the means to get home. In despair I wentto the Turkish minister--Photiades Pasha--and told him of the promiseof A'ali Pasha to pay me for my time and expenses while waiting atConstantinople, asking him to remind the pasha that I had not beenpaid, as he probably supposed, possibly through the dishonesty of themessenger. A'ali made inquiry, and, finding it to be the case, sentme, through Photiades, a hundred Turkish pounds, with which I wasenabled to pay all local debts and reach London, more grateful to theTurkish sense of justice than to that of my own government. 

It only wanted for the diversity of my career that I should haveserved a term as a demi-official of the Turkish government I hadserved to undermine. For A'ali Pasha I retain the respect due to themost remarkable ability, honesty, and patriotism combined I have everknown in a man in his position, a most difficult one, surrounded bycorruption, venality, and treason as probably the ruler of no otherstate has been in our day. He was free from prejudice, fanaticism, and political passion, and had he been seconded by his colleagues andadministrators, as he should have been, I am convinced that he mighthave restored the prosperity of his country. But, so far as I know, hestood alone in the government. He was a just and impartial ministerwhere ministers are notoriously unjust, corrupt, and partisan, and, of my past failures, I regret none so much as that I was unable tocoöperate with him in restoring peace to Crete. 

At Paris I had the advice of a specialist in hip disease for Russie, and the plaster bandage was replaced by a wire envelope, which fittedthe entire body and which made his transfer from vehicle to vehiclewithout any strain a matter of comparative ease. But the poor childsuffered the inevitable acute pains of active hip disease beforeanchylosis takes place, and he wasted visibly from the incessant pain. He had been, when stricken in his seventh year, a boy of precociousstrength and activity, a model of health and personal beauty, whompassersby in the streets stopped to look at, so that from the commonpeople one often heard an exclamation of admiration, as from ourEnglish fellow passengers between Calais and Dover, who gathered roundhim as he lay in his wire cradle with murmurs of admiration, for thepallor which had begun to set in only made his beauty more refined andhis color a more transparent rose and white. In London we were warmlyreceived by the Greeks who had been prominent in supporting theinsurrection in Crete, and a testimonial was proposed for me of apiece of plate, for which £225 were subscribed, which as testimonialI declined to accept, but did accept on account of the debt which theCretan committee of Boston owed me. Here I met with great kindness, especially from the Greek consul-general, Mr. Spartali, and I thenmade the acquaintance of his daughter, who, two years later, becamemy wife. The Rossettis, especially Christina, who had known Laura andRussie when the latter was a boy of two, were most thoughtful andkind, and I had some wheels put to Russie's cage, so that his passionfor seeing, which the incessant pain he was in never abated, couldbe indulged to a certain extent. Miss Rossetti went with us to theZoological Gardens to satisfy his passion for natural history, andso far as kindness could compensate for his helplessness he lackednothing. We sailed for New York and were met at landing by my brotherCharles, who told me of the death of our mother, two weeks before. Herlast wish had been for my coming, and to be able to embrace our littleLisa, her namesake. I had not seen her for seven years. 

I had made preparations while in London, for the publication of avolume of photographs of the Acropolis of Athens, and, when I had leftthe children with their mother's parents, I returned to London for afew weeks, to superintend the production of it. The American medicalman called in to treat Russie proved as great a quack as the Greek, and his case grew worse. Finally he was sent to the hospital, fromwhich he was, after a long treatment, sent back as incurable, and Iwas told that probably all I could do for him henceforward was to makedeath as easy as it might be. 

The Acropolis book, published privately, cleared for me about $1000. Moreover, difficulties had arisen over the will of my brother, withwhich none of the parties interested were contented, and so, by acompromise, the family received a part, of which, after the deductionof my drafts from Rome, accepted before his death, there came to me$500. Hence I was, after my straits, at comparative ease for themoment. One of the most generous friends my vagabond past had givenme, the late J. M. Forbes of Boston, gave me a commission for alandscape, and I returned to my painting, living in a tent in the Glenof the White Mountains near to the subject chosen. Here I received avisit from Agassiz, and here we had our last meeting and conversationon nature and art. But the long abstention from painting had left mehalf paralyzed--the hand had always been too far behind the theory. Inow began to question if I had any vocation that way, and, with thepassing of the summer, I went back to literature and found a place onthe old "Scribner's Monthly, " now "The Century, " under Dr. Holland, the most friendly of chiefs, and there I had as colleague Mr. Gilder, the present editor of the magazine. The greatest mistake, fromthe business point of view, I have ever made was in leaving thecollaboration with Dr. Holland. 

CHAPTER XXIV

ROSSETTI AND HIS FRIENDS

Of a life so desultory, fragmentary rather, it is useless to keep thechronology. At no period of it have I been able to direct it withprimary reference to pecuniary considerations, nor have I eversucceeded in anything I undertook with primary reference to pecuniaryreturn. My impulses, erratic or otherwise, have always been too strongfor a coherent and well subordinated career, and the aimlessness of myearly life, favored by the indulgence of my brother and the fondnessof my mother, might well account for a life without a practical aim orgain. It is too near its end for regrets or reparation--so that ifit ends well it will be well, but it is hardly fitted for systematicrecord. 

During the two years between my leaving Crete and Athens and my secondmarriage I spent the larger part of my life in London, engaged inliterary pursuits and in fugitive work. I prepared the history of theCretan insurrection, but the dissolution of the publishing companywhich undertook it left the actual publication to Henry Holt & Co. In1874. All interest in the subject having long lapsed, it was hardlynoticed, and was as a publication a complete failure, but I sentcopies of it to some English friends who were interested in Greekaffairs, and amongst others to Professor Max Müller, who made anextended review of it for the "Times, " which had on my subsequentcareer an important influence. During the time I spent in England Inaturally saw a great deal of the Rossettis, especially of Dante, withwhom I became intimate. He lived in Cheyne Walk, and I in Percy Streetnear by, so that there were few days of which a part was not spentwith him. I had made in America, about 1856 or 1857, the acquaintanceof Mme. Bodichon, an Englishwoman married to a French physician, whois equally well known by her maiden name, Barbara Leigh-Smith, alandscape painter of remarkable force, and one of the most delightfuland remarkable Englishwomen I have ever been privileged to know. WhenI knew her in America, she had taken an interest in my painting, whichshe regarded as promising a successful career, and when I came toEngland, I renewed the acquaintance. As the spring came on, sheoffered me for a few weeks her house at Robertsbridge, a charmingcottage in the midst of woodland, and with her consent I askedRossetti to share it with me. 

Rossetti was then in the beginning of the morbid attacks whichsome time later destroyed his health completely. He was sleepless, excitable, and possessed by the monomania of persecution. His familyhad tried to induce him to go away for a change, but the morbidcondition made him unwilling to do so, and he never left his houseuntil late in the evening, under the prepossession of being watched byenemies. I recommended him to try chloral, then a nearly new remedywhich I had used by prescription with excellent effect for my ownsleeplessness, and which I always carried with me. I gave him twentygrains dissolved in water to be taken at three doses, but, as heforgot it on the first two nights, he took the whole on the third, andcomplained to me the next day that it made him sleep stupidly for afew hours, and then made him so wakeful that he was worse than withoutit, so that he refused to make any further experiment with it, nor didhe at that time, and as long as we remained in touch with each other, venture another trial of it. At a subsequent time, taking it on theprescription of a physician, he fell into the habit of using it to hisgreat injury, from the want of self-control in the employment of it. At the time I am writing of, I succeeded in getting him away fromLondon to stay for a long visit at Robertsbridge, where the quiet andlong daily walks in the woodland, a simple life and freedom fromall causes of excitement, rapidly brought him back to his naturalcondition, and he resumed work, doing some of his best drawings there, and completing his poems for publication. Indeed, several of the poemsin his first volume were written there. Sleep returned, and health, with cessation of all the morbid symptoms, the result of overworkand night work, for he used at Cheyne Walk to begin painting in theafternoon, and, lighting a huge gasalier on a standard near his easel, keep at his drawing far into the night, sleeping late the next day. AtRobertsbridge he returned to natural habits, having no gas and fallingin with my hours perforce, as otherwise he had no company. 

And Rossetti was one of the men most dependent on companionship I haveever known. When not at work he needed some one to talk with, and inour long walks he unfolded his life to me as he probably never didto any other man, for he had a frank egotism which made him seeeverything and everybody purely in their relation to him. And in thesecircumstances he and I were, after a manner, the only people in ourworld. As he himself said, "In this Sussex desert one tells all hissecrets, " and I doubt if even in his own family he ever threw offreserve so completely as with me in the solitude of Robertsbridge, where he was very happy and very well. 

Rossetti's was one of the most fascinating characters I ever knew, open and expansive, and, when well, he had a vein of most delightfultalk of the things which interested him, mostly those which pertainedto art and poetry, the circle of his friends and his and their poetryand painting. To him, art was the dominant interest of existence, notonly of his own, but of existence _per se_, and he tolerated nothingthat sacrificed it to material or purely intellectual subjects. Iremember his indignation at the death of Mrs. Wells, the wife of theRoyal Academician, herself a talented painter, who died in childbed, "a great artist sacrificed to bringing more kids into the world, as ifthere were not other women just fit for that!" he exclaimed; and whenRegnault was killed in the sortie from Paris, he burst out in an angryprotest at this throwing away valuable lives like Regnault's in astupid war. The artist was to him the _ultima ratio_ of humanity, andhe used to say frankly that artists had nothing to do with morality, and practically, but in a gentle and benevolent way, he made that theguiding principle of his conduct. Whatever was to his hand was madefor his use, and when we went into the house at Robertsbridge he atonce took the place of master of the house, as if he had invited me, rather than the converse, going through the rooms to select, andsaying, "I will take this, " of those which suited him best, and "Youmay have that" of those he had no fancy for. 

He was the spoiled child of his genius and of the large world of hisadmirers; there was no vanity about him, and no exaggeration of hisown abilities, but other people, even artists whom he appreciated, were of merely relative importance to him. He declined to put himselfin comparison with any of his contemporaries, though he admitted hisdeficiencies as compared to the great Venetians, and repeatedly saidthat if he had been taught to paint in a great school he would havebeen a better painter, which was, no doubt, the truth; for, as headmitted, he had not yet learned the true method of painting. Herefused to exhibit in the annual exhibitions, whether of the Academyor other, not because he feared the comparison with other modernpainters, but because he was indifferent to it, though I have heardhim say that he would be glad to exhibit his pictures with those ofthe old masters, as they would teach him something about his own. Likeevery other really great artist, he had a very just appreciation ofthe work of other men, and his criticisms were, _me judice_, verysound and broad from the point of view of art; the only painter of anynote I ever heard him speak of with strong dislike was Brett, whom hecould not tolerate. But he had a higher opinion of his own naturalabilities than of his actual achievement, --his self-appreciation wasnot the conceit of a man who understood only what he himself did, buta full consciousness of what at his best he would be capable of doingand hoped to do before he died. In my opinion he understood himselfand his merits justly, but he was to himself the centre of his ownsystem; other stars might be as great, and probably there were manysuch, but they were remote, and judged in perspective. 

He was undoubtedly the most gifted of his generation of artists, notonly in England, where art is, if not exotic, at least sporadic, butin Europe, and I consider that if he had been of Titian's time hewould have been one of the greatest of the Venetians. His imaginativeforce and intensity were extraordinary, and some of the elaboratecompositions he drew in pen and ink, for future painting, are asremarkable in invention and dramatic feeling as anything I know inart, and all drawn without a model. The "Hector, " the "Hamlet andOphelia, " the "Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee, " aredesigns of unsurpassed power, eminent in all the great qualities ofdesign, harmony of line, invention, and dramatic intensity. His earlywork had all the purity and intensity of feeling of the primitiveItalians, and the designs alluded to are of a little later period andof his highest imaginative activity. Had he always maintained theelevation of that period he would have done more and better work, but he fell into irregularities of life which wasted his powers anddestroyed the precious exaltation of his early art. The sensuousquality of his painting, the harmony of color and the play of it, likethe same qualities in his poetry, remained as long as I knew anythingof his life, but his drawing and even his intellectual powers fell offthrough his unsystematic, excessive demands on them, night work andoverwork. In his later years his work was nearly always more or lessjaded, his eye failing in the perception of forms, as has so oftenbeen the case in even the greatest painters in their decay. 

No doubt chloral was ultimately one of the agencies of hisprostration, though not of his death, but he did not have recourse toit until his power of recuperation from overwork had begun to fail;and, when he had become accustomed to the effect of the chloral, hetook it as the means of a form of intoxication, a form well understoodby those who have had any experience, personal or by observation, inthe use of the drug. The craving for this intoxicant, once it becomesa habit, is, like the use of morphia, invincible, and Rossettiindulged in it to such an extent that he used to take the originalprescription to several druggists to obtain a quantity that one wouldnot have given him. The crisis came long after my close personalrelations with him had ceased, and I had become only an occasionalcorrespondent, living in Italy. But to make his decline theconsequence of the use of chloral, even when it was finally becomehabitual, as some do, is absurd. It had been prescribed for him by acompetent physician, because some remedy for his malady had becomenecessary. Even before I had recommended his first experiment with ithe had been incapacitated from work by sleeplessness, and was ina very precarious condition of nerves and brain, and, though herecovered at Robertsbridge a comparative health, so that he wasenabled to do some of his best work, his return to London, andgradually to his old habits of life and work, ultimately reproducedthe old symptoms. 

During the earlier days of the return of the malady I was in Londonagain and saw a great deal of him, was witness to his having becomesubject to illusions, and heard his declarations that he was besetby enemies and that he continually heard them in an adjoining roomconspiring to attack him, and he attributed the savage criticism ofBuchanan on his volume of poems to his being in the conspiracy to ruinhim. The attack of Buchanan had a most disastrous effect on his mind. It was the first time that Rossetti had experienced the brutalities ofcriticism, and his sensitiveness was excessive. No reassurance hadany effect; he had heard, he declared, the voices of those who hadcombined to ruin his reputation discussing the measures they weregoing to take, and it was evident that it had become a mania closelyresembling insanity. Buchanan's criticism had a rancor and breath ofpersonality in it which had no excuse; it was a savage, wanton attackon the poet which he felt not only as poet and artist but as personal;for, to Rossetti, the two were the silver and golden sides of theshield. Though the morbid state was there, I think that the articleof Buchanan had more to do with the intensification of the mania ofpersecution than anything else that occurred. And at that time he hadnot yet contracted the habit of taking chloral. 

In the diary of Ford Madox Brown, published by William Rossetti, thereis an amusing story of Dante's keeping Brown's overcoat, and keepingthe room needed for other occupants, with the unconscious oblivion ofany other convenience than his own, which was quite characteristic ofthe man, and which was shown on a larger scale at Robertsbridge. Henot only took possession of whatever part of the house pleased himbest, but, without in the least consulting me, he invited his friendsto come and occupy it. As the agreement was that we should pay shareand share alike of the expense, and as I invited no one, the burdenon me was out of all proportion to our respective means. Rossetti'sincome, according to his own statement, was, at that time, £3000 ayear, but he was always in debt. He denied himself nothing that struckhis fancy, and he had the most costly Oriental porcelain in London, and the most beautiful old furniture to be found, and the mostprincely disregard of expenditure. I had finally to refuse to continuethe life in common. Dante invited Mr. And Mrs. Ford Madox Brown, andthen Mr. And Mrs. Morris, and as they were all excellent friends ofmine I could make no objection, though ill able to bear my share ofthe expense of the ménage incurred, and finally I broke away, leavinghim in possession, with Madame Bodichon's consent. He was generous tothe same degree of extravagance that he was indifferent to the claimsof others; he made no more account of giving you a treasured curiothan he did of taking it. His was a sublime and childlike egotismwhich simply ignored obligations until, by chance, they were madelegal, at which, when it happened, he protested like a spoiled child. And he had been so spoiled by all his friends and exercised such afascination on all around him, that no one rebelled at being treatedin his princely way, for it was only with his friends that he used it. He dominated all who had the least sympathy with him or his genius. 

Had Rossetti's knowledge of the technique of painting, its science, been equal to his feeling for it, he had certainly founded a school ofthe truest art; but, for schools, the grammar is the first requisite, and Rossetti had himself never been taught what he would have hadto teach. His feeling for color was on a par with his power ofcomposition, and it seems to me that since Tintoret no one has equaledhim in the combination. Of modern men, I know only Baron Leys andDelacroix who possessed to the same degree the power of spontaneous, harmonious composition, except Turner in landscape; all other modernart has, to my mind, more or less of the _pose plastique_, the air ofthe _tableau vivant_. His death, at a time when he should have beenat the height of his powers, a premature victim of his undisciplinedtemperament and the irregularities it led him into, coupled with theover-intense mental vivacity, equally undisciplined, is one of themost melancholy incidents in the chaotic artistic movement of ourtime. 

Ford Madox Brown, who was his first master, and is commonly consideredto have exercised a great influence on Rossetti, in my opinion hadnone that was permanent. He was Rossetti's antithesis, and inhimself as inconsequent as Rossetti was logical. He was severely anduncompromisingly rationalistic; with the conscience of a Puritan hewas an absolute skeptic, with a profound contempt for all religiousmatters, while Rossetti, with all his irregularities, never couldescape from his religious feeling, which was the part of hisconstitution he possessed in common with his sisters. Brown had, ofthe purely artistic qualities, only the academic; he was neither acolorist nor a great draughtsman; his art was literary, didactic, and, except for occasional dramatic passages, unemotional and unpoetic. Thepredominance of the intellectual powers in him was so great that thepurely artistic view of nature was impossible to him; and his artisticeducation, while curiously erratic and short-sighted in its elementaryand technical stage, was intellectually large in academic and literaryqualities, and comprehensive. It appears to me that the telling ofthe story was, in his estimation, the highest office of art, sothat, while his drawing was bad in style, his execution scrappyand amateurish and deficient in breadth and subordination, hiscompositions were often masterly, fine in conception, and harmoniousin line, in the pen-and-ink study; but the want of _ensemble_ and theinsubordination of the insistent detail generally made his work lessimposing when it was on canvas than in the first study. His habit offinishing from corner to corner, without having the whole work broadlylaid out before him to guide him in the proper subordination of thedetails to the general effect, made it impossible for him to makehis pictures broad and effective. His most successful pictures were, therefore, the small ones, in which the impossibility of too muchinsistence on detail proved an advantage. 

I shall always regard Brown as a man carried by a youthful enthusiasmfor art out of his true occupation, which was history; for hisliterary and scientific tendencies and his vehement love of truth werethe larger part of his mind, and these qualities are of secondaryimportance in art. He sympathized strongly with the early phase of thepre-Raphaelite movement, which was what he had attempted with lessintensity himself; but when Rossetti entered upon his true artisticdevelopment, it was only the personal influence of the past that gavethe elder painter any power of influencing the younger. It is possiblethat Rossetti owed something of his manner of painting--a fragmentarymethod of completion--to the teaching of Brown; if so, he was indebtedto his friend for the weakest side of his art. But, for the rest, thissystem of working is very general amongst English painters, in whomthe amateur is persistent--the building the picture up in detail, with minor reference to the mass of the structure; and this was theweakness of Brown's art, for what he did was done with such intensitythat no after treatment could bring it into complete subordination tothe general effect. Theodore Rousseau's maxim, "If you have not gotyour picture in the first five lines you will never get it, " seems tome the true golden rule of the art of painting, as in all creation. Apicture should grow _pari passu_ in all its parts; otherwise there isno certainty of its keeping together when finished. 

Rossetti's influence, though always partial and never leaving agenuine pupil, was very wide, in the end, it seems to me, muchexceeding that of Millais and that of Holman Hunt; but it is aquestion in which of his two functions--poet or painter--it was mosteffective. I have heard Swinburne say that but for Rossetti's earlypoetry he would never have written verses, but this I think must betaken conditionally. Swinburne has the poetic temperament so decidedand so individual, and his musical quality is so exalted, that it wasimpossible that he should not have shown it at some time; but it ispossible that Rossetti furnished the spark that actually kindled thefire. Perhaps Swinburne himself cannot trace the vein to its hiddensources, and confounded the mastery of Rossetti's temperament and thepersonal magnetism he exercised on those who came into close relationswith him with an intellectual stimulus which, strictly speaking, Rossetti did not exercise. He was too specialized, too exclusivelyartistic in all his developments, to carry much intellectual weight, and Swinburne was more fully developed in the purely intellectual man;but the warmest friendship existed between them. I often saw Swinburneat Cheyne Walk, and, when they were together, the painter's wascertainly the dominant personality, to which Swinburne's attitude wasthat of an affectionate younger brother. 

One day Rossetti had invited us all to dinner, and when we went downto the drawing-room there was great exhilaration, Swinburne leadingthe fun. Morris was, as usual, very serious, and, in discussing somesubject of conversation, Swinburne began to chaff and tease him, andfinally gave him a vigorous thrust in the stomach, which sent himbackwards into a high wardrobe, on the outer corners of which stoodRossetti's two favorite blue and white hawthorn jars, a pair unrivaledin London, for which he had paid several hundred pounds each. Thewardrobe yielded and down came the jars. I caught one, and Morris, I believe, the other, as it was falling on his head. Rossetti wasnaturally angry, and, for the first and only time in my experience ofhim, lost control of his temper, bursting out on the culprit with atorrent of abuse which cooled the hilarity of the poet instantly, andreduced him to decorum with the promptness of a wet bath. To hearSwinburne read his own poetry was a treat, and this I enjoyed severaltimes at Rossetti's; the terrible sonnets on Napoleon III. AfterSedan, amongst the readings, being the most memorable and effective. 

The influence of Rossetti on Morris and Burne-Jones is unquestionable, and they probably both owed their embarking in an artistic career tothe stimulus given by the advent of a purely artistic nature whichset a new light in their firmament. The little we have of Morris'spainting shows only that he had the gift, but his own appreciation ofhis work was too modest to encourage him to face the strain of goingthrough the necessary education, made more difficult by his want ofearly training, even of the imperfect and incorrect kind againstwhich Rossetti had so successfully had to make his way to a correctconception of his art. On the whole, I consider Morris to have beenthe largest all-round man of the group, not merely on account of thediversity of his faculties, for he had in his composition a measure, greater or less, of most of the gifts which go to make up theintellectual man and artist, but because he had, in addition to those, a largeness and nobility of nature, a magnanimity and generosity, which rarely enter into the character of the artist; and perhaps thereason why his gifts were not more highly developed was that hisestimation of them was so modest. His facility in versification ledhim to diffuseness in his poems, and the modest estimation in which heheld his work, when done, was a discouragement to the _limae labor_ sonecessary to perfection. He told me that he had written eight hundredlines of one of his tales in one night, but at the same time heregretted that he could not invent a plot, though the exquisite mannerin which he carried out the old plots which have been the commonproperty of poets since poetry existed in the form of tales is honorenough. 

But in the feeling for pure decoration, which is the essential elementin art, in the universality of his application of it, and the highexcellence to which he brought it in each branch to which he devotedhimself, I doubt if Morris has had a rival in our day; and I aminclined to think that in the default of an early education in art, such as the great Italian painters received, we lost one of thegreatest artists who have ever lived. For with the high degree inwhich he possessed taste, technical abilities never fully developed inwork, and exquisite feeling for color and invention in design, he hadthe large human mould which would have made his work majestic beyondthat of any of his great contemporaries and co-workers. He remained, owing to the late discovery of himself and the poor opinion of hisabilities, only a large sketch of what his completed self wouldhave been. He had that full, sensuous vitality which Madox Brown socompletely lacked to his great injury, without the excess of it whichwas so treacherous with Rossetti. Mr. Mackail's recent life of Morrisdoes great injustice to Rossetti without in any way exalting hisfriend, for Rossetti always urged Morris to follow his artistictendencies with the largest and most liberal encouragement andappreciation, and all the stimulus derivable from a most exaltedopinion of his native abilities. Rossetti would have set everybody topainting, I think, for, in his opinion, it was the only occupationworth living for, and he was absolutely free from personal jealousy. 

Of Burne-Jones I saw little in those days. He was still working outhis artistic problem, and came now and then to the studio of Rossetti, who had the highest opinion of his abilities. And, taking art in itsspecial function, that of the decorator, there can hardly be a disputeas to his rank amongst the greatest of romantic designers of thecenturies following that of Giotto. His fertility of invention wasvery great; and, considering that his studies began at a period whichfor most artists would have been too late for the acquisition oftechnical excellence of a high degree, his attainment in thatdirection was most remarkable. Entirely original, if that qualitycould be predicated of any artist, he certainly was not, and heborrowed of his predecessors to an immense extent, not slavishly butadaptingly, and what he borrowed he proved a good right to, for heused it with a high intelligence and to admirable effect. It seems tome that though he added little or nothing to the resources of art, asRossetti undoubtedly did, he employed the precedents of past art, andespecially of the Italian renaissance, to better effect than any otherartist of our epoch; and, in borrowing as he did, he only followed theexample of most of the great old masters, who used material of anykind found in their predecessors' works, in perfectly good conscience. His industry was prodigious, and his devotion to art supreme. 

CHAPTER XXV

RETURN TO JOURNALISM

Miss Spartali and I were married in the Spring of 1871, and in justiceto her I came to the hazardous decision to make my home in England, and there to devote myself to general literature and correspondencewith America. As my financial condition at that moment, thanks to thevarious contributions to it, was better than it had ever been before, I had the courage needed to face the great change in my life. Ibrought with me from Lowell a letter to Leslie Stephen, whosefriendship has ever since been one of the pleasantest things in myEnglish life. Mrs. Stephen, the elder daughter of Thackeray, was to usan angel of goodness, and never since has the grateful recognition ofher loving hospitality in thought and deed diminished in my mind. Ourdebt to her was a debt of the heart, and those are never paid. Hersister, later Mrs. Ritchie, added much to the obligations of our earlylife in London, and still remains our friend. Mr. Stephen gave me anintroduction to the "Pall Mall Gazette, " then under the charge ofGreenwood, and I contributed in incidental ways to its columns; andwith contributions to "Scribner's" and other magazines it seemed thatwe might forgather, and we decided to bring the children out. 

An article on the Cretan insurrection, printed while I was still inthe island, had led the way to an acquaintance with Froude, in whosemagazine it appeared, and I had been put on the staff of the "DailyNews, " which had printed a contribution on the Greek question as aleading article; so that, on the whole, the venture did not seemtoo rash for a man who never looked far ahead for good fortune. Myfriendship with Froude lasted as long as he lived. He was a warm andsincere friend, always ready with word or deed to help one who neededit, and one of the men for whom I retain the warmest feeling of all Iknew at this epoch of my life. In New York I had made an arrangementwith Dr. Holland to hold the literary agency for "The Century" (then"Scribner's") for England, and on returning to London we took a smallfurnished house at Notting Hill Way, where our daughter Effie wasborn. In the following spring we moved out to Clapham Common, to benear the parents of my wife, and in the comparative quiet of that thendelightful neighborhood we gave our experiment full scope. The life asa literary life was ideal, but as a practical thing it failed. HereI had the pleasure of extending hospitality to Emerson on his way toEgypt, and Lowell on the way to Madrid. To make the acquaintance ofLowell we had Professor and Mrs. Max Müller to meet him at dinner, andTom Taylor was of the company, he living as a near neighbor. 

But Russie's condition was a shadow over my life, growing deeper everyday. Though he had been discharged from Boston as incurable, we puthim under the care of one of the best of English surgeons, and one ofthe kindest-hearted men I have ever known, the late Mr. John Marshall, one of the warm and constant friends I had made through my relationswith Rossetti, of whom Marshall was a strong admirer. Though hischarges were modified to fit our estate, they aggregated, with all hismoderation, to a sum which I could ill support; but to save, or evenprolong Russie's life, I would have made any sacrifice. He was thennot far from nine, and, though crippled by his disease, with his oncebeautiful face haggard with pain and no longer recognizable by thosewho had known him in his infancy, he was to me still the same, --a dearand loving child, the companion of my fortunes at their worst; and hisdevotion to me was the chief thing of his life. I had carried him inmy arms at every change of vehicle in all the journeys from Athensto Boston and from Boston to London again, and to him I was all theworld; to me he was like a nursling to its mother, the first thoughtof every day, an ever-present care, and his long struggle with deathwas an inseparable sadness in my existence. I remarked to Lowell oneday that I feared he would die, and Lowell replied, "I should beafraid he would not die. " The seeming cruelty of the expression struckme like a sentence of death, and momentarily chilled my feelingtowards Lowell; but the incident made me understand some things inlife as I could not have otherwise understood them, enabling me totake a larger view of our individual sorrows. There is no doubt thatto Russie's sufferings and death I owe a large part of my experienceof the spiritual life, and especially a comprehension of the secret ofthe mother's heart, so rarely understood by one of the other sex. 

But my unfailing facility for getting into hot water was not to findan exception in London. As agent for "Scribner's" I had to securecontributions from English authors, not so easy then as now. Amongstother items I was instructed to secure a story from a certain author, and I contracted with her for the proof sheets of her next novel, about to be published in England in the--Magazine, the price to bepaid for the advance proofs being £500, if I remember rightly. Therewas then no international copyright with America, but a courtesy rightbetween publishers, with a general understanding amongst the tradethat the works of an author once published by a house should beconsidered as belonging by prescription to it. On the announcement by"Scribner's" of the coming publication of this author's novel, thefirm who had published her prior works announced that they would notrespect the agreement with the author, but would pirate the story. As the result of the quarrel, "Scribner's" resigned the story to itsrival on payment to the lady of the sum agreed on. But now appeared anutterly unsuspected state of things: the--Magazine had already soldthe proof sheets of the story to a third American house, and an exposéof the situation showed that English publishers had been in thepractice of selling the advance proofs of their most popular works offiction to the American houses, and recouping the half of the pricepaid the authors. 

On the heels of this discovery by the public, there happened one ofthe periodical outbreaks of English journalism against the "American"system of literary piracy, and simultaneously the visit of a committeeof the American publishers deputed by the government of the UnitedStates to study out an arrangement for a treaty of internationalcopyright on the basis of equality of right and privileges in bothcountries of the authors of both countries, but with no recognitionof publishers' rights or privileges. The English government, takingadvice from a committee of authors and publishers, in which theinterest of the publishers was dominant, declined the offer of theAmerican form of treaty, insisting on the protection of publishers'rights, and the negotiations fell through, with great increase of theoutcry in the English press. Being in communication with Mr. WilliamH. Appleton, the head of the American committee, and in possession ofthe facts of the case as regarded the courtesy right, I wrote to theEnglish papers, putting the American view of the matter, and thefacts, dwelling on the hitherto unknown point that the depredations onthe authors' interests were committed by the English publisher, whosold to the American the wares the latter was accused of stealing, whereas the fact was that he bought and paid equally for the right ofpublication, while the English publisher continued to reprint Americanbooks without the least regard for analogous transatlantic rights. 

The consequences to me were variously disastrous. In the first placeI was deluged with applications from authors of still unestablishedtransatlantic reputation to secure for them offers from "Scribner's"for the advance sheets of their books. In the second I was treated toa torrent of abuse as "the friend of piracy" ("Daily News" leadingarticle), and for some days not a single London paper would print aword of reply or explanation from me. The "Echo" was the first todo me the justice of printing a defense, and it was followed by the"Times, " which printed my letter and one from Mr. Appleton; but of theauthors who, having a transatlantic reputation, had profited by the"courtesy right, " only Mr. Trollope came forward to sustain me withthe statement that he had received more from the Harpers--his Americanpublishers--than from his English publishers. The author whose novelhad been the occasion of the original trouble, grateful for what I haddone in her case, declared that the English authors ought to make me atestimonial (or perhaps it was a monument she suggested), but from noother source did I receive a word of thanks. And the third consequencewas that the "Pall Mall Gazette" dropped me "like a hot potato. " Asmy monthly cheques had reached the sum of ten pounds, and were slowlyincreasing, the inroad on my income arising from my crusade againstpublishing abuses was a serious item in my outlook. 

As misfortunes never come alone, this was followed by my supersession, as literary agent of "Scribner's, " by Mr. Gosse, who had been making avisit to New York. It was in curious coincidence with these disastersthat I addressed (with a letter of introduction from Madame Bodichon, who always was the kindest of friends to me) a distinguished ladymember of the staff of an evening paper, with a request to help me toget work on it, and was told distinctly that she did not favor theentry of foreigners on the staff, as English writers had too muchcompetition amongst themselves, and "the crumbs from the table" shouldbe reserved for them, so that while I had opened the door for Englishwriters in my native land, to the disadvantage of myself and mycompatriots, I was to be excluded from the English market as aforeigner. My old friend the editor of the "Daily News, " had, duringmy absence in America, been appointed to the "Gazette, " and the newPharaoh "knew not Joseph. " And so we decided to throw up the spongeand go back to America, though even there the new influx of Englishcompetitors (for which I was in part responsible) had made our chanceless brilliant. My father-in-law offered us, if we withdrew from ourdecision, to settle £400 a year on my wife. With this aid we feltthat we might carry through; and to her the change from English life, surrounded by old friends and an artistic atmosphere, to the strangeand comparatively cruder surroundings of America, was to be avoided atany possible price, and I had no right to hesitate. 

The great Exhibition of Vienna, in 1873, found the New York "Tribune"unprovided in time for its correspondence, and the European manager, my friend G. W. Smalley, proposed to me to go out for the paper. Therewere three months still to the opening, but the preparation of thegroundwork of a continuous correspondence, on an occasion to which theAmerican public attached much importance, was a matter of gravity, andthe time was not too long. The editor had neglected the matter, owing to considerations which deluded him, and I was just in time toforestall the worst effects of a scandal which made its noise in itsday. The chief commissioner, General Van Buren, had had associatedwith him, through influences which need not be cited, severalunder-commissioners who were Jews, formerly of Vienna, and of courseobnoxious to the society, official and polite, of the Austriancapital, and who were exercising a most unfortunate influence on theprospects of the American exhibitors. In addition to this, they hadentered into a system of trading in concessions for their personaladvantage, the competition being very keen, especially in thedepartment of American drinks, and their dealings with the competitorshad excited great indignation in certain quarters. One of thedisappointed applicants, whose concession had been unjustly annulledin favor of a higher bidder, came to me for advice. I at onceinstituted a rigorous though secret inquiry, and collected a bodyof evidence of corrupt practices, which I laid before the Americanminister, Mr. Jay, with a demand that it should be communicated tothe government. Mr. Jay at first declined to take cognizance of thematter, and accused me of doing what I did with political partisanbias, Van Buren being a prominent politician. I assured him that I didnot even know to which party Van Buren belonged; but, what probablymoved him more was my assurance that the affair was not going to bewhitewashed, that if it was not corrected quietly I was determined tomake a public exposure, and that whoever tried to whitewash it wouldneed a whitewashing himself, whereupon he decided to take, under oath, the evidence I had laid before him and send it to Washington, which hedid. 

The result was a cable dismissal of the entire commission and thenomination in their places of several American gentlemen who had cometo Vienna to witness the opening of the Exhibition, amongst whom weretwo of my warmest personal friends. They immediately offered me theofficial position of secretary to the commission, which I declined. Having enlisted on the "Tribune, " and considering myself held "for thewar, " I could not desert, though the inducement was very strong, forI should not only have been better paid than by the "Tribune, " butshould have been practically director of the Exhibition, so far as theAmerican department was concerned. The exposure of the old commissionwhich I sent the "Tribune" was printed reluctantly, for Van Buren wasa personal friend of the editor-in-chief; but as I had taken thepains to make the substance of it common property so far as the othercorrespondents were concerned, it could not be suppressed. 

For the opening ceremony there was great rivalry amongst the leadingpapers of New York, and the "Herald" made very expensive arrangementsto cable a full account; and, beside its European manager, JohnRussell Young, and its telegraphic manager, Mr. Sauer, it had EdmundYates and a well-known European lady novelist to make up the report. The "Tribune" sent to my assistance an old friend, Bayard Taylor, and one of the staff from New York, E. V. Smalley. The "Herald" wasprepared for practically unlimited expenditure on the occasion; the"Tribune" simply ordered me to telegraph 6000 words to Smalley atLondon, leaving the question of cabling open. Young thought me a rivalto be held in poor account, and was careless. All the "Herald" stafftook their places in the Exhibition building for the ceremony ofopening by the Emperor, which was no doubt spectacular; but, as thedoors were to be closed until the ceremony was over, and the Emperorrose to make the tour of the Exhibition, no one could get at thetelegraph till all was complete. I stayed outside and sacrificed thespectacle. I had found who was to be the telegraph inspector for theday, and I went to him with an offer to hire a wire for the day. Thiswas impossible, he said, as there was to be but one wire for all theforeign press. I put my case to him as that of a beginner in theservice, to whom a success was of great importance for the future, andasked to be allowed to declare 6000 words to follow continuously; butthis too, he said, was against the regulations. But I secured hissympathy, and he finally promised me that if I got first on the wire, and my message came without interruption, one section being laidbefore the operator before the other was finished, they should go onwithout interruption, as one message; but, if one minute lapsed andanother message came in the interval, I must take my turn with theothers. 

As Taylor was an old hand, and wrote a most legible script, and style_currente calamo_, I told him to write what he could as the ceremonywent on, and, the moment the doors were opened, to consign what hehad written to a messenger whom I had hired for the day, --an Americanclerk of one of the exhibitors under some little obligation to me, asharp Yankee, for whose use I had hired a cab, with the fastest horseI could find, to run back and forth between the Exhibition and thetelegraph. Taylor was then to finish his account of the openingceremonies and bring it or send it by the messenger to me at thetelegraph office, the messenger waiting or returning for the firstinstallment of Smalley's account of the imperial inspection, whichhe was to follow closely. After this he was to continue to write theincidents of the opening; and when the whole approximated to the 6000words needed, he was to come himself to the telegraph. I, meanwhile, went into the streets and devoted myself to picking up incidents ofthe procession, the deportment of the population, and the weather; andwhen I supposed that the opening of the doors was about to take placeI went to the telegraph office and deposited 1200 words. Long beforethese could be sent, Taylor's first installment came, and then Taylorhimself with the second. Young, seeing my staff always present, andthinking me asleep, took his time. 

When Taylor's second part had been deposited and paid for, I sawcoming down the street in a furiously driven carriage Mr. Sauer, withthe first part of his message. I slipped out at a back door and wasnot seen, and Sauer returned for the continuation of his telegram. When Smalley's first dispatch had been put on, I saw Sauer comingagain with his second. Then I sat tight and saw that the message hadbeen written in columns of words on large paper, so that the countingshould be rapid. It made a huge packet, and he deposited it withevident satisfaction and turned to go out, when he saw ArchibaldForbes, who was writing his telegram to the "Daily News" at the tablein the office, and turned to speak to him. When leaving him he caughtsight of me in the corner, and started as if he had been hit by abullet, then made as if he had not seen me and was going out, butreconsidered and came to speak to me. "Well, what have you done?"he said. I replied that I had put about 5000 words on, and was onlywaiting for the odds and ends from Smalley. He flushed with surpriseand vexation, and began to curse the telegraph officials "who neverkept their engagements, " and went off in a towering rage. My 6000words went on before a single word of the message to the "Herald"could go. 

Mr. Young had ordered for that evening a magnificent dinner for hisstaff, to which mine was invited to celebrate his unquestioned feat. While waiting for the dinner to come on, he took me apart and askedconfidentially what we had really done. I told him, and he asked if wecabled, to which I replied that as to that I knew nothing, that I hadwired G. W. Smalley in London, but what he had done I could not say. "Well, " said he, "if you have cabled you have beaten us, and if youhave not cabled you may have beaten us, " and then he went on to saythat if I would drop the "Tribune" and come over to the "Herald" hewould give me a good post and good pay. "No, " I replied, "I have takenservice with the 'Tribune' for the campaign, and I cannot desertthem. " (My recompense was a curt dismissal from the "Tribune" as soonas the urgent work of the reporting of the opening was done. ) Mr. Whitelaw Reid's nerve had failed him when it came to the question ofthe expense of cabling, and the 6000 words had gone by steamer fromQueenstown. I had given the "Tribune" the best beat it had ever hadexcept the Sedan report, if the editor had had the courage to profitby it. The "Herald" received 150 words of its report in time for thepress the next morning, and had to make up its page of dispatchesfrom matter sent by post in advance and by expansion of the 150 wordsreceived. Edmund Yates, in his autobiography, tells a story of theaffair which is in every important detail untrue, and he probably knewnothing of it except what Young had admitted, and that was certainlyvery little, for Young was a very reticent man, and not likely to tellhis defeat even to his staff. 

Bennett was too fickle and whimsical an employer to suit me, and I hadno disposition to expose myself to his whims. With Young I was alwayson the best terms, and he was disposed to employ me when a momentaryservice was required, but I had had one experience with his chief, which was sufficient. He had offered me the London agency of the"Herald" at a time when any constant occupation would have beenacceptable, and we had come to terms, when suddenly he was taken withthe notion that Edmund Yates, in addition to the service to the paper, would be of use to him in social ways, and he dropped me and appointedYates, to drop him a little later, paying him a year's salary to breakthe contract. 

One bit of work I did for the "Herald" which I remember with muchpleasure. It was the reporting of Beaconsfield's Aylesbury speech, nota stenographic report, for that they had from the English press, but aletter on the occasion as a demonstration. I went to Aylesbury, and, as Beaconsfield was to speak twice, --once at the farmers' ordinary andthen at the assembly rooms, --I dined at the ordinary; and as all theplaces in the assembly rooms had been taken before the dinner wasover, I had to employ some assurance to hear the principal speech. Assoon as the company rose from the table, I pushed through to whereBeaconsfield was standing, and, presenting my card as correspondent ofthe New York "Herald, " asked him to be kind enough to put me in theway of hearing him, explaining why I had lost my chance throughremaining to hear him at the dinner. He turned to one of the young menwho were with him, remarking that my card would take me anywhere, andsaid, "See that Mr. Stillman has a place near me, " and to me, "Keepclose to me, " which I did, and took a seat on the edge of theplatform, at his feet; and I certainly never heard a more effectivespeech. The lordly, triumphant manner with which he bantered Gladstonefor his dealings in the Straits of Malacca, the demonstrativeconfidence with which he took victory for granted, and the magnetismof his personal bearing, made an impression on me quite unique in myexperience of men. Gracious is the only word which I can apply to hismanner to those around him, and it had a fascination over them whichI could perfectly understand, and I could easily comprehend thathe should have a surrounding of devotees. The serene, absoluteself-confidence he evidently felt was of a nature to inspire acorresponding confidence in his followers. It was an interestingdisplay of the power of a magnetic nature, and gave me a higher ideaof the man than all his writings had given or could give. For hisintellectual powers and their printed results I never had a highopinion, but his was one of the most interesting and remarkablepersonalities I ever encountered. 

As Russie continued to hold his own against his terrible disease, Mr. Marshall thought that the operation of resecting the leg at the hipmight save his life, and though such a maimed existence as his wouldthen be was but a doubtful boon, the boy eagerly caught at the chanceof life; and, to recruit strength for the operation, I decided to takehim, by Marshall's advice, to America, and give him a summer in thewoods, camping out. I took him to the Maine woods instead of my oldhaunts of the Adirondacks, because the rail served to the verge ofthe wilderness, and we had, on Moosehead Lake, the resource of a goodhotel to take refuge in if matters went ill. They did go ill, and Ifound that life was too low in him to give the woodland air and theinfluence of the pine-trees power to help him. Hope left me, and weturned homeward again, sailing from Boston direct to London. It wasin late December, and we had a terrific voyage, and one of thehairbreadth escapes of which I have had so many. In the height of thegale Russie and I were standing in the companion-way, watching thestorm, for the boy loved the sea dearly and enjoyed the heaviestweather, when the captain called to me to say that we were notsafe there and had better go below. Only a few minutes later anexceptionally heavy sea broke over the deck, took five boats outof the davits or crushed them, carried away in splinters thecompanion-way in which we had been standing, and swept the decks, thechief officer being saved only by being lashed to the railing of thebridge, and the fall of the mass of water on the deck breaking severalof the deck beams. We had to lie to for the rest of the gale. Welanded at Gravesend just before Christmas, Russie being in much worsecondition than when we left England. Up to that time I had clungto hope, for to lose the boy was like tearing my soul in two. Mr. Marshall no longer held out a hope, but said if he had known thestrength of the boy's constitution he would have operated when hefirst saw him, which was what Russie then begged for and had alwayslooked forward to. Through five years he had resisted the pain of thatmost painful disease, hoping always, always reading, almost alwayscheerful. 

Our lease expiring, I decided to leave London, and Mr. Spartalioffered us a cottage on one of his estates in the Isle of Wight, wherethe children, Russie especially, might have sweet English air. Mariebeing engaged in finishing her pictures for the spring exhibition, Iwent down alone with the children, stopping at an inn at Sandown tillthe furniture was in the cottage. While so waiting Russie was takenwith the first convulsion peculiar to his malady, and then I realizedthat Death had come, and, unwilling to face him in the semi-publicityof an inn, I took the boy in my arms to the railway, and from thestation nearest to the cottage bore him thither. 

I tried to prepare him for the impending death, by showing him that itwas the end of pain, but his horror of it was inextinguishable, and hecried in agony, "Oh, no, no! Papa, I wish to live as long as you do;"and, though his faculties were fortunately failing, he beckoned me tolay my head by his on the pallet I had prepared for him on the floor, and offered me a last feeble caress and showed his pleasure in havingme by him. He had loved me above all things on earth, even more thanhis loving mother, and to be with me had always been his dearestdelight, and now we met Death alone, he and I, and I could onlyremember David's cry, "Absalom, my son!" I watched the fading life, the diminishing breath in the midnight silence of the solitary house, and almost desired Death to hasten, for the final struggle had begun, and the suspense was torture to me. And when the last long breath wasdrawn, and the limp, deserted body was all that was left to me of mythirteen years of passionate devotion, my pride and hope, and thenursing care of so many years, I walked out into the midnight and leftmy boy to Death. The long tension was over, and I could give way totears. 

It was only a child's death, a common thing, almost as common asfamily existence, but it gave a new color to my life, establishingforever a sympathy with the common grief, and a community of sorrowwith all bereft fathers and mothers, in the premature dissipation ofthe hopes of their future, and the lapse of a dear companionship intothe eternal void. This is the human brotherhood of sorrow, sacred, ennobling, sanctifying where it abides, the deepest lesson of theschool of life. My feet have wandered far, and my thoughts stillfurther from the places and beliefs of my childhood; but whatever andwherever I may be, this grief at times catches me and holds me in apause of dumb tears, and every similar bereavement I witness renewsthe sympathetic grief. I have never been able to find a consolationfor that loss, for it carried with it the future and its best dreams. When his mother died, I thought that any death were easier to bearthan the sudden and terrible tragedy of that; but in the devastatedyouth and the lingering pain of Russie's leaving, I found that

 "not all the preaching since Adam Has made Death other than Death. "

We buried him quietly in the churchyard at Arreton, the kind rectornot asking for a baptismal certificate, for he knew that I was nota churchman, and Russie had never been baptized. In these things wefollow prejudices. Mine were Baptist; his mother was an advancedUnitarian, and had been born in the Brook Farm community, of which herfather was a member, so that we had no sympathy with paedobaptism, while the terrible effect of my own religious education forbade me toencumber the boy's mind with religious dogmas, and from the beginningI had forbidden any one in the house to teach him the name of Goduntil he was old enough to understand what "God" meant; but one dayduring his illness I found him, when he should have been sleeping, weeping bitterly, and to my inquiry as to the cause of his trouble, he replied, "Do you think, Papa, that, if I went to sleep saying myprayers, God would be satisfied if I finished them after I woke?" Thatterrible hereditary conscience could not be laid, and perhaps the boywas fortunate in his early death. 

CHAPTER XXVI

THE MONTENEGRINS AND THEIR PRINCE

To me Russie's death was a crushing disaster. The care and constantpreoccupation of my life was taken away, and nothing moved me toactivity. I missed him every moment that I was awake, and in mycondition I could not rally from the depression caused by the mentalvoid and grief. I do not think I should have recovered from it had notMr. Spartali conceived the idea of my going off to Herzegovina, wherethe insurrection of 1875 was just beginning to stir, and, to cut shortmy hesitation at the venture as a volunteer correspondent, got me anintroduction to the manager of the "Times, " and offered to pay myexpenses should the "Times" not accept my letters. I knew so well thecondition in which the Turkish Empire had been left by the Cretanaffair, and the apathy that had ruled ever since, that I was convincedthat a disaster was pending, and the state to which Russia had broughtmatters in the Ottoman Empire in 1869 pointed to a Slavonic movementthis time. The manager was not of my opinion; he thought thedisturbances would blow over in a few weeks, and nothing serious wouldcome of it. I went home, but watched the news, and a few days afterwent again to the office and offered to go out at my own expense, withthe understanding that if they printed my letters they should pay mefor them, but that they ran no risk and need not print them unlessthey wished. The review of my Cretan book in the "Times" now served meas credentials by showing my knowledge of Turkish ways. At the sametime I arranged to send letters to the New York "Herald, " also as avolunteer, for no one then attached any importance to the rising. 

Arriving at Trieste in August, 1875, I found that a committee was atwork sending arms and ammunition, and, following the coast down, Ifound other committees at work at Zara and elsewhere, under Austrianauspices, without any attention being paid to their action by theImperial authorities. At Ragusa I found the headquarters of theagitation, there under the direction of the captain of the port, Kovachevich, a zealous Slavonic patriot. The movement was evidentlyregarded benevolently by the Kaiserlich-Koeniglich, and the insurgentscame openly into the city, and returned again to their fighting withfresh supplies of ammunition and provisions. I pushed on to the Bocchedi Cattaro, and at Castel Nuovo found the insurgents coming and goingfreely, and at Sutorina, in the corner of Herzegovina, which comes tothe Gulf of Cattaro, their depot and manufactory of cartridges. The information to be obtained there was abundant, if not alwaysabsolutely trustworthy; but on the whole I found the only fault ofthat which I got from the insurgents was its exaggeration, whilewhat I got from the Turkish consul-general at Ragusa was simplefabrication. Volunteers fully armed went by every steamer, and whenthey had enough of campaigning they went to Castel Nuovo andrefreshed themselves, and returned, quite regardless of the Austrianregulations. I found that the insurrection was spreading throughall the mountain section of Herzegovina and along the border ofMontenegro, and it was said that strong detachments of Montenegrinswere aiding in the operations. The Prince of Montenegro had opposedthe insurrection in the early stages of it, and had even sent old PekoPavlovich to arrest the Herzegovinian leader, Ljubibratich, and carryhim to Ragusa, where he left him under Austrian authority, to returnfreely as soon as his band had reunited. But as, according to thegeneral Slav opinion, there was nothing important to be done withoutMontenegro, I pushed on to Cettinje to see with my own eyes what therewas to see. 

The little world about Cettinje has changed so much since this myfirst visit there, and was so little known then by the outer world, that my experiences there will be to the present day like those whichone might have in a perished social organization. The only access tothe capital of the principality was by a zigzag bridle-path up fromCattaro to a height of 4500 feet above the sea, --a hard, rough road, more easily traveled on foot than in the saddle, and so I traveled it, in the company of a Scotch cavalry officer intending to volunteer. Passing the rocky ridge along which ran the boundary between freedomand Austria, one descended by another precipitous path into the valleyof Njegush, the birthplace of the family of the Prince, a circularamphitheatre of rocks, a narrow ridge here and there holding still alittle earth on which the people raised a few stalks of maize or a fewpotatoes, a few square yards of wheat, or a strip of poor grass forthe sheep or goats. Every tiny field was terraced against the washof the rains so that the soil should not be carried away, for thegeological formation of this part of the principality, Montenegroproper, is a porous rock, which allows water to filter through it, andwhich is even so fissured that no stream will form, and the drainageis through the rocks or in _katavothra_ which gush out in mysteriousfountains in the Gulf of Cattaro or into the Lake of Scutari. 

Njegush, the village in which the Prince was born, was a collection ofa score or more of stone cottages of two rooms on the ground floor, with two or three--of which one was the house of the Petrovichfamily--of two stories, simple as the people we saw moving about, thewomen carrying heavy loads on their backs, and a few ragged childrenpeeping round the corners of the houses at the foreigners passingthrough. Suspicion was on every face, for the foreigner was still anenemy. We had taken the trouble to send word to Cettinje that wewere coming up on that day, and the coming of a correspondent of the"Times" apparently had some importance to Montenegro, for we had foundand made friends with, in the market-place where our baggage horseswere to be hired, a senator of the principality who had _accidentally_come down from Cettinje, and we did not suspect that he had been sentdown to see if there was danger in our visit or not; and so suspiciouswas the little community that every Montenegrin set himself, withoutorders and by the instinct of danger, to watch every stranger withinthe gates. 

The road from Njegush to Cettinje, at present replaced by a goodcarriage road, was worse than that from Cattaro, a craggy climb overwhich it would have been hardly possible to ride a mule, had I had oneto ride; but from the crown of the pass over which we had to go, thereis one of the finest wide views I have ever seen, over the plains ofNorthern Albania and the Lake of Scutari, with the mountains of Epirusin the extreme distance. The bad roads were part of the Montenegrinsystem, which, as the Prince later explained to me, was not to makeroads for Austrian artillery. 

Cettinje was a poor village of one-story houses, with two or threeexceptions of two-storied ones, of which the principal was the"palace, " a residence which in another country would have been a poorgentleman's country house. Our senatorial herald had gone ahead andannounced our coming and our friendliness, and the hotel, the secondlargest building in the village, had rooms ready for us, and thelittle world of the Montenegrin capital had put on the air ofnonchalance, as if such things as the arrival of a "Times"correspondent and a foreign cavalry officer were things of everydayoccurrence. No one would condescend to show curiosity; all were asimpassive as Red Indians; and though we were the only strangers there, no one seemed at all curious about our business. This was the mannerof the entire population, and it was a trait which I soon realized ineverybody, from highest to lowest, that they kept the habitual garbof an incurious reticence, neither asking nor giving information. We found, as if carelessly loitering around the hotel, or playingbilliards in it, several young men who spoke excellent French, and welaid cautious traps for conversation, but no one could tell us anynews or give us any information about the fighting, or answerany questions other than evasively. And it was only after a longacquaintance, and when I had become in a way naturalized, that I wasable to provoke confidence in any Montenegrin. The generationsof isolation, surrounded only by enemies whom it was a duty tomislead, --four hundred years of a national existence of combat andruse, always at war, with no friend except far-off Russia, --haddeveloped the natural Slav indifference to the truth into a fine andsingularly subtle habit of communicating nothings to any inquiringoutsider, which never failed even the most humble clansman. I was, however, pushed on from hand to hand by casual suggestions until Ireached the Prince, who gave us audience under the famous tree wherehe heard appeals of all kinds, from petitions for help to the lastrecourse from the judgments of the tribunals, a final appeal to whichevery Montenegrin was entitled, and without which none submitted to anunfavorable judgment. 

The moment was critical, for communications had been passing betweenServia and Montenegro for an alliance and a declaration of war againstthe Sultan, for which the entire population of the principality wasimpatient, and when I arrived the rumor had begun to spread thatServia had yielded to diplomatic pressure and would decline thealliance. The young Montenegrins were chafing, and the old mencomplaining that the young ones were growing up without fighting andwould be nerveless. The Prince was very guarded, but it was easy togather from what he said that he neither could nor cared to restrainthe people from going in limited numbers, and in an unobtrusive way, into Herzegovina to fight the Turks, and in fact he was perfectlywithin his rights to send his army there, for, curious as it may seem, the Turkish government had never terminated the _de jure_ state ofwar with the principality, or acknowledged its independence, andthe fighting in the vicinity of Niksich had been going on in anintermittent way for more than three hundred years, during which thecity had been in a small way in as close a state of siege, probably, as Troy was for ten years. As to operations in Herzegovina, smallbands had been going and coming, concentrating when there was amovement to be made by either combatant, and slipping back across thefrontier when they had had a brush, but all _sub rosa_. 

The Prince, Nicholas, is personally a prepossessing man, and it was agood fortune which permitted me to study him and his people at a timewhen the primitive, antique virtue of the little nation had not beendeteriorated by civilization, for it was then a pure survival ofthe patriarchal state, holding its own in the midst of an enslavedcondition of all the population around. He is a man of large mould, ofa robust vigor which gave him a distinct physical preëminence amongsthis people, with the effusive good humor which belongs, as a rule, tolarge men, and a hearty _bonhomie_ which with that simple people wasa bond to the most passionate devotion. He is quick-witted anddiplomatic, with a knowledge of statecraft sufficient for theelementary condition of government over which he presided; and hissubjects were not then so many that he did not know by name every headof a family amongst them. He could give you off-hand the genealogy ofeach of the families which had, after the defeat of Kossovo, takenrefuge in the Bielopolje, the central valley of the principality, fromthe defeat of Dushan down, and he knew all the traditions of theirearly history. When the young men played at games of strength orskill, there were few who could pitch the stone so far or shoot sowell, and perhaps those few had the tact not to let it be seen, sothat he stood amongst his people as the model and type of all theheroic virtues. In spite of his great physical proportions he wasnervous and excitable. In all but military abilities he had growncuriously to the measure of his place, and his diplomatic abilitiesmore than compensated for the want of the military. And what was mostsingular was that his early education in Paris had not spoiled theMontenegrin in him. 

Probably much of this conserved character was due to the Princess, anadmirable woman, who deserves a place amongst the world's remarkablefemale sovereigns; for her energy, patriotism, and instinct of theobligations of the crisis were more remarkable than anything elseconnected with the house of Njegush. Beautiful even at the period inwhich I first saw her, gifted with a tact and sympathetic manner quiteregal in their reach, she held her husband up to action and decisionwhen his own nerves were shaken. A Montenegrin of voivode stock, thedaughter of the commander-in-chief of the army, who had beenthe right-hand man of Mirko, the father of the Prince, thecommander-in-chief of the previous reign, she had the true Amazoniantemper, and would not have hesitated to take the field had the courageof her husband failed him; though, in tranquil times, she was a trueSlavonic woman, domestic, affectionate in her family, and effacingherself before her husband. I remember that the Prince told me that, after the splendid victory of Vucidol, he sent two couriers toannounce to the Princess at Cettinje the news of the victory, and thefirst question she asked of them was, "Did the Prince show courage?"and when they replied, with a little Montenegrin craft, that they hadhad to hold him by force to keep him from plunging into the mêlée, shegave them each a half ducat. "And, " said the Prince, "if they had saidthat I had led the charge, she would have given them a whole ducat. "

But, with all his civic virtues, the Prince was the very type of adespotic ruler. The word "constitution" was his bugbear, and he wouldnot abate one particular of his absolute power, or tolerate theslightest deflection of his authority in his family, any more than inthe principality. His will was the law, and though, in the details ofadministration, the voivodes and the "ministers" were trusted, nothingcould be decided without his personal supervision, nor was anydecision of a tribunal settled without an appeal to him in person. One day, as I sat with him under the Tree of Judgment, we saw in thedistance a number of the common people approaching the tree. "Now, "said he, "you will see a curious thing. This is a case of appeal fromthe decision of the head men of a village on which there had beenquartered more of the Herzegovinian refugees in proportion to theirpopulation than they thought they should support, so that they soughtrelief by sending a part of the refugees to a neighboring villagewhich had not had what they considered its due charge. The villagersof the second village appeal from this overcharge, alleging that theirmeans do not permit them to receive more than they actually have. " Therival deputations approached the tree, cap in hand, and, on the Princegiving the order to open the case, it was stated through the head menas the Prince had summarized it. The Prince heard both cases and thenasked the head man of the lesser village if they had done as much asthey could do in the way of relief, and the head man explained thattheir village was small and poor (which was quite unnecessary to sayof a Montenegrin village), and they could not support more refugees;whereupon the Prince, addressing himself to the deputation of thelarger village, repeated to them the parable of the widow and hermite, and, assuring them that the little village had done its best, as the widow did, and they must be content, dismissed the case, andwithout a word of complaint the two deputations went off together, discussing with each other in the most friendly manner; and thediscontent, so far as we could see, was at an end. 

But if this patriarchal form of government was interesting, thecharacter of the people under it was still more so, and it was to me agreat pleasure and privilege to be enabled to study, as I did for thethree years of the insurrection and war, a nation in the earlieststage of true civilization, corresponding as nearly as we canreconstruct ethnology to that of the Greeks in the time of the Trojanwar, arms but not men being changed. The honesty and civic disciplinewere perfect, hospitality limited only by the ability to give it, andthe courage and military discipline absolutely unquestioning. If thePrince ordered a position to be stormed, no man would return from theattack till the bugle sounded the recall. I remember charges madeduring the war in which the half of the battalion was down, deador wounded, before they could strike a blow, and this without thepresence of the Prince to stimulate the soldier; but, before him, noman would flinch from certain death when an order was given. 

The honesty was singular. I remember that one day, when I was inCettinje, two Austrian officers came up from Cattaro, and one of themlost on the road a gold medal he wore, which was picked up by a poorwoman passing with a load over the same road, and she went to Cattaroand spent a large portion of the day hunting for the officer who hadlost the medal. Sexual immorality was so rare that a single case inCettinje was the excited gossip of the place for weeks; but to thisvirtue the influence of the Russian officers during the year ofthe great war was disastrous. The Russians introduced beggary andprostitution, and the crowd of adventurers from everywhere during thetwo later years made theft common; but stealing was considered such adisgrace by the Montenegrins that during all my residence there I hadonly one experience, --the theft of a small pocket revolver by my firstDalmatian horse-keeper, and I think that robbery with violence wasnever heard of in the principality. During the third year I carried, for distribution among the families of the killed and wounded, thelarge subsidies of the Russian committees, amounting to severalhundred pounds in gold, and in this service I penetrated to theremotest parts of the principality until I reached the Turkish postsin Old Servia, countries of the wildest character, with a very sparsepopulation; and, though it was known that I carried those sums, I wasnever molested, though I had only one man for escort. And during thetwo campaigns which I made with the Prince, living in a tent, on thepole of which hung my dispatch-bag containing my store of small money(it being impossible to obtain change for a piece of gold anywhere inthe interior), and no guard being kept on the tents, I never lost a_zwanziger_, or any other article than a girth by which the blanketwas fastened on my horse when grazing at night; and, as the blanketcame back, even that did not look like a theft. 

And yet so poor and so contented were they that the life of theprimitive man could not have been much simpler. I have seen, in thecold end of September, in the high mountain districts, a wholefamily of little children, whose united rags would not have made acomfortable garment for one of them, playing with glee in the fields. On one occasion, when I had been caught by the heavy autumn rains inremote Moratcha, roads washed away and riding a mile impossible, I hadto take with me two or three men, beside my guide and horse boy, tomake a road where I had to travel, and we were obliged to halt for thenight at one of the poorest villages I ever saw in Montenegro. Thebest house in it was offered me, with such fare as they had, tosupplement bread which I had brought from the convent. The house hadbut one room, with a large bedstead built in it of small trees in therough, and the beaten ground for floor. The bed was given up to me, and the family lay on the ground with a layer of straw, which wasall that the bedstead had in the way of bedding. When we left inthe morning I was asked for no compensation, nor did it seem to beexpected; but, as my silver had been expended, I gave the woman of thehouse (the husband being at the war) a gold ten-franc piece. She tookit shamefacedly, turned it over and over, looked at it curiously, andthen asked my guide, "What is this?" It was the first time in her lifethat she had seen a gold coin, and the guide had to explain to herthat it could be changed into many of the zwanzigers or beshliks whichwere the only coins she knew. And with all this poverty they seemedmost happy when they could extend their poor hospitality to astranger, and always reluctant to receive any compensation, though thePrince was obliged to furnish to the general population about half thebreadstuffs they used in the year. 

Seven senators were always on duty near the Prince; they receivedabout $250 a year each when on duty, at other times nothing. Theentire civil list of the Prince amounted to about $250, 000 a year, from which all the expenses of the government, civil, military, anddiplomatic, had to be paid. But for the subsidies of Russia andAustria-Hungary the entire people must have migrated long ago, and Ihave several times heard Montenegrins say, when asked why they did notbuild more substantial houses, that "they were not going to staythere long, but meant to get a better country. " And yet, like mostmountaineers, they were so attached to this rugged and infertilecountry of theirs that there was no punishment so hard as exile. 

During the greater part of the time I spent in the principality theentire male adult population was on the frontier, or fighting justbeyond it, and, when a messenger was wanted, the official took a manout of the prison and sent him off, with no apprehensions of his notreturning. One such messenger I remember to have been sent to Cattaro, in Austrian territory, with a sum of three thousand florins to be paidto the banker there, and he came back before night and reported at theprison. Jonine told me that one day, being in Cattaro, he was accostedby a Montenegrin, who begged for his intercession with the Prince tolet him out of prison. "But, " said the Russian official, "you are nomore in prison than I am; what do you mean?" "Oh, " said the man, "Ihave only come down for a load of skins for Voivode So-and-so, but Imust go into prison again when I get back to Cettinje. " The prisonwas a ramshackle building, in the walls of which a vigorous push ofseveral strong men would have made a breach, and I have often seen allthe prisoners out in the sun with a single guard, on absolutely equalterms; and if, as sometimes happened, the guard was called away, any of the prisoners was ready to take his rifle and duties for themoment. 

I have seen it stated that the Montenegrin is a lazy man, who puts offthe hard work on the women; but this is quite untrue, the fact beingthat any work which he considers the work of a man he is eager to do. He is an admirable road-maker and navvy, goes far and wide to get workon public works, and at home, when peace allows it, he does the heavywork; but as, in the ordinary life of the past four centuries, he wasalmost constantly on the frontier to meet the Turkish invasions or theAlbanian raids, the agricultural and much other work fell necessarilyto the women. When there were considerable flittings from Cettinje, and the amount of baggage to be carried down to Cattaro was large, itwas always allotted to one of the most intelligent men to judge of theweight; and when it was a heavy package he said, "This is the load ofa man, " or, if a light load, "This is for a woman, " many of whom werewaiting, eager for the chance of gaining something by their labor. Butno compensation will induce a Montenegrin to accept a work which isconsidered not the work of a man. 

In military courage and docility the Montenegrin probably stands atthe head of European races. He is born brave, and comes under the lawof military obedience as soon as he can carry arms. The good wish forthe boy baby in his cradle is, "May you not die in your bed, " and toface death is to the boy or man the most joyous of games. I have seena man, in the midst of a hot interchange of rifle bullets between theTurkish trenches and our own, the trenches occupying the crests of twoparallel ranges of low hills, go around outside the works and climbwith the greatest deliberation up the hillside, exposed to the Turkishfire, and back over the breastwork into our trenches, all the timeunder a hail of rifle bullets. During the siege operations at Niksichthe Prince was obliged to issue an order of the day forbidding burialto any man killed in this ostentatious exposure to the Turkish fire, so many men having been killed while standing on the crests of theshelter trenches in pure bravado. While lying at headquarters atOrealuk (where the Prince had a little villa), waiting the opening ofthe campaign of 1877, I was walking on the terrace with him one dayafter dinner when I noticed a boy of sixteen or eighteen standing atthe end of the terrace with his cap in his hand, the usual form ofasking for an audience. "Now I'll show you an interesting thing, " saidthe Prince, as he made a sign to the boy to approach. "This boy is thelast of a good family, whose father and brothers were all killed inthe last battle, and I ordered him to go home and stay with his motherand sisters, that the family might not become extinct. " As the boydrew near and stopped before us, his head down and his cap in hishands, the Prince said to him, "What do you want?" "I want to go backto my battalion, " the boy replied. "But, " replied the Prince, "you arethe last of the family, and I cannot allow a good family to be lost;you must go home and take care of your mother. " The boy began to crybitterly. The Prince then asked him if he would go home quietly andstay there, or take a flogging and be allowed to fight. He shook hishead and stood silent a little while and then broke out, "Well! itisn't for stealing; I'll take the flogging!" that being the deepestdisgrace which can befall a Montenegrin. And he broke down utterlywhen the Prince finally said that he must go home, for his family wasa distinguished one, and he was not willing that no man should be leftof it to keep the name. "But, " said the boy, "I want to avenge myfather and brothers, " this being the highest obligation of everyMontenegrin. The boy went away still crying, but when he had gone thePrince said, "I know that he will be in the next battle in spite ofanything I can say. "

CHAPTER XXVII

THE INSURRECTION IN HERZEGOVINA

I have anticipated the events of the year, but this illustration ofthe character of the little people whose tenacity and courage puttheir mark on European history during the subsequent three years willhelp to give significance to the story. Without being undiplomaticallyfrank, on the one hand, or attempting to conceal his rôle on theother, the Prince allowed me to see that everything depended onMontenegrin action, and that he, to a certain extent, must permithis people to follow their sympathies. The young men went in groupswithout any pretense of organization, with their rifles and yataghans, and, when the opportunity offered, took part in any pending skirmish, and then came home, to be replaced by others. To have forbidden thiswould have made the people mutinous, and the Dalmatians, though underthe authority of Austria, were no more closely held to neutrality thanthe Montenegrins. The Austrian Slavs could not be permitted to be morepatriotic than the Montenegrin; and the Prince, after having attemptedto quiet the former by sending old Peko Pavlovich to bring them toreason, and found that the matter could not be settled in that way, allowed Peko to take a band of young men into Herzegovina and assumethe direction of the insurrection. 

There was nothing more to be learned in Montenegro that belonged towar correspondence, and I went back to Cattaro. There I learned thatthere was a great assemblage of refugees at Grahovo, a remote cornerof the principality, which could best be reached from the Bocche; andenlisting the agent of the Austrian Lloyds as guide and interpreter, Iwent by way of Risano and the country of the Crivoscians, a Slavonictribe who gave great trouble to the Romans in their day, and totheir successors in that part of the world, the Austrians, whomthey defeated disastrously in 1869. The Crivoscians contributed animportant element to the forces of the insurrection; they were held tobe great thieves, but greater Turk fighters, and on the way to Grahovowe met many of them coming home wounded, or carrying their booty fromthe recent battles (one amongst them had forgotten whether he wasseventy-five or seventy-six), for there had been serious fighting inthe corner of the Herzegovina adjacent. 

Then we came into the long procession of refugees, mostly women andchildren, a dribbling stream of wretched humanity, carrying suchremnants of their goods as their backs could bear up under, with a fewold men, too old to fight, all seeking some hiding-place until thestorm should be over, --wretched, ragged, worn out by the fatigues oftheir hasty flight from "the abomination of desolation, " for it seemedas if he that was on the housetop had not gone down to take anythingout of his house, and woe had been pronounced upon them that were withchild and them that gave suck in those days. I had seen enough of thehorrors of suppression of Christian discontent by the Mussulmans ofCrete, but the brutality of the Slavonic Islam in time of peace wasother and bitterer than the Cretan, and the miserable remnant ofescaped rayahs of Herzegovina was the very ragged fringe of humanity. I wish every statesman who had ever favored tonics for the "sick man"could have stood where I did and have seen the long reiteration of thedamning accusation against the "unspeakable Turk" in these escapes ofthe peaceful stragglers from massacre and rapine which every risingin the provinces of Turkey brings forth for the shame of ourcivilization. There were whole families in such rags that they wouldnot have been permitted to beg in the streets of any English city, lucky even to have escaped as families; parents whose daughters, evenmore miserable, had not been permitted to escape to starvation. We found at Grahovo the body of which those we had seen were thefringe, --a mass of despairing, melancholy humanity, brooding over themisery to come, homeless, foodless, and the guests of a people onlyless poor than themselves, the hospitable hovels of the Montenegrinshousing a double charge. 

I was desirous to learn from themselves the details of theiroppression, and my friend questioned one group as to what they had tocomplain of. It was practically everything but death, --their cattletaken, their crops ravaged or reaped by the agas, the honor of wivesand daughters the sport of any Mussulman ruffian who passed their way. One tall, gaunt old woman, who had not spoken, but listened, with aface like a stone, to all that the others replied, suddenly threw herragged robe over her head and burst into a tempest of tears. Anotherturned to me a stolid face, saying, "Gospodin! we do not know what avirgin is!" I saw enough of it before I had finished to have made theworld turn Turcophobe. And twenty years later we hear of the samefruits of the same régime and, as I found then, Christian statesmenwho tolerate it. 

I tried to penetrate to the scene of the fighting in Herzegovina, butwas on all sides warned that from Grahovo it was impossible; it wasnecessary to return to Ragusa. There I learned that a fight had justtaken place on the road between Trebinje and Ragusa. There is agood carriage road between the two cities, and, in company with twocolleagues, and under the guidance of a daring carriage driver, wewent to Trebinje. The plain between the frontier and Trebinje is awaste of limestone crags and blocks, scattered as if after a combat ofTitans, a miserable stunted vegetation springing between the rocks, capable of hiding thousands of men within a rifle-shot from the road, and, as we found, actually hiding a good many. But word had been sentbefore by our friends the patriots, and we only caught a glimpse ofone insurgent, and saw one dead Turk, a victim of the last skirmish, whose body the garrison had not dared come out to bury. 

We brought the first news the pasha had received in five days. He gaveme, for official information, his version of the late fight, in whichold Peko had drawn a convoy of provisions into an ambush and capturedit, killing eighty men of the escort, whose heads one of my colleagueshad seen stuck up on poles at the insurgent camp, but in which thepasha admitted a loss of only twenty or thirty men. I had seen manyTurkish pashas, but never one of that type, --amiable, lethargic, and quite indisposed to do any harm to anybody, and he could notunderstand why the insurgents could not let him alone; he did not wantto disturb them. He complained bitterly that ill-disposed people hadbeen stirring up the population of his province and that, though hehad a force of two thousand men, the disorderly Herzegovinians made itvery difficult for his men to go about. It was really pathetic to hearhim. He wished harm to no one; so courteous and civilized-over was hethat one could easily imagine that such officials at Constantinoplemight give the Turcophile color to a _corps diplomatique_. Invitedto coffee by the Austrian consul, I heard the views of a man whoseexperiences have been equaled by few, for he had been fourteen yearsat that post; and he fully confirmed the impressions I had from therefugees at Grahovo. But, on the other side of the matter, I wasreally interested in the Turkish troops, so good-natured, so patient, and not in the least concerned at having been several months besiegedand blockaded, supplies short, and relief not even hoped for. I hatedthe system, but I could not help liking its victims on both sides. 

Returning to Ragusa, I found Ljubibratich on the point of returning tothe insurgents' camp at Grebci, just over the Austrian frontier, andonly about three hours' walk, we were told, from Ragusa. They camewith unrestricted freedom from camp into Ragusa, carried away whatsupplies of any kind they needed, and, when ill, came to the hospitalof the city. Dalmatia and its medley of races are still in the Easternstate of activity, in which time is of no account; and, instead ofgetting off in the early morning to return before night, as arranged, we left Ragusa at 2 P. M. We were in October, and the shortening daysdid not favor long journeys, and the road was even worse than thosein Montenegro. On the way across the frontier the going was simplyclimbing a Cyclopean stairway, and we reached the camp only at dusk. 

Grebci was an abandoned village of the Herzegovinian population, robbed and maltreated even here within a rifle-shot of the Austrianterritory, and the entire population had taken refuge across thefrontier. There was a reunion of all the bands, amounting to about 900men, of whom 250 were Montenegrins under old Peko Pavlovich, a wiry, wily, Slavonic Ulysses, who had been in more than ninety battleswith the Turks, and who knew and used every stratagem of this borderwarfare. There was Melentie, the fighting Archimandrite of the conventof Duzi; Luka Petcovich, a Herzegovinian of the Montenegrin frontier, a tried Turk fighter; and the fighting popes of three villages ofOrthodox Christians, Bogdan Simonich, Minje, and Milo. There was asmall band of Italians, with one Frenchman, Barbieux, --one of thebravest of the brave and an ex-Zouave officer, --ten Russians, and afew Servians. We were in for a night, and had brought no provender, while all the food in camp was the half of an old goat and some flintyship's biscuit. The goat was roasted before the camp-fire, laid on atimber platform, which served for bed by night and table by day, andhacked to pieces by the yataghans which had come from the battle twodays before. The meat was tough beyond exaggeration, and the biscuithad to be broken with a stone into small pieces; but we had wine, forthis abounded across the frontier and was indispensable. We heard thestory of the fight at Utovu, where the insurgents had been taken ina trap by treachery of the weak chiefs of a Catholic village, andescaped with the loss of only four killed, owing to the precautionsof the wily Peko, who, like an experienced fox, never went into apossible trap without seeing the way out of it; but they brought awaythe visible proofs of their fight in the noses of fifty-eight Turkishsoldiers killed. In the custom of the country the nose of an enemystands as the logarithm of his head, which is inconvenient oftransportation in number; and, though the Prince had forbidden themutilation of the dead, it was impossible to enforce the prohibitionout of Montenegro, and this was the only proof of the actual fruits ofvictory permitted by the circumstances. 

The Italians sang songs, and the whole band made merry till far intothe night, when the correspondents, the honored guests, to be servedwith the best of the accommodations, were shown to the abandoned houseof the captain of the village, a stone-built hut, the only one of twostories, which gave us a board floor to sleep on in the upper story, garnished with a bundle of straw for each of us, on which we lay downto sleep, tired to exhaustion. My overcoat was my only covering, and there had been a slight snowfall the day before. I slept, to beawakened ten minutes later by swarms of fleas so numerous that it waslike lying in an ant-hill. Three times in the night I went out toshake the fleas from my clothing in the cold night air, and when thefirst daylight came we turned out and made our way back to Ragusa. 

Dissensions and mutual recriminations followed the defeat of Utovu, Peko openly expressing his disgust with the insurgents of the plain, who were braver when there was no enemy than when the fighting wasimminent, and he marched off to a position in the hilly country nearerthe Montenegrin frontier, leaving Ljubibratich with the men of thelow country. The lull brought into action that Shefket Pasha who, the following year, inaugurated the "Bulgarian atrocities, " and who, declining to attack the band of Peko, came to vent his prowess on thepeople of the Popovo plain, of whom about five thousand had returnedfrom exile in Dalmatia under the guarantee of the Turkish authoritiesof freedom from molestation on resuming their ordinary vocations. These were all Catholics, and the Catholics of Herzegovina and Bosniahave always been submissive, even to all the rigors of the Turkishrule, while the Orthodox Christians have been the rebels, the popesbeing generally the captains in time of war. Shefket, disregardingthe guarantees of his government, marched on the villages of Popovo, killed or carried away prisoners all the men who did not escape againover the frontier, and allowed the bashi-bazouks to plunder andravage. Male children were killed with the men; and the women, abandoning everything they could not carry, returned to Austrianterritory, where I visited them to get the facts of the matter. 

The result was that I decided to go to Mostar and lay the facts beforethe consuls, who had been charged to form a commission to investigateand report on the state of things in Herzegovina. I was joined by thecorrespondent of "Le Temps" and a Belgian engineer engaged on the newroad beyond Seraievo, and we engaged a courageous coachman to drive usto the capital of Herzegovina, for timid people would not ventureto make the journey, such was the anarchy of the country. As far asMetcovich we were in Austrian territory, but there we fell into theAsiatic order of things, meeting a frontier guard of ragged Turkishregulars, to whom the visas on our passports seemed of small account, in view of their evident desire to regard us as enemies; and all alongthe road to Mostar we had the scowling faces of the native Mussulmansbent on us as we passed, and the few Christians we saw wore an air ofharelike timidity. 

The city of Mostar is one of the most picturesque I have ever seen. Atthat time its dirt, decay, and generally unkempt appearance added tothe picturesqueness, but not to the comfort. We got shelter at a khan, whose owner hardly knew if he dared admit a Christian guest; but theauthority of the English consul, Mr. Holmes, reassured him, and wewere admitted to the society of more fleas than I had consideredpossible at that time of the year. I had, however, provided myselfwith an ample supply of the Dalmatian product known as "flea powder, "the triturated leaves of the red camomile which grows in greatperfection all over the mountains of Dalmatia and Montenegro, as ifnature had foreseen that it would be especially needed there, and Islept in comparative immunity, though my prior experiences in hostelryhad never given me an adequate understanding of the khan filth anddiscomfort. 

I found that the consuls had all been fully informed of the generalstate of the country and the treachery exercised by the Turkishcommanders, and Holmes told me that he had reported to the ambassadorat Constantinople what he had learned, and that his report had beensent back with orders to make it less unfavorable to the Turks. Holmes(later Sir William Holmes, the distinction being well deserved forthe courage and honesty with which, though strongly Turcophile in histendencies, he exposed the abuses) said to me, relating this fact, "What can I do? I tell him what I know to be the facts as I havelearned them, and he wants me to change them to make the report morefavorable to the Turks!" I put his case before the public in the"Times, " and the honest fellow reaped the reward he deserved, thoughagainst the will of his ambassador. 

Here I met again an old Cretan friend, Server Pasha, sent to try thesame silly, futile tactics which so failed in Crete, i. E. Offering theinsurgents elaborate paper reforms in exchange for actual submission. He reminded me of the reply of the local commandant of the army atMostar when one of the consuls remonstrated at the authorities havingtaken no action in a case of peculiarly brutal assassination in thecity of Mostar, the author of which had not even been arrested. TheColonel Bey replied, astonished, to the indignant consul, "Why, haven't we made a report?" The case was rather a peculiar one: a youngMussulman, having received a present of a new rifle, went out into thesuburbs, and, seeing a Christian boy gathering the grapes from hismother's vineyard, took a pot shot at him and shot him through thebody. The young assassin was carried in triumph about the town on theshoulders of his playmates, and was never in any way punished for thecrime. I had the story from the surgeon who attended the Christianboy, and from Mr. Holmes. I took a keen delight in illuminating theintelligent mind of Server Pasha as to the true condition of thecountry, telling him what I had seen and reported to the "Times;" and, as he knew me well, and that I was trustworthy in my reports, --for heknew how A'ali Pasha had regarded me, --he was in a curious state ofmental distress. On his report to Constantinople, the consul-generalat Ragusa, an Italian Levantine called Danish Effendi, whom I had alsoknown at Syra in the old days, was ordered to make an investigationinto the Popovo atrocities, and, being under the eyes of a large bodyof correspondents and a Christian public, he reported confirming myreport. 

Our return to Ragusa was not entirely free from excitement, for theindigenous Mussulman had less avidity for prey he saw going into thetrap, Mostar, than for that which he saw escaping, and we had to facesmall predatory detachments of bashi-bazouks raiding in the country wepassed through, who looked at us with eyes of fire, and muttered in nodoubtful language, interpreted by my colleague of "Le Temps, " who knewTurkish, what they would be glad to do with us. As we sat eating ourlunch in the shelter of a hovel by the roadside, while the horses werebaiting, a party of the fanatics watched us with growing malignityand a truculent interchange of sentiments of an evidently unfriendlynature. To puzzle them as to our status, I took the pains to repeat inconversation with my colleague the formula of adherence to the faithas it is in Islam, a scrap of Arabic I had learned in Crete, therepetition of which, according to the rite, is equivalent to therecognition of Mahomet and his teachings. The effect on them wascurious, and, though they evidently did not consent to regard us as ofthe true faith, they as evidently were puzzled, and we went our wayunmolested; but I felt more at my ease, I am willing to admit, when wepassed the last Turkish post on the road. 

CHAPTER XXVIII

A JOURNEY IN MONTENEGRO AND ALBANIA

Utovu was followed by a lull in military operations; but in the latterpart of November, as the insurgents had beleaguered all the forts inthe upper Herzegovina and the town of Niksich in the debated territorybetween Montenegro and Herzegovina, Shefket gathered a force of 3000regulars, with artillery and bashi-bazouks to escort a train ofsupplies to them. He was met by Lazar Soeica, the chief of that partof the mountain country, and disastrously defeated at Muratovizza, leaving behind him 760 dead, and carrying away about 900 wounded, mostof whom died of their wounds, as I learned from one of the Europeansurgeons in the Turkish service who deserted a little later, dismayedby the constant menaces of death to all Christian employees in thecamp, uttered by the troops, suffering, angry, and continually worstedin the little fights. Shefket saved himself and his artillery bysending the latter to the rear as soon as the battle was at itsheight, and then, having posted a strong rear guard, --the insurgentshaving neglected to close the road behind them, --retreating with allpossible speed, leaving the rear guard to be killed or taken, which itwas to a man. The insurgents lost fifty-seven killed and ninety-sixseriously wounded, but the result was to throw the whole upperHerzegovina into their hands, and they captured and destroyed all thesmall blockhouses and forts not armed with artillery. The interestnow centred on the high mountain district about Niksich, whereI determined to go to watch the operations. The winter was wellcommenced, but only in the higher districts was the snow on theground. I returned, therefore, to Cettinje, where I was now receivedas a tried friend. 

At the time of which I am now writing there were practically no roadsin Montenegro but bridle-paths, over large stretches of which it wasunsafe to ride, even the Montenegrins dismounting, whether going up ordown. That passage between Cettinje and Rieka, on the Lake of Scutari, was one of the worst I have ever found in the principality. The lowerpart, nearing Rieka, was simply a Cyclopean stairway, with rocky stepsso high that the horses had to _jump_ down from one to another. Mycavalcade consisted of a Montenegrin soldier for guide, a Montenegrinstudent, and the horse-boy, necessary to lead the horses when, as wasthe case for a large part of the way, we could not ride them; andhalfway down to Rieka we were overtaken by a deaf-mute porter, sent asa kind afterthought by the Prince, with a samovar and a provision oftea, sugar, etc. , in view of the dearth of comforts beyond. I carriedan order for shelter and such fare as was obtainable at Rieka, inthe little house of the Prince at that village, and we passed acomfortable night, but found the succeeding day the opening of one ofthe spells of rainy weather of which only one who has lived inthe principality much can know the inconvenience. To wait in thehalf-furnished house with no resources was worse than going out inthe rain, although I had no protection other than a cape of my ownmanufacture, a circle of the thinnest india-rubber cloth, with a holecut in the middle for my head, and covering my arms to the wrists. 

Hoping for the rain to stop, we waited till nine A. M. , when a break inthe clouds flattered us into starting for Danilograd, to be caught inanother downpour an hour later. The way was down a long slope, partmud and part broken rock, over which in either case we found thetraveling easier on foot than on horseback, so that we did most of theway on foot while daylight lasted, the unfortunate porter between thecavalry and the infantry struggling, slipping, and moaning in hisinarticulate way in great physical distress. We had continually tostop and wait for the horses to overtake us until the long descentwas accomplished, by which time the twilight had come, and we foundourselves in the valley of the Suchitza, a wide waste of clay soilsaturated with rain, and two hours' ride in ordinary condition of theroads from any shelter. The steady rain in which we had traveled foreight hours then became a violent thunder-storm; all the brooks andditches by the way were over their banks, and our horses could hardlyflounder under their loads through the heavy going; while we, in thedarkness, could not see the road, even where it could he followed, save when the lightning flashes showed it, and so, not being able towalk, rode perforce. My horse refused a ditch a foot wide, and whenwe came to one I had to get off and drag by the bridle, while thehorse-boy pushed from behind, till he yielded to the persuasion andventured over. The two hours' ride became four, and the way gotheavier as we went on, woodland alternating with flooded plain, in theformer of which only the experience of the guide could keep the road;while in the latter we could follow it only by the telegraph wirescutting against the sky. We finally saw a light and came to a cabin, where we deposited the poor mute, with all the impedimenta, to followby daylight; but for us there was no place to sleep, and we gave thereins to the horses, and let them flounder their way into Danilograd, where we arrived at 10 P. M. , drenched to the skin and hungry. 

There was a light still burning in the house of the village doctor, on whom we had an order from the Prince, and who found us asleeping-place in the loft of a neighbor, where we got a supper oftrout and maize bread, and a bundle of straw to lie on in our wetclothes. The doctor was a German, and, though he was an official, theinstinct of hospitality which rules the Montenegrin did not exist inhim, so he offered us the house of his neighbor. The day broke finefor our journey to the convent of Ostrog, the only bit of good weatherwe had until our return to Cettinje, ten days later. 

Ostrog is one of the three sanctuaries of Montenegro, the others beingMoratcha, on the old Servian frontier, and Piperski Celia, above thefortress of Spuz, where the valley of the Zeta then entered into theTurkish dominions. The convent is on a site of singular beauty andsalubrity, on a fertile plateau several hundred feet above the valleyof the Zeta, at the foot of a precipice, in the face of which is acave enlarged into a chapel, where lies the body of St. Basil, aHerzegovinian bishop of the early days of the Turkish conquest, who did his Christian duty by the scattered Orthodox Christians inHerzegovina and Montenegro, visiting stealthily and at the constantrisk of his life the little groups of the faithful over a territoryvast for the supervision of one man. He died in this refuge, and wasburied at the foot of the cliff; but on an attempt being made toremove the body some years later, it was found to be uncorrupted, uponwhich he was canonized, and the body was placed in a fine coffin andremoved to the little chapel, which has a single window also rock-cutand is only to be approached by a narrow stairway of the samestructure. Outside, at the foot of the cliff, is the convent, in whichreside two or three priests and as many _kalogheri_, constituting thecommunity, for the convents of the Orthodox church are not communitiesof idle devotees, but of men who are mostly engaged in the culture ofthe land belonging to the convent, when not engaged in the performanceof the rites of the church. The hegumenos I found to be more a manof war than one of ritual, and really the commander of an outpost ofobservation on the frontier towards Niksich. He delighted more in armsthan in the mass, and I made a firm friend of him by the gift of asmall Colt's revolver. I was permitted to see the body of St. Basil inthe chapel, which was filled with a fragrance like that of cedarwood, which I naïvely attributed to the wood of the coffin, when theattendant protested with indignation that what I smelled was the odorof sanctity. I was incompetent to distinguish it. St. Basil is held ingreat reverence for his miracles, and immense numbers of pilgrims cometo his annual festa with their sick from all the country round, evenMussulman families from Albania paying their devotions in the hope andfaith of cures, and it is said that many miracles take place everyyear. 

In this hermitage Mirko, the father of the Prince, in company withthirty-two of his voivodes, was once besieged by a large body ofTurks, but repelled all attacks for nineteen days, with the loss ofonly two men, killed by shots which passed through the window. One ofthe garrison descended by a rope to bury one of the dead, and, thisaccomplished, made his way by night through the Turkish army andcarried the news of the siege to Danilo, then the reigning prince, whoraised an army and dispersed the Turkish forces. During the siege, two parties of Mussulmans, mistaking each other for relief parties ofChristians, attacked each other with great slaughter, an event whichwas considered to be the effect of the intervention of St. Basil. 

The hegumenos strongly opposed my attempt to penetrate to Niksich, assuring me that the plain was so infested by bands of Turks that itwas to the last degree unsafe to travel on the road, the truth beingthat the city was beleaguered by Montenegrin bands, a fact which hedesired to conceal. This, I was convinced, was the real reason ofhis opposition; but, to strengthen his argument, the rain, which hadlifted for the one day of the journey from Danilograd, changed intosnow in the mountains, and made the attempt impossible. We waitedseveral days at the convent, and, as the rain and snow were insistent, and Niksich too difficult of access, I decided to turn the other wayand go to Scutari by land. Returning to Danilograd, I learned thatthis was practically impossible, the road beyond Podgoritza beingnot only dangerous for persons, but impracticable for beasts, as thecountry was under water. No Montenegrin would venture into the Turkishterritory with the certainty of incurring decapitation, --if not in mycompany, at any rate on his return without me; so, on consultationwith the sirdar in command at Danilograd, I sent back to Cettinje thehorses we had come with, and hired those of a rayah of Podgoritza whohad come to market at Danilograd, intending to go to Podgoritza, wherewe should hire other horses to Plamnitza, on the lake shore, whence wecould proceed by water to Scutari. I telegraphed the Prince to sendhis steam launch to meet me at Plamnitza; and, as my interpreter, theMontenegrin student, determined to run the risks of decapitationand go with me, I imposed on him a European costume, took away hisrevolver as a safeguard against dangerous excitement, put him undersevere charge not to show that he understood the Serb language, andstarted in a pouring rain. 

The road to Spuz was unique. Now that Montenegro has entered intopossession of the region, there is a carriage road, but the ancientone was a pavement of the days of Dushan which now ran along the topof a ridge like a hog-back in the middle of the road, on each side ofwhich the track had been worn down by travel until the original roadwas as high as the backs of our horses above the actual track eachside of it. At the gate of Spuz we were stopped and our passports weredemanded. Mine had been visaed at Ragusa for Mostar, and Gosdanovichhad the Russian passport, which is freely accorded to allMontenegrins. The sentinel could read neither, and sent them to thekonak with a demand for instructions. Meanwhile the guard turned outto laugh at us sitting on our market horses in the pouring rain, oursaddles being only blankets fastened on the pack saddles, on which wewere perched high, the rain pouring off from every extremity of ourcostumes. The messenger brought word to send us to the police office, and there we went. 

A binbashi, grave, polite, and curious, invited us to be seated andordered coffee. He could speak only Turkish, and I tried English, French, and Italian in vain, when a bright Albanian lieutenantstanding by made a remark in Romaic, and for the needs of the caseI caught on. He knew much less Romaic than I, but I could make himunderstand that I was the correspondent of an English journal goingto Scutari, etc. , etc. Gosdanovich played his part well, and was asstolid as an ox, though the conversation, which he understood, betweenthe Mussulman Serbs present was not at all cheering. "Bah!" said oneof the secretaries who sat writing on the mat beside the bimbashi, "Ican kill twenty such men as that with a stick, and should like to doit--such rubbish as they are--I should like to send them all to thedevil. " "So should I, " replied the other. Then one of them suggestedthat, though I was evidently a stranger, he felt sure he had seenGosdanovich in Cettinje. "Impossible!" replied the other; "noMontenegrin would dare to come here now. " Finally came the doctor, anItalian, and we had an excursion into general politics, after whichanother coffee and cigarette, and then, with the visa of the bimbashi, we were permitted to move on to Podgoritza. 

We had no further adventure on the road, and early in the afternoonarrived at Podgoritza, an ancient Servian city, much dilapidated andvery picturesque, taking lodgings at an inn kept by a Christian, arather creditable establishment but absolutely empty of guests. Wewaited half an hour for the food and fire I ordered (for we were wetand fasting), when my guide returned and said that there were nolodgings there, but that the chief of police would provide us, andthat we were to accompany him to the police office. There we wereallowed to dry ourselves over a huge brazier full of glowing coals, while the zapties cleaned out the adjoining room, a closet about tenby fourteen feet, in which the dust of years lay accumulated and toall appearance undisturbed. This was simply a cell in the policeprison, and there we ate what the _miralai_ saw fit to order forus. Our passports were again examined and discussed, and we werereëxamined as to our whence and whither and wherefore by the aid oftwo or three Catholic Albanians of the vicinity, who did what theycould to find out if we had any secret business, professing tobe themselves the victims of the oppression of the Turks, andsympathizing with us. They did not draw me, however, and I professedno anxiety as to my treatment. 

The miralai finally gave over his search for hostile motive in ourvisit, and we discussed the programme for the morrow. I found thatthere was a healthy fear of the Prince of Montenegro, for, when Itold him that the Prince's little steamer would be waiting for me atPlamnitza the next day at noon, the whole circle broke out in wonderif it could be true that the Prince took so much interest in us, forif so, they must be prudent. We had the interesting advantage in thatGosdanovich understood all that they said as they talked Serb to eachother, for they were a mixed company, and mostly of that race, andthey supposed that he was a Russian and I an Englishman, and that bothof us were ignorant of their language. If, they finally agreed, thePrince of Montenegro would send his steamer for me, I must be a personof greater distinction than they thought me, and they must be careful. So the miralai called the chief of the zapties, and in our presencegave him his charge, viz. , to escort us to Plamnitza, leaving by earlylight, and, if the steamer did not come for us, to bring us back tothe prison he took us from, and to kill us on the spot if we attemptedto escape. And so to sleep, as far as the crowing of many cocksoutside and the activity of multitudinous fleas within would permit;and to make sure of us, we were locked in--fairly at last in a Turkishprison. 

The morning broke with the rain pouring in torrents. I had tried tobuy a pair of shoes before going to sleep, but they brought me a pairfor a boy of twelve and assured me that there were no others in thetown, and those I had come with were in tatters which were hardly tobe kept on my feet. The mud was indescribable, --the entire countryflooded, and all the bridges across a river we must pass carried away, except one over a narrow gorge where the rocks approached so closelythat a couple of logs reached from side to side, and over these thehorses must be led. To say that I was at ease on this trip would beexaggeration, the more as the zaptie-bimbashi talked freely to hissubordinate about us, and vented his rage at being obliged to makesuch a journey for two beastly infidels, to whom the only gratefulservice he could render was decapitation. However, we reached thelake, to find the steamer waiting, tied to the top of one of thelargest oaks a half mile from the actual shore, for the country was soinundated that we floated over entire villages as we boated out toit. I delighted the heart of the bimbashi by a baksheesh of half anapoleon, which so astonished him that he hardly knew how to expresshimself, after all his bitter words and unkind intentions. I was laterconvinced that if the Turkish authorities had known who I was, --theirold enemy in Crete, --we should not have come out alive fromPodgoritza. In fact, when Danish Effendi at Ragusa heard that I hadbeen put in prison in Albania he exclaimed, "If I had been there it isnot only a night in prison he would have had, but a file of soldiersat daylight. "

Our steamer had come, however, not to carry me to Scutari, but, andperhaps fortunately, to take me back to Rieka, whence I had to go toCettinje to get a refit, for I was ragged, bootless as my errand toScutari, and draggled with mud from head to foot; notwithstandingwhich, as soon as the Prince had learned of my arrival, though in themidst of a diplomatic dinner, he sent for me to come to the palace, and made me sit down with the company as I was and tell my story. Ihad to wait a few days for the voyage to Scutari, profiting by theoccasion of the return of some engineers and the French consul at thatplace. We found the town flooded, a fisherman by the side of one ofthe streets showing us a fine string of fish which he had caught inthe roadside ditch. Decay, neglect, and utter demoralization werewritten large on the general aspect of the capital of one of the mostimportant of the provinces of the Turkish Empire in Europe, i. E. Important to Turkey. The magnificent country around Scutari for mileson miles square--most fertile ground, producing, beside wheat, thefinest tobacco known for cigarettes generally sold as of Cavalla (andhow many nervous hours I have soothed with it during these campaigns), and enormous crops of maize--lies a large part of the time every yearunder water, as I had found it, for the sole reason that the Drin, which ought to empty into the sea below the Boyana (the outlet of theLake of Scutari, the Moratcha, etc. ), has built a bar by its floodsand abandoned its proper course, emptying into the lake a flood whichthe Boyana is incapable of managing. 

The fortress was a relic of Dushan, little mended by the Turk, and hadbeen three times struck by lightning, the magazine each time exploding(once while I was in Montenegro), only because the Turkish government, in putting up the lightning-rod and finding the supply of rod short, had pieced it out with telegraph wire. The body of the rod hadfulfilled its destiny in attracting the lightning, while the telegraphwire, not being able to carry the load brought to it, had dischargedit into the magazine. And, when I saw it, the wire was still invitinganother disaster. I found in Eshref Pasha a most interesting andamiable personage, out of his place completely in the management of aturbulent and really hostile Christian population, with whom his verybest qualities were a disqualification. Eshref was a poet, a dreamer, and, I was told, the second man of letters in the empire. Helaughingly asked me if I had been at Podgoritza, and I asgood-humoredly replied that I had not come to complain of my treatmentthere, but to pay my compliments to a fellow man of letters. Hisbroad, good-natured face lighted up with pleasure, and, droppingpolitics and fighting, we talked poetry and letters. Secretaries andmessengers were coming and going with papers to be signed, or ordersto be given, and we could talk only by interludes. I remarked that hemust have little time for letters in all this complication of cares, and he replied that "poetry was his refuge in the night when he wasunable to sleep; he had no other time. " I tried to get a sample ofhis verse, and he recited me one, of which I could judge only bythe sound, which was very musical; but to my urging for a copy forpublication in England he objected that translators were not good forthe reputation of a poet, which we all know. I assured him of theentire competence of literary London to render him the completestjustice, and he finally yielded in the spirit to my solicitations, butput them to the rout in the letter; for, though he promised the scriptfor the next morning, it never came. It is curious that Eshref fellthrough his good faith, for when, a few months later, the Porte issuedan irade asking for indication of the reforms needed in the provinces, he replied by calling the population to formulate their wants, whichthey did, asking for the reopening of the Drin so as to facilitate thedraining of the Lake of Scutari, the making of roads and a railwayfrom Scutari to Antivari on the seacoast. The Porte, unaccustomed tobe taken at its word, recalled the poet, who shared the fate of hisgreat predecessor Ovid. 

CHAPTER XXIX

WAR CORRESPONDENCE AT RAGUSA

The splendid victory of Muratovizza led to the recall of our oldenemy Shefket Pasha, who was sent to Bulgaria and replaced in theHerzegovina by a more competent and humane man, an old friend ofCretan days, Raouf Pasha, one of the most competent and liberalCircassian officers in the service of the Sultan. Of the operationswhich followed I have no direct cognizance, and I am not writing thehistory of the war, except as it mingles with my own experiences. The lull that followed the change of command left me time to studyMontenegro and its people, and I made many friends. The battle atMuratovizza had developed a quarrel between Socica, who commandedthere with a most distinguished ability, and old Peko Pavlovich, whohad refused his coöperation in the battle, to the great diminutionof the consequences of the victory. Peko had now come to followthe suggestions of the Russian consulate at Ragusa, from which hisfortunate rival would accept no indications. The Russian Slavoniccommittees had begun to work, and their contributions and influence, more than the direct action of their government, gradually brought thewhole movement under Russian influence. I noticed here again whathad happened in Crete, that the Russian agents, profiting by theirresponsibility which must always be the accompaniment of a despoticgovernment so extensive as that of Russia, acted without orders and ontheir own inspiration, sometimes with disastrous results. The personalrivalry between Derché and his Russian colleague in the beginnings ofthe Cretan troubles had, I have no doubt, a much greater influenceon the event of all the negotiations than any desire of the Russiangovernment to provoke an insurrection, and so here the feuds thatarose between the agents of the Slavonic committees and the consulateat Ragusa no doubt refracted the intentions of the authorities at St. Petersburg more than was suspected. 

There is no doubt that Jonine, on his own responsibility and inopposition to the wishes of the Czar, did what he could to stimulatethe movement in Herzegovina, and that this was the tendency of all theRussian agents in the Balkans. Of this I had many opportunities ofassuring myself, and, as I sympathized in that feeling, I had nodifficulty in finding it where it existed. Those agents systematicallyprovoked hostility to Turkey, which was natural and consistent withthe good of the people, for the Turkish abuses are incurable andalways merit rebellion, but also against Austria, which was unjustand aggravated the trouble of the rayahs needlessly. The Slavoniccommittees in Russia, too, went far beyond the desire of thegovernment, and there were continual rivalries between them and theconsular agents, the latter feeling obliged to outbid the committeesto keep their influence. They had, generally, the mania of activityand zeal, and commonly went beyond their orders, trusting that if theluck followed them they would be approved, and if it deserted themthey would find protection in the surroundings of the throne, as theygenerally did, activity in the Slavonic cause covering many sinsagainst discipline. During the lull after the defeat of Servia(to anticipate a little the course of my narrative), I made theacquaintance of the Russian General Tcherniaieff at an Englishwatering-place. We became great friends, for personally I have alwaysliked the Russians, and he told me with no little glee how hehad outwitted the Czar, who, learning that he intended to go toHerzegovina to fight, called him and made him swear that he would notgo to "fight with those brigands, the Herzegovinians. " He swore, andthen went, evading the surveillance of the police and with a falsepassport, to Belgrade, where he gave himself to inciting the Serviansto war, and, when Servia declared war the following spring, hecommanded the army. So he never came to Herzegovina or to Montenegro, and he was personally hostile to the Prince, as I found most Russianofficers to be. But he assured me that the Czar was bitterly opposedto the movement, and that if it had been suspected that he was goingto the Balkans he would have been arrested. The prudence of the Czaris always in danger of being nullified by the imprudence of hisagents. 

The pressure of the Turkish government on Montenegro became severe, and the Prince, in the failure of Servia to respond to the Montenegrinproposals to fight it out, was unwilling to take the responsibility ofa war. But the Sultan inclined to war so strongly that Raouf Pasha, who advised him that his army was not prepared for it, was recalled, partly on account of that advice, and partly because he declared thatthe insurrection was to a great extent justified by the bad governmentof Bosnia, and was replaced by Achmet Mukhtar, later the Ghazi, whocame breathing flames and extermination. The bands of Montenegrinswere ordered to leave the frontier of the principality, and came downto the vicinity of Ragusa; and as the interest at Cettinje diminishedI followed the war. The winter set in with great and unrememberedrigor, the refugees suffered the greatest misery, and many of theTurkish troops in the high mountain country died of exposure. I sawdeserters at Ragusa who declared that there would be very generaldesertion were it not that the troops were assured, and believed, that, if they deserted, the Austrian authorities would certainly sendthem back to their regiments. 

Before this the "Times" had come to the conclusion that the movementhad come to stay awhile, and I was informed that I should behenceforward placed in the position of its special correspondent. AsI had thoroughly mastered the field and enjoyed the confidence andfriendship of the Prince, I had, as long as the war lasted, no rivalon the English press. The suffering amongst the families of theHerzegovinians, exiled almost _en masse_ into Dalmatia and Montenegro, was very great; but the influence of the letters which appeared in the"Times" produced a wide and happy charitable movement, and I receivedat Ragusa supplies of money and clothing, which made the wretchedChristians bless England continually. I had a sharp attack ofbronchitis from the absolute impossibility of finding quarters where Icould do my work in a tolerable comfort; for the usual mildness of theclimate of Dalmatia leaves every house unprovided for the cold, which that winter was unprecedentedly severe. I used to sit atmy writing-table wrapped in all the blankets I could keep on me. Fireplaces seemed to be unknown. 

On the Greek Christmas (January 6) I met at the house of ColonelMonteverde, the agent of the Russian committees, a number of theinsurgent chiefs who had come in for a consultation, the forces of theinsurrection having separated into two general commands in consequenceof the quarrel between Peko and Socica. Socica remained in supremecommand in the mountainous Piva district, now buried under the snow, and Peko took the direction in the lower country, and establishedhimself at the old camp at Grebci, driving Ljubibratich and hisHerzegovinians out of the field. Peko had then a force of about1500 men, and Mukhtar did not attempt an attack, but, having made amilitary promenade through the lower Herzegovina, went back to Mostarand into comfortable winter quarters. Peko took position astride theroad from Ragusa to Trebinje, and held the latter place effectuallyblockaded. A provision train was about to leave Ragusa, and a force offive battalions of Turkish regulars, with 400 irregulars and six guns, was sent from Trebinje as escort. A force of two companies was postedon two hills commanding the road about midway, and, though Peko haddecided to wait for the train, he, being a natural strategist, sawthat this force must be disposed of to give him a clear field. Heaccordingly attacked the main body and drove it back to Trebinje witha loss of 250 men (counted by the noses brought in). He then put acordon around the posts on the hills, lest the men should escape inthe night, and, having prepared for an assault the next morning, sentus word to join him. He promised to send us horses for the journey atdaylight, and we went to the rendezvous breakfastless, not to losetime, but he forgot us, and, after waiting for the horses till past 8A. M. , we set out on foot. 

The snow lay a few inches deep, but the sun had come out strong, andit was melted in patches, so that we stepped alternately in mud and insnow, slipping and picking our way in the best haste we might until 2P. M. , when we arrived at Vukovich, a tiny village where Peko had hisheadquarters for the moment, the entire population having taken refugeacross the frontier. Here the Russians had established an ambulance, and we found the wounded coming in, and some young Russian medicalstudents dressing the wounds. We could hear the firing, and the echoesof it rolling around the hills, and even the shouting of the chiefsin the, to us, inarticulate insults to the enemy and encouragement totheir own men. One of the surgeons took his rifle and offered himselfas guide to the battlefield. 

Vukovich is in a deep hollow, and, as we rose on the ridge thatseparated it from the higher land on which the fight was going on, a rifle ball sung over my head and went on into the village. Othersfollowed, some plunging into the earth near us, and some striking therocks. We were just in the range of the insurgents, who were fightingup hill on the farther side of the hill, round the summit of which wasthe circle of breastworks held by the doomed Turkish force, andthe bullets of the assailants ranged over to us. It was my firstexperience under a prolonged fire, though not of being fired at, andI must admit that it put me in a terrible funk. I put the largestMontenegrin of the group which accompanied us between myself and thefiring party. I had not eaten a crumb since the day before, or takeneven a cup of coffee, and my legs were in cramp from the hard walkingfor six hours in mud and snow, and I was ready to drop from fatigueand hunger. One of the chiefs who came by on his way to the ambulance, where the ghastly procession of wounded was now coming in, seeing mepale and exhausted, offered me his flask of slievovits (plum brandy), of which I drank a half-tumbler raw. The effect was marvelous, andenabled me clearly to understand the meaning of the familiar term"Dutch courage, " so that I watched from afar the fight to the endwithout a return of funk. 

The Turks were entrenched within a double line of stone wall, concentric, and the insurgents were fighting upwards, and when we cameon the scene the fighting was still at the lower wall. Presently therewas a more rapid firing, then a moment's lull, and then the firingbroke out again from the upper breastwork. The insurgents had chargedand carried the lower line and reversed it, and the poor Turkssurviving were driven into the inner circle of about a hundred feet indiameter, out of which not one could hope to come alive. The rest ofthe garrison of Trebinje were so cowed by the result of the fightingthe day before that they dared not come out to the relief of theircomrades. 

And so the night fell on us, and the bands returned to their camp, leaving a cordon to pen in the few remaining Turks. We had manywounded, and a few killed, amongst whom was Maxime Bacevich, voivodeof Baniani, and a cousin of the Prince of Montenegro, one of thebravest of the brave, whose death was moaned over by all as wegathered together that night in the large hut that served asheadquarters. It was a stone cabin of one room, at one end the stallfor the cattle, and in the centre a fireplace, the smoke fromwhich went out by a hole in the roof. Three sides of the room weresurrounded by a stone platform, wide enough for the tallest man tolie with his feet to the fire; but there was no furniture, not even abundle of straw. This was the bed of fifty men, lying side by sideon the bare stone, my pillow being my felt hat, and my bedding myovercoat. The fire was hot, and the smell indescribable, --fifty pairsof dirty feet, and the bodies of fifty men, most of whom had notwashed for a month, with the cattle stall at the end, --that was ourlodging; but, tired as I was, I slept. At daylight the scouts came into tell us that in the night the little body of Turks had escaped, probably through a sleeping cordon, and scattered up and down alongthe road between Ragusa and Trebinje, the most of them having beencaught and killed as they ran. There was no mercy in this war, anda man who was left behind was a dead man. One of the fugitives hadnearly reached Trebinje when he was met in the way by a Herzegovinian, of whom he begged for quarter in the usual Turkish form, "aman"(mercy), to which the Herzegovinian replied "taman" (enough), and cuthim down. 

A week or more elapsed before Mukhtar Pasha, hurrying from Mostar, could concentrate troops enough to clear the road and provisionTrebinje, and then he succeeded only by the most infantile blunderson the part of the Christian forces. From that time until the springthere was a succession of isolated conflicts with no connection, theTurks attempting to provision the little fortresses in the mountains, and the insurgents to damage the Turks as much as opportunitypermitted. The powers were by this time thoroughly aroused, andthe Austrian intervention followed. Baron Rodich, the governor ofDalmatia, called a conference of the insurgent chiefs at Sutorinato arrange a pacification. I went to see Rodich, a shrewd, precisefunctionary, liberal, as far as one could well be in his position, andI saw at once that, while he was determined to obey his orders, andurge a pacification because it was in accordance with his orders, hehad no faith in success, and had a great sympathy with the insurgents. He was peremptory, and had a soldier-like aversion to specialcorrespondents; but he was very just, and might have done much hadthe situation admitted any other result than the fighting it out. The Turks would make no concession and admit no reverse, and theinsurgents, having been victorious in three out of four combats, and having brought the Turkish forces into the most desperatedemoralization (as I was able to learn by the Turkish deserters whocame daily into Ragusa), were not in the least disposed to relinquishthe hold on the position they had won. In the rude shelter obtainablewithin the Austrian territory there were thousands of women, children, and wounded men, supported by the charity of Europe, now largelyexcited, leaving the active insurgents free for their operations. 

At Ragusa I watched the course of events with informants in every partof the field of action, having become by this time regarded as theunflinching friend of the insurrection, to whom all good Slavs wereunder obligation of service. I then made the acquaintance and acquiredthe friendship of that admirable diplomat whose subsequent careerand mine have repeatedly crossed each other, Sir Edward Monson, thendiplomatic agent at Ragusa, and of a brave and good soldier, theAustrian commander, General Ivanovich, of whom and of whose excellentfamily I have the most delightful recollections, and whose societyduring all the time I remained in Ragusa was my sole social refugefrom the wretched life of a special correspondent in half-civilizedregions. It was a poetic and attractive household, and the light ofit, the beauty of Madame Ivanovich and her two daughters, and theserenity which fell on me when I entered it, remain in my memory asthe sunny oasis in the life of that period. Then, too, I made theacquaintance of an eminent scholar who was to be for many years afterthe stanchest of friends and allies, Professor Freeman, the greathistorian, but greater humanitarian, whose too early death I stillfeel to be my great personal loss. He had two companions, of whom onewas Lord Morley, who had come to Ragusa to see what there was in theaffair of the Herzegovina; and to their impressions was no doubt duemuch of the weight given to the "Times" reports subsequently. 

Between fruitless negotiations, attempts to delude the insurgentsby insincere promises, and the greatest efforts on the part ofmy _soi-disant_ friend, Danish Effendi, to win over the body ofcorrespondents by this time collected at Ragusa (he told me in so manywords that he had informed the Turkish government that my pen wasworth 40, 000 francs to it), the rest of the winter passed awayquietly. It was evident that war would be declared in the springbetween the principalities and Turkey, and I went home thoroughly wornout and ill. I went by the way of Venice, and had my first sightof the city coming in at early morning from Trieste by steamer. Accustomed as I had been to the color of Turner as the aspect of theGrand Canal, it seemed to me that what I saw from the steamer wasthe ghost of Venice, pallid, wan, faded to tints which were only thesuggestion of Turner's, but still lovely in their fading, and theimpression was more pathetic than it would have been with all the glowof the great Englishman's palette. My wife met me at the steamer, and we went home by short stages, for I was too weak to bear a longrailway journey. 

CHAPTER XXX

THE WAR OF 1876

I returned to Montenegro in the following June, after the diplomacy ofEurope had vainly and discordantly discussed mediation all the winter. An armistice had suspended hostilities, but the Turks continued theconcentration of troops on the frontiers of the principality, northand south, and refused the conditions of the Prince for a peacefulsolution. Everything waited for the acceptance by Servia of theprogramme for the war which was to be declared by the principalitiesagainst Turkey. The official declaration of war took place on the 2dof July, and on the 3d the Prince set out with flying banners for theconquest of the Herzegovina. My orders being to remain in touch withthe telegraph, I had to resign the pleasure of the campaign, andI passed the time in studying up accessories. The Prince starteddirectly for Mostar, accompanied by the Austrian military attaché, Colonel Thoemel, one of the most intensely anti-Montenegrin Austrianofficials I ever met. If the Austrian government had intended toinflict on the Prince the most humiliating censor in its service, andmake the relations between the governments as bad as possible, theycould not have chosen an agent more effective than Thoemel. In hishatred of Montenegro and enjoyment of the _fortiter in re_, heentirely threw off the _suaviter in modo_. He enjoyed intensely everypetty humiliation he could inflict on the Prince, who, with thegreatest tact, never noticed his rudeness. The maintenance of goodrelations with Austria tasked the Prince's diplomacy to the utmost. AsI saw nothing of the campaign, I will dispose of it by saying that, when the Prince had nearly reached Mostar, the colonel informed himofficially that if he took Mostar he would be driven out of it by theAustrian army, and, after a slight skirmish on the hills commandingthe city, the Prince took the road towards Trebinje. Meanwhile theoperations on the southern frontier, under the direction of theamiable and competent Bozo Petrovich, remained for my observation. 

One of the chiefs of clans who were waiting at Cettinje for the planof the southern campaign was Marko Millianoff, hereditary chief of theKutchi, an independent Slav tribe on the borders of Albania, generallyallied in the frontier operations with the Montenegrins. The Turksdesired particularly to subdue this people in the outset of thecampaign, as their territory commanded the upper road from Podgoritzato Danilograd, and hostilities commenced with an attack on them. Whilewaiting I made the acquaintance of Marko, whom I found to be one ofthe most interesting characters I met in Montenegro. His courage andresource in stratagem were proverbial in the principality. I hada capital Ross field-glass, and amused him one day by showing itspowers. He had never seen a telescope before, and his delight overit was childlike. "Why, " he exclaimed in rapture, "this is worth athousand men. " "Then take it, " I said, "and I hope it will prove wortha thousand men. " His force of 2500 men was then blockading the littlefortress of Medun, a remotely detached item of the defensive system ofPodgoritza, and on the next day he set out for his post. 

I saw him some months later, and he told me that when the great sortiefrom Podgoritza to relieve Medun came in view of the blockading force, though at a distance of several miles, his men declared that theycould not fight that immense army, which filled the valley with itsnumbers and had the appearance of a force many times greater thantheir own. Marko looked at it through the glass and found it to bemainly a provision train, for Medun was on the verge of starvation, the garrison having "shaken out the last grain of rice from theirbags, " to use the expression of the moment. When Marko's men found theactual number of fighting men in the Turkish sortie, they decided tofight it out. They didn't mind ten to one, they said, but much morethan that had appeared to confront them. The Turks, commanded byMahmoud Pasha, a good Hungarian general, were about 20, 000 men, --asI afterwards learned from various sources, including the Englishconsulate at Scutari, --comprising 7000 Zebeks, barbarians from thecountry back of Smyrna, accustomed to the yataghan, and supposed to bequalified opponents of the Montenegrins in the employment of the coldsteel. Marko fought retreating from the morning until about 2 P. M. , when the Turks stopped to eat, having driven the Montenegrin forceback and toward Medun about three miles. When the Turks had eaten andbegan to smoke, Millianoff gave the word to charge; and though theTurks had built thirteen breastworks to fall back on as they advanced, they yielded to the vigorous assault of the first line, and theMontenegrins swept through the whole series with a rush, notpermitting the Turks to form again or gather behind one, and drovethose who escaped under the walls of Podgoritza, leaving 4700 dead onthe way, for no prisoners were taken. Millianoff said, when I sawhim again, "Your glass saved us the battle, " which was virtuallythe preservation of the independence of the tribe, and possibly thedecision of the campaign on that side. The fortress was obliged, alittle later, to surrender, and in the subsequent siege of Niksich theartillery taken at Medun served a very good purpose, being heavierthan anything the Montenegrins had. 

I had secured for correspondent with the Prince the services of hisSwiss secretary, an excellent fellow by the name of Duby; and, as allthe interest of the war for the moment lay in the campaign of thePrince against Mostar and its consequences, I arranged to have my newsat Ragusa by telegraph, and there I went for the time being. On the28th of July I received at 11 P. M. The news of the battle of Vucidol, in which the army of Mukhtar Pasha was routed and nearly destroyed, Mukhtar himself barely escaping by the speed of his horse, enteringthe gate of Bilek only a hundred yards in advance of his foremostpursuer, his wounded horse falling in the gateway. Of his twobrigadiers, one, Selim Pasha, a most competent and prudent general, was killed, and the other, Osman Pasha, the Circassian, takenprisoner. He lost all his artillery, and thirteen out of twenty-fivebattalions of regulars, two hundred prisoners being taken; but whilethese were _en route_ to Cettinje they became alarmed and showed adisposition to be refractory, and were put to death at once by theescort. The ways of warfare in those parts were, in spite of all theorders of the Prince, utterly uncivilized, the Montenegrin woundedbeing always put to death if they fell into the hands of the enemy, and no quarter being given in battle by the Montenegrins, though Turkswho surrendered in a siege were kept as prisoners during the war. Ihad seen Mukhtar at Ragusa during the conference at the time of thearmistice, and he bore out in his personal appearance the descriptionwhich Osman Pasha gave of him, --dreamy, fanatical, ascetic, who gavehis confidence to no one, and who said, when Selim proposed a councilof war before Vucidol, "If my fez knew what was in my head I wouldburn it, " and refused to listen to the cautionary measures Selimadvised preliminary to the attack. The ascetic and the fanatic waswritten in his face. Returning to Cettinje, I found Osman therea prisoner on parole, and at my intercession he was permitted toaccompany me to Ragusa, where I returned after a few days, life inMontenegro being intolerably dull except during the fighting. 

The next movement on the part of the Turks, which was expected to beone by Dervish Pasha, from the base of Podgoritza towards Cettinje, called me into the field again. We took position along the heights ofKoumani, on the verge of the great table-land which intervenes betweenRieka and Danilograd, and from which we could see the Turkish campsspread out on the plain below us; and if the Turks had but known wherewe were, they might have thrown their shells from the blockhouses inthe plain into our camp. There was no attack for the moment, and thescouts of the Montenegrins used to amuse themselves by arousing theTurkish camps in the night or by stealing the horses and mulesfrom the guards set over them. A band of seven stole, during thissuspension of operations, forty horses and brought them into thecamp, and one, more cunning and light-footed than the rest, stolethe pasha's favorite horse from the tent where he was guarded by twosoldiers sleeping at the entrance, and brought him to the Prince atKoumani. He had to take the precaution of wrapping the creature'shoofs in rags before bringing him out of the tent. When the object wasto stir the Turks out of their rest, a half-dozen men would crawl upto the stone wall which they invariably threw up around the camp, andlay their rifles on it, for there was never a sentry set, and firerapidly into the tents as many shots as they could before rousing thecamp, and then scatter and run. The whole battalion would turn out andcontinue firing in every direction over the country for half an hour, while the artillery, as soon as the guns could be manned, followed theexample, and almost every night we were roused from our sleep by thebooming of the guns. 

The early collapse of the Servian defense led, after somenegotiations, to a truce, and diplomacy took up the matter, and inSeptember I went home again. The "Times" correspondence had given theMontenegrin question serious importance in England, and duringthe winter I had several opportunities to discuss it with men ofinfluence, amongst whom were Gladstone and the Marquis of Bath, whoinvited me to pass some days at Longleat to inform him more completelyon it. During my last stay in Montenegro I had been informed by MissIrby--one of the women who distinguish their English race by theirangelic charity and works for humanity, and who, being engaged inbenevolent work in Bosnia, became one of my firm allies--that reportshad been put in circulation in London against my probity and thetrustworthiness of my correspondence, imputing to me indeed a conductwhich would have excluded me from honorable society. This was thework of the pro-Turkish party, enraged by the sympathy evoked by mycorrespondence on behalf of the Montenegrins, and Sir Henry Elliotthad made himself the mouthpiece of it. Mr. Gladstone, havingbecome warmly interested in the little mountain principality by mycorrespondence, had taken its case up in a strong review article, andhad persuaded Tennyson to devote a sonnet to it. He was, as he himselfinformed me, warned by Sir Henry Elliott not to trust to my letters orto employ them as authority for his work, for Sir Henry said thatI was considered in the Levant, where I was well known, to be aninfamous and untrustworthy character. Mr. Gladstone, therefore, thoughhe used my facts, referred them to the authority of a second-handversion. Fortunately for me and my work, Professor Freeman had heardthe reports in question, and knowing me personally, and taking thepassionate interest he did in the war against the Turks, appliedhimself to the investigation of the tales, and satisfied himselfand Gladstone that they were simple libels, without a shadow offoundation, and even had never been heard of until they werepromulgated in London. They were the coinage of political passion. 

Gladstone sent me word through Freeman that he wished me to call onhim to receive personally his apologies for having believed and beeninfluenced by them, and I went to see him as he requested for thatpurpose. He told me at the same time that though he did not usuallyread the "Times, " he had taken it to read my letters. He asked me manyquestions about the principality, showing his great interest, as wellas his political acumen, and amongst the questions was one which, atthe time, gave me great thought, and still retains its significance. It was, "Have the Montenegrins any institutions on which a nationalfuture can be built?" He was desirous of knowing if Montenegro couldbe made the nucleus of a great south Slavonic organization. I wasunable to give him any assurance of the existence of anything beyondthe primitive and patriarchal state which fitted its present position, in which a personal government by a wise prince is sufficient to reachall the needs of the population. And to-day I am of the opinion that agreatly enlarged Montenegro would run the danger of becoming a littleRussia, in which the best ruler would be lost in the intricacies ofthe intrigues and personal ambitions that facilitate corruption andinjustice, and where the worst ruler might easily become a curse toall his neighbors. Gladstone's good-will had its issue later in theenforced restitution to Montenegro of the district of Antivari andDulcigno, which the Montenegrin army had taken, but evacuated, pendingthe disposition of the congress which after S. Stefano regulated thetreaty of peace. 

Lord Bath, beside the political question, was interested in thereligious situation of the principality, which has maintained itsnational existence and character through its form of ecclesiasticalorganization, that of the Orthodox faith. He had sent me on twooccasions considerable sums of money for the wounded and the familiesof the killed in the war, and always took a vivid interest in itsfortunes. He repeated to me a conversation he had had at Longleat withBeaconsfield, in which he had asked the minister what interest Englandhad in Montenegro that induced the government to give it aid andcountenance, as it did after a certain stage in the war. Beaconsfieldhad replied that "England had no interest whatever in Montenegro, butthat the letters in the 'Times' had created such an enthusiasm forthe principality that the government had been obliged to take it intoaccount. " The Prince was fully informed on this score, and he andall his people recognized the debt they owed the "Times, " and, as anexception to all my political experience, they have shown themselves agrateful people, and Prince as well as people have always showntheir gratitude in all ways that I could permit. The Greeks almostunanimously became hostile to me when I became the advocate of aSlavonic emancipation, and of the Hellenic friends I made while inCrete, Tricoupi alone of men of rank remained my personal friend afterthe Montenegrin campaigns. 

Amongst the Russian fellow campaigners there were several with whomI contracted friendships which endure, chief among them beingWassiltchikoff, the head of the Red Cross staff, who was alsodispenser of the bountiful contributions of the Russian committees forthe wounded and the families of the killed. I must confess a strongliking for the Russian individual, and I have hardly known a Russianwhom I did not take to, in spite of a looseness in matters of veracityin which they are so unlike the Anglo-Saxon in general. I think thatthe time is coming when the evolution of the Russian character willmake the race the dominant one in Europe; and that, when the vicesinherent in a people governed despotically have been outgrown, theywill develop a magnificent civilization, which, in poetry, in music, and in art, even, may distance the West of to-day. But in the crudeand maleficent despotic form of government which now obtains, theyare likely to menace for a long time the well-being of the world. The struggle between the German and the Slav, however long it may bepostponed, is inevitable, and the defeat of the German secures theRussian domination of Europe. Napoleon's alternative, "Cossack orRepublican, " is substantially prophetic, though the terms are moreprobably "Despotic or Constitutional. " I have no animosity towardRussia, but any advance of her influence in the Balkans seems to meto be a battle gained by her in this conflict. Established atConstantinople, her next stage would be Trieste; and the ultimateRussification of all the little Slavonic nationalities of the Balkans, of which she is now the champion, becomes inevitable. The onlysafeguard against this is the maintenance of Austria as the suzerainpower in the peninsula. 

But, for the personal Russian, as I have said, I have always had athorough liking, and all through the Montenegrin campaigns I heldthose who were there as warm friends. The official Russians were not, however, popular in Montenegro, the people possessing an unusualdegree of independence, and the Russians attaching more importance totheir aid and coöperation than the circumstances made it politic toshow; and Jonine, who became minister-resident at Cettinje, was, perhaps, the most unpopular foreigner there, while Monson, who becameEnglish agent there, was, both with prince and public, the mostpopular. The entry into the alliance with Russia made littledifference in the sentiments of the people, and even the Princeresisted, in an extraordinary and even impolitic degree, the Russiansuggestions in the conduct of the war. 

CHAPTER XXXI

RUSSIAN INTERVENTION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1877

With the return of spring I resumed my position, and when I arrived atCettinje, in the beginning of April, the situation was one which madeit politic for the Sultan, had he known his pressing interests, toyield to the conditions on which peace could have been preserved. Montenegro held a position stronger than that of the year before, andthe Prince, under diplomatic pressure, withdrew the conditions whichhe had originally insisted on, except two, viz. , the recognition ofthe independence of the Kutchi and the repatriation of the refugeesfrom Herzegovina, with guarantees for their tranquillity. This latterwas a _sine qua non_ of the restoration of Montenegro to its originalcondition, for the principality was supporting on the slender basis ofits always insufficient means a population almost equal to its own, and was already in a state approaching famine. Russia was sendingshiploads of corn, and English charity was, as it always is, large, but the retention of the refugees permanently was impossible, evenwith foreign aid. They were destitute not merely of homes but ofearthly goods, to an extent that made them as helpless as children, for there was no more work to be done in the principality than thewomen were accustomed to do in war time. 

Russia declared war on the 25th of April, and the English agent leftfour days later, warmly saluted by the Prince, who had found in him atrue and disinterested friend. Jonine's animosity towards Monson wasintense, and as the former, as Russian plenipotentiary, consideredhimself entitled to give direction to the diplomacy of Cettinje, hewas furious over the evident favor with which Monson was regarded bythe Prince, who often followed his advice. It was a sore point withthe Montenegrins, from the Prince down, that Jonine was so officiousin his intervention even in military advice, where he had not theleast competence; and in general the Montenegrins resented thedictation of the Russian staff, even where it had every reason to urgeits own views of the operations. On the occasion of the next birthdayof the Czar, which was as usual celebrated in Montenegro by adiplomatic and official dinner, the Prince refused to come to thetable, sending Duby to preside. Jonine was extremely unpopular withPrince and people, owing to his dictatorial ways. The Austrianrepresentative had an opening to great influence which he might haveseized if he had been a man of tact, but he was ostentatiously hostileto the Prince and the Montenegrin cause. Monson, on the other hand, and Greene, the English consul at Scutari, exerted their influence inevery way for the principality, and but for them the supplies of grainfrom Russia, which had been sent on during the armistice and had beenmaliciously delayed by the authorities at Scutari as they came bywater through the Boyana, would probably have been stopped at thecritical moment by the outbreak of hostilities. 

The news of the declaration of war by Russia produced immenseenthusiasm in the principality, and the people now felt that they werein a position to fight out with the Turks the quarrel of four hundredyears. With the Prince and his staff, I went to the new headquartersat Orealuk, where he had a little villa nearly midway between the passto the plain of Niksich and Podgoritza. The southern frontier was heldby the division of "Bozo" (Bozidar) Petrovich on the west of the Zeta, and on the east by that of the minister of war, Plamenaz, posted onthe heights over Spuz. They were opposed by Ali Saib Pasha and two orthree subordinate generals. On the north, at Krstaz, was Vucotich, thefather-in-law of the Prince, a brave man, but neither a good generalnor a good administrator, and to his incompetence as strategist theMontenegrins were indebted for the egregious failure of the northerndefense. This failure at one moment menaced the total collapse ofthe Montenegrin campaign, from which the ability of Bozo saved it. Suleiman Pasha, later distinguished by his Bulgarian campaign, had replaced Mukhtar, and had spent three months in drilling anddisciplining his troops for the Montenegrin method of fighting. Theterrible passes of the Duga offered ideal positions for a defense bysuch a force as the Montenegrin, --brave, good shots, and absolutelyobedient to orders; and the best military advice on our sidepronounced them impregnable if properly defended. 

So the Prince went to Ostrog, and the northern army took positionon the plain of Niksich, the advance posts being connected withheadquarters at Ostrog by telegraph, and I took up my quarters withthe Prince in the convent. With great ability, Suleiman out-manoeuvredVucotich in the Duga, and debouched in the plain near Niksich beforethe Montenegrin army could reach Plamnitza, where the valley of theZeta and our position at Ostrog were to be defended, and if Suleimanhad pushed on without stopping to recruit he might have taken usall in our quarters. The mendacious dispatches of victory from theMontenegrin commander gave us to believe that the Turks were kept atbay, until we found that they were actually in Niksich, and there wasnot a single battalion to serve as bodyguard to the Prince at Ostrog. Simultaneously with the attack on Duga, the army of Ali Saib attackedon the south; but, defeated most disastrously two days in succession, was obliged to relinquish the effort to meet Suleiman in Danilograd, where, if united, they would have held the principality by the throat. 

The reports of the fight from Bozo sent me down to get the details ofthe victory, of which he had given me by telegraph a summary account, and I arrived at his headquarters at Plana, overlooking the Turkishmovements, late that afternoon, accepting an invitation to pass thenight and see the operations of the next day. Until I arrived at hiscamp Bozo had received no information of the passage of the Duga, norof the relief of Niksich; but I had not been with him two hours beforewe saw the smoke arising from the villages on the northern slopes ofthe heights that commanded the head of the valley of the Zeta, whichconnects the plains of Niksich and Podgoritza and divides Montenegrointo two provinces, anciently two principalities, --the Berdas and theCzernagora or Black Mountain. This conflagration showed that Suleimanhad crowned the heights, and would have no more difficulty indescending through the valley to Danilograd. Suleiman's campaign wasplanned on the idea of a triple attack on the heart of Montenegro, by himself from Krstaz, Ali Saib from Spuz, and Mehemet Ali, my oldfriend in Crete, from Kolashin via the upper Moratsha, the threearmies to meet at Danilograd. Ali Saib and Mehemet Ali weredisastrously defeated, though before I left Plana in the morning athird attack from Spuz was begun, and fought out under my eyes while Iwaited, the Turks being driven back again. 

I started for a leisurely ride back to Ostrog, and half way there meta fugitive who told me that the Turks were at the convent, and thePrince retreating on the western side of the valley. Another halfhour and I should have been in the hands of the irregulars, who wereskirmishing and burning, killing and plundering, as they followed theeastern side, the two armies being hotly engaged in the forests alongthe crest of the mountains above us around Ostrog. I retrograded toPlana, and thence, by the urgent counsels of Bozo, to Cettinje, as theposition was critical, and the campaign might take an unexpected turnand make my escape impossible. 

The army of Suleiman took ten days of fighting to cover the distance Ihad made in three hours' leisurely ride, and reached the plain of Spuzso exhausted and decimated that Suleiman had to reorganize it beforehe could make another move. He had narrowly escaped a great disaster, possibly the surrender of his whole army, only by the incompetence ofthe Montenegrin commander. He had abandoned all his communicationswith Niksich, like Sherman at Atlanta in the American war, and had todepend on what he carried with him, for the country offered nothing. Vucotich, instead of intrenching himself with his main force in thewoods in front of Suleiman, adopted the tactics of opening to let himpass, and then attacking him in the rear, though he was strong enoughto have stopped him and starved him into surrender. As it was he lost10, 000 men in the passage of the Bjelopawlitze. At this moment theEnglish consul at Scutari, Mr. Greene, came to Cettinje and visitedthe camp of Suleiman, in which visit I wished to imitate him, but hewarned me that it would be probably a fatal call, as I would not havebeen allowed to return. Mr. Greene gave me Suleiman's account of thefighting in the Duga, in which the Turkish general described theMontenegrin attacks as displaying a courage he had never beforewitnessed. They charged the solid Turkish squares, and, grappling thesoldiers, attempted to drag them from the ranks. The Montenegrin losswas 800 killed. The ammunition was bad, and the mountaineers oftenthrew their rifles away and attacked with the cold steel. The averageadvance of the Turks was about a mile a day. 

So we waited for the next news from Suleiman with an anxiety inCettinje not known for a generation. It was supposed that Suleimanwould repeat the campaign of Omar Pasha, moving on Cettinje by Rieka, and all the fighting men were called out and the villages on that sideevacuated. In this state of painful expectation the news arrived ofthe passage of the Danube by the Russian army, and the recall ofSuleiman and his army for the defense of the principalities. Therelief in Cettinje rose to jubilation, and we all returned to ourhabitual life. 

The Prince, freed from this incubus, prepared for the siege of Niksichin good earnest, and, with the diplomatic representatives and theRussian staff, we returned and pitched our camp in the plain, bythe side of a cold spring (Studenitzi), which supplied us with anabundance of water, but within cannon shot of the fortress, the shellsfrom which were going over us continually, striking in the plain afew hundred yards beyond us and bursting harmlessly. If the Turks hadunderstood howitzer practice they could have dropped their shellsamongst us without fail. The horses could not graze, and the women whocame with their husbands' rations could not reach us without passingwithin gunshot of the outlying trenches of the Turks, and I have seena file of them come in, each with a huge loaf of bread on her head, and the bullets from the trenches flying around them, but not onehastening her step or paying the least attention to the danger. Thisis the habit of the Montenegrin woman, who would consider herselfdisgraced by a display of fear, no matter what the danger. I have seenthem go down to the trenches where their husbands were lying for daystogether, during which time the wives brought the rations every fivedays, and they always took the opportunity to discuss the affairsof the household deliberately, though under fire, and walk away asunconcernedly. 

But our quarters at Studenitzi were not to the taste of the attachéswho took no part in the fighting, and we broke camp, and moved off tothe edge of the plain, all the time under the fire of the artillery ofthe fortress. The Montenegrin artillery was brought up, and one by onethe little forts which studded the margin of the broad expanse weretaken. The first attacked held out till the shells penetrated its thinwalls, and then surrendered unconditionally. The garrison, twenty ormore Albanian nizams, were brought to the headquarters, and we allturned out to see them. Bagged, half famished, and frightened theywere, and, through an Albanian friend who interpreted for me, Ioffered them coffee. They looked at me with a surprise in their eyeslike that of a wild deer taken in a trap, and resigned to its fate, knowing that escape was impossible; and when they had drunk the coffeethey asked if we were going to decapitate them now. When I assuredthem that there was no more question of their decapitation than ofmine, and that they were perfectly safe, they broke into a discordantjubilation like that of a children's school let loose; life hadnothing more to give them. They had no desire to be sent back to theirbattalions, and they stayed with us, drawing the pay and rations theyshould have had, and rarely got, when under their own flag. 

The scene our camp presented was one to be found probably underno other sky than that which spread over us in the highlands ofMontenegro. The tents of the Prince, the chiefs, and the attachéswere pitched in a circle, in the centre of which at night was a hugecamp-fire, round which we sat and listened to stories or discussions, or to the Servian epics sung by the Prince's bard, to theaccompaniment of the _guzla_, to which the assembly listened in asilence made impressive by the tears of the hardened old warriors, most of whom knew the pathetic record by heart, and never ceased towarm with patriotic pride at the legends of the heroic defense, therout of Kossovo, and the fall of the great empire, of which they werethe only representatives who had never yielded to the rule of theTurk. Substitute for the rocky ridge which formed the background ofthe scene the Dardanelles, and the fleet drawn up on the shore beforeTroy, and you have a parallel such as no other country in our timecould give. Both armies retired to their tents at nightfall, and nosentries or outposts were placed on either side at night; and now andthen a long-range skirmish went on, or a Montenegrin brave, tiredof the monotony of such a war, would go out between the lines andchallenge any Mussulman to come out and try his prowess with aChristian. One pope, Milo, a hero of the earlier war, rode up and downbefore the Turkish outposts, repeating every day his challenge, and atlast the Turks hid a squad of sharpshooters where he used to ride, andbrought him down with a treacherous volley, then cut off his head andsent it in to the Prince. 

Our guns were not heavy enough to cope with those of the fortress, andso we passed the time shelling the redoubts thrown up on the littlehillocks around the town, alternating these operations with anoccasional assault of one of the nearest of them when the men gotimpatient for some active movement. Meanwhile we learned that theRussian government was sending us four heavier guns, sixteen andthirty-two bronze rifled breech-loaders, the heaviest we had beingten-pound muzzle-loaders against a battery of field guns, Krupp steel, breech-loading twelve-pounders. The Russian guns were landed on theDalmatian coast below Budua and carried across the narrow strip ofAustrian territory which separated Montenegro from the sea, betweentwo lines of Austrian troops, lest some indiscreet traveler shouldreveal the violation of neutrality, and were brought to Niksich, aboutforty miles, on the shoulders of a detachment of Montenegrins over aroadless mountain country, no other conveyance being possible. 

CHAPTER XXXII

A JOURNEY INTO THE BERDAS

Pending the arrival of the guns, I explored the more remote and byno traveler hitherto visited section of the Berdas, charged by theRussian Red Cross and the English committees with the distribution ofa considerable sum of gold amongst the wounded and families of thekilled in that section. With a single _perianik_ (one of the Prince'sbodyguard) and my horse boy, who served as interpreter, I set out forthe great plains of the northeastern provinces, then menaced by aninvasion of a strong division from Kolashin, intended to effect adiversion for the relief of Niksich. Climbing the heights which make arim like the wall of a crater round the plain of Niksich, I reacheda table-land _(planina)_ which rolls away to the frontier. I made myfirst halt at the monastery of Zupa, situated in a lovely valley wherethe fertility of the land supports a considerable population, andwhere the Russians had established a hospital. Nothing could exceedthe kindness and humanity of those Russian surgeons. There was onepoor patient who had received a ball in the mouth, which lodged in theneck and caused a suppuration, involving an artery, which burst intothe wound. The carotid was tied, but the operation failed to stopthe hemorrhage, and I found the surgeons relieving each other everyquarter of an hour in holding a pledget of lint on the wound, ina determined effort to save the man's life if it were physicallypossible. The hospital was admirably conducted. 

In this beautiful valley I waited several days, wandering amongstthe hills. There were flocks of wild pigeons and other game in thevicinity, and one morning of summer weather I took my gun and strolledout alone, having no apprehension of personal danger where there wasno fighting population. Approaching a village curiously intent, Idiscovered an old woman, who, on seeing this unexplained stranger, armed, and with no company of her kin, set up a terrible hullabaloo, shouting, "The Turks! The Turks!" and calling the boys to the defense, and in a jiffy the whole village was up in alarm. I ran as fast as Icould in the direction of the monastery, conscious that every boy inthe valley had some old pistol, and would not even ask the questions Icould not answer before immolating me in the defense of his village. Life is of no account in such circumstances, and the explanation wouldhave been made too late to do me any good, but I never walked outagain without my interpreter while in that country. 

The object of my excursion was the ancient convent of Dobrilovina, then the advanced post towards Kolashin, the Turkish station in OldServia, and the point from which all invasions from the east enteredMontenegro; and the ride was by far the most interesting of all that Imade in the two principalities. From the valley of Zupa we rose on aplateau known as the Lola Planina, on which the watershed is tothe north and east and into the Danube. We rode through Drobniak aprovince the right to which was still theoretically disputed betweenTurk and Christian, the fruition of peace belonging to the latter;that of war to the former, for it always fights with Montenegro, andis periodically ravaged by the Turks. We were on the watershed betweenthe Adriatic and the Euxine, and the brooks were tributary to theDanube through the Tara. The land is an immense upland, rollingslightly, and the finest grass land I ever saw; it is an immenseprairie, with the horizon unbroken, except by the picturesque peakof Dormitor at the north, the summit peak of the mountains of upperHerzegovina, and the centre of the glacial system of the lands betweenthe Adriatic and the great Rascian valley which divides Servia and thelower Danube from Montenegro. The flora was entirely new to me. I rodethrough a thicket of marguerites so tall that the flowers came up tomy face, while the grass came up to my horse's belly. This is a greathayfield, and the people come from far to cut and store the hay forthe winter, when they harness the stacks and drag them bodily to theirvillages on the snow, which sometimes falls, they told me, to thedepth of fifteen or more feet. To the east stretched the rollingprairie without a house or a village to the Signavina (desolate land)Planina, solitary as the Sahara, for no man would build where aTurkish raid on this disputed land might sweep him and his into onedestruction. 

That there had been a great population once on these plains wasevident from ancient cemeteries with elaborate monuments of an earlybut unknown people, of whom they are the only remains. The tombs wererudely worked and decorated in prehistoric manner with devices of waror the chase; one device, which I copied, being of an archer shootinga wild goat, another of a warrior with a long broadsword and largesquare shield. On some tombs were a crescent and star, the emblem ofConstantinople; on a few a cross; but there was no attempt at a letteror other sign of language. The entire absence of any ruins within thedistance of our journeys (and by the report of the natives there werenone in the country round about) made the presence of these cemeteriesan archaeological problem to which I obtained no clue until some timelater, on the surrender of Niksich. We then discovered that alarge part of the town was formed of houses--huts would be morecorrect--constructed on sledges, huge runners of timber, into whichhad been driven stakes, forming the frame of the house. The stakeswere filled in with willow branches, and the walls were completedwith mud, the whole being roofed with thatch. The forward end of therunners was perforated for a bar, to which oxen could be attached, andthe house was evidently to be drawn from place to place, as the herdsand flocks found food. Of this nature had probably been the towns orvillages to which the cemeteries belonged, and their existence stillon the plain of Niksich, where they must have been built without anypossibility of removal beyond the limits of the plain (which is onlyabout ten miles in its greatest extent, and bounded by abrupt hills), was a curious evidence of the intensely conservative character of thepopulation which had established itself there at a remote epoch. 

The sledge houses at Niksich had never been moved, nor would therehave been any object in moving them, for the remotest part of theplain was to be reached in a long hour's walk, and the rocky settingof its grassy luxuriance, rising into higher land all round, by steepridges, would have shown the builders that where the house was built, there it would stand. On these great planinas there might have been arange far greater, but the presence of the cemeteries, which must havebeen the result of a considerable duration of residence, proved thatthe planinas now deserted, save for the summer haymakers, had oncebeen held by a considerable population. I desired to open one of thegraves, but the superstition of the people, whom no inducement couldprevail on to meddle with the dead, made it impossible to find workersto aid me. I can only conjecture, therefore, from the emblems on thetombs and the rudeness of the reliefs, that they must date from earlyChristian times, probably the so-called Gallic (really Slavonic)invasions prior to Diocletian; and two or three huge and elaborateroadside crosses, cut from single stones and minutely decorated inrelief, found nearer Cettinje, added to the conjectural evidence, forthe origin of these was equally unknown to the present inhabitants. We passed caves known immemorially as places of refuge and admirablyplaced and prepared for defense. There is a great and untouched fieldthere for prehistoric research. 

We stopped to pass the night at Shawnik, a village in one of the mostpicturesque ravines I ever saw. There runs the Bukovitza, a tributaryof the Drina, a wild and bold trout stream, abounding also ingrayling, the trout being unaccustomed to the fly, as they are inmost of the streams hereabout. Shawnik lies in the gate to the opencountry, the gateposts being two huge bastions of rock from which afew riflemen could defy an army until they found a way around throughthe rough country of Voinik, the chain which lay between us andNiksich. I slept at the house of an Albanian tailor (all the tailorsin Montenegro and the Berdas are Albanians) and was made comfortable. We found the voivode of the province, Peiovich, at Aluga, with hisheadquarters in the schoolhouse, and keeping a lookout for the Turks, who menaced an invasion from Kolashin, a band of them having justattempted to pass the Tara, which bounds the plain on the north, butbeing driven back with loss. I found Aluga a noble subalpine country, a rolling plateau with here and there a little lake; to the northwestthe grand mass of Dormitor, and to the northeast the range of thehighlands which border the valleys of Old Servia, while to the eastand south the horizon was like that of the sea, an undulating plainrolling far away out of the range of vision. Scattered houses dottedthe plain of Aluga, and the children came to stare, and brought us, with the shyness of wild deer, little baskets of strawberries, whichin some places in the fir forests almost reddened the ground, and, having pushed the offerings in at the door, ran like wild creatures, as if to escape being noticed. Huge haystacks dotted the plain, andthe population seemed prosperous. We pushed on to the frontier post atDobrilovina through glades of fir-trees with pasture intervening, asthe soil was rocky or fertile, and reached the margin of the Tara latein the afternoon, a good day's ride from Aluga. 

The Tara has cut itself a cañon like those of the Yellowstone, andon a little space of alluvial land at the bottom lies the convent, a building of the Servian Empire, curiously spared by the Turkishinvasions. We descended 2500 feet, measured by my aneroid, to theflat, where the monks made us most welcome. We walked along the river, a rapid and shallow stream filled with trout, which refused to takeany lure I could show them, --and the monks said that they ate only thecrayfish which abounded in the river. 

We went to sleep, to be awakened at midnight by the scouts who camein to tell us that the Turks were out from Kolashin, and that somethousands of Albanians of the Rascian country were raiding in advance, and had already thrown their left far beyond us. Had they known wewere there, we might have been taken in a trap from which only fleetfugitives would have escaped. With the dawn we were in our saddlesagain, and, by the urgent advice of Peiovich, I took the back track, while the battalion threw itself across the country to skirmish, andretard the advance of the Turks while reinforcements could be broughtup. "Ride hard, " said the voivode, "and keep ahead of the Albanians, for when it comes to fighting we shall probably have to disperse andevery man provide for himself, and you do not know the country. Tellthe Prince to hurry up reinforcements. " I lunched in the schoolhouseof Aluga, and pushed on for Bukowitza and Shawnik, where the invasionwould be stopped with certainty. Half way to Bukowitza there burst onus a terrific thunderstorm, with torrents of rain. One bolt struck sonear us that the concussion knocked my _perianik_ down, and my horsejumped up on all fours as I never saw a horse do before, but neitherwas touched by the lightning, and we arrived at the first house ofBukowitza drenched and tired, having knocked the two days' march intoone. 

The owner of the house at which we asked for shelter said: "What Ihave you are welcome to, but I have only two rooms, that in which thefamily sleeps, and the kitchen. You are welcome to the bedroom, butI fear there are too many fleas for you to sleep, and you had betterstay in the kitchen. " I accepted the kitchen, and after a supper ofhot maize bread and trout fresh caught from the nearest brook, thewhole flooded with cream, I spread my cork mattress on a long benchwhich served as chairs for the household, and, covering myself withmy waterproof, the only bedding attainable, I went to sleep. I wasawakened by the sound of something falling on the waterproof, whichI took to be bits of plaster from overhead, but, as it persisted, Istruck a light and discovered that it was caused by bugs which, notfinding a direct way to me from their nests in the wall, had climbedup and dropped from the ceiling down on me. What with the insectsand the chance of being aroused at dawn by an attack of the raidingAlbanians, I did not sleep again, and was up at dawn preparing tocontinue the journey to Shawnik, where alone we could count on beingsafe from the swarms of bashi-bazouks, whose movements we couldalready follow in the air by the smoke ascending from house andhaystack over the plains we had traversed the day before. 

The day had broken fine, and after stopping long enough to make asketch of the house where I had passed the night, destined like allothers in the open country to be burned in the course of the day, Ipushed on to the fastness of Shawnik. The advance of the Turks waspractically unopposed, for there was only a battalion of Montenegrinsagainst thousands of irregulars and a strong division of regulars, andthe Prince, never much troubled about the odds except where he waspersonally responsible, had not sent a man of the reinforcements whichPeiovich had urgently begged for by courier after courier, so he fellback skirmishing until Socica from Piva joined him, when he made astand. 

For several days the two armies watched each other, each waiting forthe offensive of the other, until one morning found the plain coveredwith a fog so dense that the combatants could not see each other onehundred yards away, when the Montenegrins made an attack so furiousthat the Turks retreated and took refuge across the Tara and withdrewto Kolashin, abandoning the movement and the attempt to relieveNiksich. But the beautiful schoolhouse at Aluga and all the houses andchurches on the planina and at Bukowitza, the haystacks which had sopicturesquely dotted the plain, and which were to have furnished thewinter subsistence of all the flocks of the region, were ashes. 

The night at Shawnik had proved as sleepless from fleas as that ofBukowitza from bugs, and, what with the fatigue of the race againsttime and the lack of any sleep for forty-eight hours, the next dayfound me laboring under an attack of illness which left me absolutelyhelpless, with a raging headache and cholera morbus. I dragged myselfout into the sun and ordered my horse boy to bring me a bucket ofwater as hot as I could bear my feet in, and then made him keep ithot with ashes until my feet were almost parboiled, when the headachegradually subsided, leaving me a wilted, helpless being, hardly ableto sit in the saddle. I waited another day to recruit, and hoping tohear from Peiovich the result of the invasion; but, hearing that thedeadlock might last for days, I returned to Niksich and found thesiege still going on as if it were the work of the generation. 

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE TAKING OF NIKSICH

To the Prince the siege of Niksich was like a game of chess played bycable, a move a day. But even this brought progress, and, when we hadtaken the outlying blockhouses, one by one, and there remained onlythe citadel, a flimsy fortress, mainly, I should judge, the work ofthe Servian kings, all that remained to accomplish was the bombardmentof its walls, which became a sort of spectacle, to which we went dayafter day to watch the effect of the fire, as we should have done witha game of skittles. I climbed up on the top of a neighboring mountain, and, with my field-glass, inspected the town. Women went and came withtheir water-pitchers on their heads, moving in serene tranquillity, without quickening a step, and the life of the place seemed absolutelyundisturbed by the danger, as if shells did not burst. Now and thenone of the houses caught fire and varied the show; the Turkish returnfire was mainly directed at the batteries where the great Russian gunswere posted, and the Montenegrins used to sit on the rocks around, utterly heedless of the Turkish fire, despising cover. Finally a shellfell and exploded in the midst of a group of men, and, for the time, cover was made compulsory by order of the Prince. But the rank andfile grew impatient, and demanded an attack with such insistence thatthe Prince was obliged to move. There were two steep ridges to thewest of the city, crowned by strong stone breastworks and held byconsiderable detachments of regulars, being positions of supremeimportance, as they commanded the redoubts on that side from adistance of 300 to 500 yards. The Prince gave the assault of one toa battalion of Montenegrins, and the other to the Herzegovinianauxiliaries. 

There was in our camp a young German officer who had been under ashadow, and had been sent away to retrieve his reputation for courage. He came to Montenegro to earn a decoration, and begged the Prince tolet him go with the Montenegrin battalion. At the foot of each ridgewas an outwork which had first to be taken by assault, from across theopen, and which was taken in the early twilight, the Turks seekingrefuge in the redoubt above. The Montenegrin force reversed the worksthey had taken, and a desultory rifle fire went on till it was toodark to see the sights of the rifles. We, the spectators, wereassigned posts to see the spectacle as at the theatre, and went tothem just after sundown. The straggling fire of the early twilightstopped, and there was an unbroken silence and immobility which lastedperhaps twenty minutes, and until everything had become vague andindefinable in the deepening twilight, when we heard the signal, givenby a trumpet call, and instantly the steep sides of the two ridgeswere crawling with gray shadows, and a terrific fire burst out fromthe redoubts at the top, lasting for hardly ten minutes, when itas suddenly ceased; and then, after a brief pause, the Montenegrintrumpet sounded from the summit of their ridge to tell that the workwas done. We trooped back to our tents and to supper, and presentlycame in our little German friend, unharmed and exultant. His accountwas graphic. The Montenegrins had taken the outwork, working up onhand and knee, crawling and firing from such cover as they could finduntil the Turks broke and escaped to the summit, and the Montenegrinslay close behind the wall they had taken. When the trumpet soundedthey threw their rifles down, drew their sword bayonets, and made arush with the naked steel. The fire broke out from the redoubt above, said our little German, with a roar that was absolutely appalling; itwas as if the sky were woven with whistling missiles, and but for veryshame, seeing the rage of combat in the men around him, he would havelain down in overmastering panic. But no man halted, and the racebetween the two battalions was won by the Montenegrins only by aminute, and they poured over the wall of the redoubts, the Turks whocould escape going out at the rear as their assailants poured in. Whenit comes to this final charge, the Montenegrin always leaves his gunbehind and trusts only to the cold steel. 

The next morning a flag of truce came to ask for terms, and the townsurrendered on condition of the garrison going out with their arms andtheir private property. We went out to see them defile past the Princeand his staff. The poor fellows were in rags, and the bundles theycarried on their backs contained everything they had in the world. Wives and children in numbers followed or preceded, and to ourattempts to show them little kindnesses they shrank from us as if wehad been wolves, the children generally howling with fear when weoffered them a biscuit or a coin. One of our battalions escorted themthrough the narrows of the Duga, and, when they reached the wild andbosky gorge which makes its strongest position, the women stopped in aparalysis of panic, asking if this was the place where they were to bebutchered, so completely had the Turkish authorities impressed on themthe fiction of infallible slaughter for all who fell into the hands ofthe Montenegrins. The Prince gave the inhabitants four days to choosewhether they would stay and become his subjects or take all theirpossessions and go to Albania. The most had decided to stay, when wordwas sent them from Spuz that all who accepted the protection of thePrince would be expelled and have all their property confiscated whenthe Turks returned, and many were frightened into revocation of theirsubmission. Some were as irreconcilable as wolves, and would notendure conversation with us. I found a little fellow, about five orsix, pasturing a lamb in the outskirts of the town, and tried, withthe aid of the interpreter, to enter into conversation with him, butto no effect. He repelled every advance, and, when I offered him apiastre, he refused it with a savage dignity, saying that he had moneyof his own and did not want mine. 

We took an immense booty in provisions, artillery (nineteen guns), tents, and war material, left by Suleiman in the expectation ofreturning after he had made the conquest of Montenegro. Ammunitionthere was none, for the artillery had been supplied with oldmuzzle-loading pistol and other cartridges broken up for the lastweeks of the siege. And so ended the contest of four hundred years. 

The easy terms accorded by the Prince to the garrison of Niksichbrought their compensation a little later, when, the liberatedgarrison being besieged anew in the impregnable fortress of Spizzadominating the road from Dalmatia to Antivari, they gave in without aserious defense, satisfied with the honors of war. It was clear, from the testimony I was able to collect from Turkish deserters andprisoners, that the obstinate defense of the garrisons under siegewas oftener due to the desperation inspired by the assurance of theTurkish authorities themselves, that no quarter would be given tothose who surrendered, than to the bellicose ardor. A captain of theTurkish nizams, who had commanded one of the little fortresses beyondNiksich, and who surrendered to Socica when he knew that his tower wasundermined and would be blown up in a minute if he did not surrender, declined to be released, as he knew that, whatever might happen to hismen, he would be shot for surrendering, and no account taken of thenecessity of saving the life of his men, to say nothing of his own. The method of Socica in attacking those towers, which were of stone, without any artillery, was to construct a wooden tower on wheels, strong enough to resist rifle balls, and which, moved by the meninside, approached the fortress, till actually in contact, when a minewas put under the wall and the garrison was summoned to surrender. 

Our Albanian captain preferred the climate of Cettinje to that ofPodgoritza, and there I made his acquaintance. He had not received apenny of his pay for forty months, and was in rags and shoeless inthe depth of winter, when I knew him. I bought him some shoes andsecond-hand clothes, and interested the Prince in his case, so thatfinally he was given a place on the staff and regular pay. Thegratitude of the poor fellow was embarrassing. He begged me to takehim as a body servant, declaring himself ready to go with me to theworld's end, and I could hardly make him understand that a servantwould be a burden to me which I could not afford. He said to one ofthe Montenegrin officers, "When I say my prayers for myself I alwaysask God to be good to that English gentleman. " As with most of the menof his race whom I have made the acquaintance of, his native facultieswere of a high order. The Albanians are quick, ingenious, andindustrious, and are the best workmen in the finer industrial arts ofthe Balkans, gold and silver workers of remarkable skill, dividingthe blacksmithing with the gypsy, but the best and indeed the onlyarmorers of that world. We had a number of them in the camp atNiksich, refugees from the tribes on our frontier, and I found themmost interesting companions, generally speaking Italian and Serb aswell as their own dialects. Their conservatism is something almostinexplicable. A friend who had campaigned with them told me that whenthey sacked a village their first quest was always for old iron, whichthey valued more than gold and silver, an estimation which can onlybe the heredity of an age when iron was the article of the highestutility, for now it is easy of acquisition everywhere about theircountry. They reckon their ancestry from the mother, and when myCretan cavass, Hadji Houssein, spoke of his home, it was always as his"mother's house. "

Niksich settled under Montenegrin rule, and order established, thePrince moved his headquarters to Bilek, a fortress which commanded theroads from Ragusa to the interior of Herzegovina, and whence he coulddominate all the southern sections of that province, protecting hisfrontier. There was, as usual, no road for wheels, only a roughbridle-path, and the mobility of the Montenegrins under thoseconditions was remarkable. They carried the thirty-two-poundbreech-loaders on fir poles run through the guns and supported on themen's shoulders, faster than our horses could walk, and the artilleryrapidly distanced the staff and _corps diplomatique_, not even a rearguard remaining with us. In company with one of the aides I rode onunder the impression that headquarters were behind us, until we gotlost in the labyrinth of paths running about the forest, and we laydown under a tree to rest and wait for the staff to overtake us. Hereone of the perianiks found us and brought us to the Prince, who hadgone ahead on a blind road, with half a dozen perianiks, two or threesirdars, and the diplomats. He had tried to show his knowledge of thecountry and lost his way; so, coming to a pretty dell which took hisfancy, he ordered a halt and preparations to pass the night, and therewe found him. 

We had no tents; the rendezvous for the night had been at Tupani, several miles from where we were, and the division commanders werewith the men and had no communication with us. We had eaten an earlybreakfast, and had brought no food; the only blankets were those ofthe Prince. The perianiks gathered wood and made a fire, round whichwe gathered, for the night set in sharp, it being the middle ofSeptember in a high mountain country. One of the men had taken theprecaution to put two or three pieces of bread in his haversack beforestarting, and this was divided between us, and I made my supper onthis and some wild plums I found growing there. Later the men went outto forage and found a farmhouse, where they got straw and milk, with alittle sheep's-milk cheese. The proprietress, aroused by the invasion, came down on us in a veritable visitation, furious at our burning herwood. She abused the Prince and all the company in the most insultingterms, and was finally placated only by a liberal compensation forher wood. I spread my bundle of straw under the wild plum tree, and, covered by my ulster, tempted sleep. I dozed until the ants found meout, when, unable to lie quiet under the formication, I got up andpassed hours walking up and down till I was so tired that I almostfell asleep walking; then I lay down again and slept for an hour, butthe cold and the ants awoke me again, and I spent the rest of thenight by the camp-fire. Meanwhile the army collected at Tupani knewnothing of the Prince, and, with the early dawn, patrols were sent offin every direction to beat up the country in search of him. Had theTurks been on the lookout they might have gobbled up the Prince andhis diplomats without difficulty. Beaching the general rendezvous, Idecided that a more active occupation than following the tactics ofthe Prince would suit me better, and I turned my horse's head towardsNiksich again. Another tedious siege like that of Niksich was notto my taste, and I decided to explore the remoter provinces, and ifpossible go to Wassoivich, the only corner of the great Dushanicempire into which the Turk had never penetrated even for a raid, where, under the rugged peaks of the Kutchi Kom, survived the bestrepresentatives of ancient custom and life. 

CHAPTER XXXIV

MORATSHA

Niksich was full of smallpox and fever, and, as there was a greatabundance of tents captured with the city, I took one, with an extrabaggage-horse and his leader, and started for Moratsha. The wide plaininto which we entered after leaving the hills above Niksich was agreat pasture land, mottled as I never saw land before with mushrooms. The abundance was extraordinary, but nothing would induce aMontenegrin to eat one. We halted for our first night on the edge of amagnificent natural meadow, where a shepherd had built his hut and wasfeeding his flocks, and we took advantage of his presence to enjoysome security against the wolves, pitching our tent in a little groveclose to him and picketing our horses between the tent and his hut. Heand his sons were on guard by turns all night, and the howling of thetantalized wolves came clearly to us at times with, at long intervals, the reports of the guns which were fired to keep them at a distance. They were so near at one time that I got up and fired my fowling-pieceout of the tent, and we kept lights burning all night to prevent themfrom attacking our horses. In the course of the night a thunderstormcame up, and, as we had pitched the tent in a hollow to secure freedomfrom stones in our beds, the rain, washed out our tent-pegs, andthe tent came down on us in our sleep. In the morning I sent to theshepherd for a lamb for breakfast for the men, and he sent us what Itook for a full-grown sheep, so large and fat was it, and I sent itback, asking for a lamb. He replied that it was a spring lamb, andthe smallest he had. The price of it was about two shillings, and foranother he offered to dress it for us. 

From there we sent back the tent, and the following night we sleptat Velje Duboko, at the bottom of one of the ravines which make thesurprises of traveling in that country so great. You proceed along arolling plain with no suspicion of the cañon before you, and suddenlyfind yourself on the verge of a cliff, looking down into a valleyhundreds of feet deep. Duboko lay by the river's margin fifteenhundred feet below us, to be reached only by a winding journey of anhour, though the shepherds carried on conversation from cliff to cliffabove. Here a momentary surprise by the Turkish bands has now andthen been possible, but never an occupation of the country. Thepicturesqueness of the valley of the Duboko above the village can berarely surpassed by wild landscape, and the whole section, the centreof which is the stronghold of Moratsha, is of a most interestingcharacter, utterly unlike the Czernagora proper. 

At the convent of Moratsha I found civilization and comfort. Thehegumenos, a Dalmatian by birth, but a patriot of the first quality, and a very militant Christian, made me most welcome. I had some moneyfrom the English and Russian committees to distribute amongst theneedy wounded and the families of the killed, and the gratitude of thenaïve hearts was touching to a degree I never saw in richer countries. But what most surprised them was that some of it came from theEnglish. "Why, English!" exclaimed one old woman, as she started backwhen told that I was English; "they are a kind of Turk. " All the worldthere thought only of the English as the allies of the Turks, but thehospitality they felt, and could show only in trifles, was unbounded. I had brought with me a battle-axe I had found in the stores ofNiksich and taken as my part of the booty, but had not noticed that ithad never been sharpened, so that it was useless for cutting. One ofthe men at the convent took it, and with a common whetstone (for therewas nothing in the nature of a grindstone in the place) brought it torazor edge, --a job which a carpenter alone can appreciate; and, whenI tried to give him something for it, he put his hands behind himand then ran out of sight. A little fellow, not over four years old, stumbled upstairs to my room to bring me an ear of green maize, thegreatest delicacy they know, and another ran to me in the road tooffer me a huge and fine potato he was nursing with pride. The walnutswere just then eatable, and one of the men brought me a quantity inhis closed hands so that I should not see what he had, and, emptyingthem into my hands, ran away with all speed lest I should give himsomething in return. They had been carefully cracked and removed fromthe shells, as the most delicate attention he could show me. 

The convent is an old-time stronghold, but, dominated on three sidesby hills which look down into its quadrangle, it would be untenable torifle fire. It was founded by Stefan Nemanides, son of Bolkan, Princeof the Zeta (a term which comprised all Montenegro and the Berdas), and eldest son of Stefan, Emperor of Servia. The Romanesque church, which occupies the centre of the quadrangle, was built about A. D. 1250, but, having been burnt out by the Turks, it was restored in1400, the walls being uninjured, and it has never been since damaged;and the frescoes in the chapel, which are older than those in thechurch, are dated 1420. There are some in the church painted later bya monk from Mount Athos, but decidedly inferior to those in the littlechapel. 

I was hardly in shelter at the convent when the rains set in, and fornearly two weeks I was weather-bound, for in that wild country, withno roads but the tracks the horses wear in the ground, traveling inthe mud of rainy weather is out of the question. In a lull of actualdownpour we made an excursion to Kolashin, four hours away, passingthrough the scene of the defeat of Mehemet Ali Pasha. The hegumenos, who commanded the half battalion of the monastery, showed me the lineof the fighting, and described the battle, and certainly it was one ofthe most extraordinary battles even in the history of this fightingpeople. 

The Turks came from Kolashin by a road which debouches into the valleyby a steep descent of about five hundred feet, and they had crownedthe heights and planted their battery before the clans could gather, since these had been scattered along a line of thirty or forty miles, uncertain what point would be attacked. Voivode Vucovich, hereditarychief of the Wassoivich, with half a battalion of his own people, waswatching and following the Turks from a distance, and, when he sawthat the movement was intended for the convent, he sent runnersto Peiovich in Drobniak and warned the convent, where was a halfbattalion of local forces. The regulars formed on the ridge, intrenched themselves, and sent the irregulars, Albanians of the tribeof the Mirdites, down to lead the attack. As soon as these were wellentangled in the intricacies of the valley, seeing only the halfbattalion of Moratsha posted in front of them, Vucovich led an attackdown the slope in their rear, getting between them and the regulars, and the Moratshani made a sortie from the convent, which is inclosedby a strong wall, and attacked in front. The Albanians foughtdesperately for a short time, but, attacked on both sides, though byforces much inferior in the aggregate to their own, they finally brokein panic. A large body ran into a ravine, which proved a _cul de sac_, for the end up which they hoped to escape was so precipitous that fewescaped the infuriated Montenegrins following them, who, when thefight was over, counted eleven hundred dead. The rest of the Albanianscontinued their flight to Kolashin, the panic involving the regulars, who insisted on returning, and, in spite of all remonstrances of theofficers, went back. 

The hegumenos, Mitrofan Banovich, whose name deserves record as wellas any I heard of in this land of heroes, introduced to me the captainof the Moratsha battalion, who had taken part in the fight. He hadlost his son in it, and of his four hundred men twenty-five had beenkilled and forty put _hors de combat_ from wounds which disabled themfrom fighting. The Wassoivich had exhausted their ammunition andthe unwounded of the Moratshani were only enough to carry away thewounded; had the Turkish regulars maintained the attack, there couldhave been no further resistance, the way would have been open to takethe Montenegrins about Danilograd in the rear, and Suleiman would havehad a clear course. 

The captain told me of one brave Albanian who had fallen wounded fromhis horse and taken shelter in a crevice of the rocks, and who hadkilled two Montenegrins and wounded a third before he was disposed ofby one of them getting behind him and shooting him through a crevicein the sheltering rocks. The manner of his death and that of thoseof his assailants illustrate the war manners of the Montenegrins socompletely that I was interested in the case more than in other heroicdetails of the fight. The Montenegrin makes a question of _amourpropre_ in attacking his enemies face to face and by preference withthe cold steel. Enemies who fall in the general mêlée by rifle-shothe never considers his "heads;" he claims only those he has killedin hand-to-hand combat. This Albanian was the standard-bearer of hisclan, i. E. The hereditary chieftain, and to kill him in hand-to-handcombat was the ambition of the three who attacked him in succession, the shooting from behind being only a matter of necessity. 

I remembered at that moment a correspondence I had had years beforewith Virchow, on the Pelasgi, and their probable relation with theAlbanians, whom he regarded as the descendants of the Pelasgi; and, thinking of his collection of skulls, I asked the captain if he knewthe spot where the body of the Albanian lay, and if the bones werestill there, and when he assured me that they were where he fell, Ioffered him two florins to bring me the skull, which he did. It was ofa man in the prime of life, with the sutures scarcely closed, and onlytwo teeth lacking, and none unsound, and I sent it on to the greatcraniologist, who replied with warm thanks. The skull, he said, wasthe finest for intellectual development in his collection, and he reada paper on it before the Imperial German Academy. He was so impressedby its character that he was disposed to consider it as an exceptionalskull, and wrote to one of the Austrian officers in Montenegro to askhim to make an effort to send some more, and these, though not, like that of the standard-bearer, of unquestionably pure Albanianstock, --for the aristocracy never intermarry with any other blood thanthat of their class and race, --all possessed the same intellectualcharacteristics, justifying him in placing the Albanian at the head ofthe races of Europe for intellectual capacity. 

We reconnoitred Kolashin, and found it an almost open fortress, whichwas commanded by hills around, and so near that it could be madeuntenable by rifle fire, which could have been poured in from bothsides of the river that ran by it, which, though then a swollentorrent, was under ordinary conditions fordable anywhere. The Turksseemed indisposed to provoke an exchange of shots, and did not troubleus, though we went within easy rifle-shot inspecting the works throughmy field-glass, and, before leaving, took our luncheon in full sightof the garrison, who were working on some trenches intended forprotection from a _coup de main_ from the river. I made a sketchof the fortress, and we withdrew tranquilly. In fact, the Turkishgarrisons, so far as my own experience went, were never disposed tobegin a fight, and if not molested they never annoyed us by firing onus. The poor fellows only wanted to be left alone. They were, whenprisoners, the most amiable people possible, and at one time I sawmany in Cettinje, prisoners taken in the fights about Podgoritza, enjoying the freedom of the place and making themselves useful to thewomen, bringing wood and water, and as inoffensive as children. Manyof them, probably young men without domestic ties, refused to returnwhen the treaty of peace was signed, but, with a docility which was asremarkable as their obedience under the atrocious treatment of theirown government, only asked for their bread and toleration. I have seenin Cettinje, when the men were all on the frontier fighting, Turkishprisoners enough to take possession of the place if they had beendisposed to rise and make a fight with sticks and stones. This was oneof the most touching phases of that curious war, a warfare such as theworld will hardly see again. 

The day after our trip to Kolashin the rain set in again, and wepassed nearly a fortnight more at the convent before the weather brokeand I was able to set out, taking with me a gang of men to make theroads passable for my horse, so much had the rains wrought havoc withthe face of the land. The flooded state of the country and unfordablerivers forbade the trip to Wassoivich, and I was obliged, to my greatregret, to relinquish it and to go back to Cettinje, having lostnearly three weeks in the rain at Moratsha. Returning by a differentroute from that by which I came, I crossed the Duboko at a point muchlower down than that of my first striking it, where it makes the mostmagnificent trout stream I have ever seen. The trout from it feedthe Moratsha and the Lake of Scutari. In the Duboko they are caught, according to the statement of a native of the district, as heavy asforty pounds; and Mr. Green, the English consul at Scutari, told methat they were sometimes caught much larger in the lake. There wereplenty in the Zeta at Niksich and at Danilograd, and I saw onebrought to the Prince's tent one day, during the siege, which weighedtwenty-two pounds, shot by one of the men, for they refused all kindsof bait, and were only taken by shooting or the net; or, horrible torelate, by dynamite, the ruinous effects of which on the population ofthe river the Prince was too easygoing to forbid. I have seen one ofthe spring basins, from which the Zeta takes its rise, carpeted bytiny trout and other fishes, killed by the explosions of dynamite, which rarely killed, but only stunned, the larger fish, of which fewwere retrieved even when stunned or killed. I one day remonstratedindignantly with the Prince for this barbarous butchery, and told himthat if he permitted his men to carry it on his son would reign in afishless country, and he promised to forbid it; but the matter passedfrom his memory in a day. The Duboko was a safe nursery for the fry, for it was such a torrent that dynamite was useless, since it wouldhave been impossible to retrieve a fish if killed. 

Our road lay through the district of Rovtcha, which is considered thepoorest for the agriculturist in all the Berdas. It is very hilly, andthe rock is, where we passed, a rotten slate which the rains and thetorrents cut away rapidly, carrying the alluvium down to the plainsand Lake of Scutari. Digging and bridging, we reached, early in theafternoon, the village of Gornje-Rovtcha, and were then informed thatit would be impossible to reach another habitation that day, and thatthe road passed through an immense forest infested by wolves, in whichwe should be compelled to sleep if we held on. This I had no desire totry, remembering our experience with the shepherds on the first nightout from Niksich. So we passed the hours to the dark in shooting ata mark, and went to bed early. The house which was selected to behonored by my repose, the best in the village, was of one room, fromwhich the animals were excluded, with the usual floor of beaten earth. A huge bedstead of small fir poles, the only important piece offurniture in it, was assigned to me, and the family--all women andchildren--spread their rugs on the ground. After eating a supperbrought from the convent, and some potatoes, the only provision, except a little coarse maize bread which the house afforded, we wentto bed. The bedstead was abundantly provided with straw, but noughtbeside, and the fleas routed me from my first sleep and compelled meto evacuate the premises. I took my mattress and went out where mypony was picketed, and, spreading it in his lee, to break the coldnorth wind fresh from the mountain, I tried to sleep. 

The poor horse had supped miserably; a little barley from the conventand some musty hay furnished by the woman of the house, but which evenin his hunger he refused to eat, left him ill-compensated for a hardday's walk, and he turned his head to me now and then with a coaxingwhinney which was as plain a supplication for something to eat as Icould have made myself, but the only effect of which was to break mydoze as soon as begun, until I lost my patience with him, and gave hima sound box on the ear, when he turned his head from me, and lay downagain. It made my heart ache to be unkind to him, for he was thegentlest and most serviceable friend I had in Montenegro, but I couldget nothing to give him if I had paid a guinea the pound for it, andhe would not let me sleep. The intelligent brute felt what languagecould not tell him, and ceased his complaint, though the blow I gavehim would hardly have killed a gad-fly on his hair; but it sufficed, and gave me more discomfort than him, for I did not cease to reproachmyself for the ungrateful return for his fidelity. But I slept nomore, and watched the stars in their courses till the dawn. 

A glass of milk and a crust of the bread I had brought fromthe convent made my breakfast, and we pushed on to our nextstopping-place, the convent of Piperski Celia. The road lay for thefirst hour through a forest of beeches and firs, the former thefinest, as timber, I ever saw--straight trunks, thirty or forty feetto the first limb; in some places the beech being the exclusive wood, and in others the fir, but all a luxuriant growth. Properly worked, this forest would have made a great revenue for the principality. Before the war it had been leased to a French company, and many treeswere lying in all stages of preparation for rafting down the Moratsha. This was succeeded by a forest entirely of firs, also splendid trees, and then we came into a region which was beyond all my experience orimagination, --a wide and barren waste of rock, gray, glistening inthe now burning sun, and without a trace of vegetation that could berecognized by the casual vision. There was no soil, and apparentlynever had been any, and the silvery-gray of the lichenous limestoneblinded one with its glare in the sunlight. Midway in it we came on anold Roman road, one of the finest pieces of antique engineering I eversaw. In some places it was cut out of the solid rock like a dry canal, the banks being nearly as high as our heads, and the ruts of thechariot wheels were still there to show that the utter barrenness ofthe land had existed the same from ancient time. It was probably thegreat road from Dyrrachium to the upper Danube. 

We reached the convent too late to get to Danilograd that night, considering the condition of the roads, and I asked for shelter forthe night. Here, for the first time in my experience with Orthodoxconvents, lodgings were refused me by the old hegumenos, and Iinstantly ordered the horses to be loaded again, without attempting tosoften his surliness. A few minutes' talk with the captain who wasmy escort showed him that I was a person too much in favor with thePrince to be treated with such derision, and he came to offer me aplace to spread my mattress on a balcony exposed to the south wind andthe rain; then, having begun to relent, he went further, and offeredme a room, which I refused, and finally his own bed; but even that didnot break my inflexible resentment. When he became pathetic in hisrepentance, however, I accepted a balcony whence I could look down onthe fortress of Spuz, within easy range of its sleeping batteries; andthen he offered me a supper, which I accepted, and we made peace. Inthe morning he had become humanized, and he gave me breakfast andshowed me the body of St. Stephen, which is kept here in greatreverence (not the proto-martyr, but a Montenegrin of the same name). The saint lay in state in a magnificent coffin, as if embalmed, and inhis hand was an old and time-yellowed embroidered handkerchief whichlooked as if it might have been there a century or two. Remembering adear friend in the Orthodox church to whom the relics of its saintswere precious, I asked the hegumenos to sell me this handkerchief. Hereplied that he dared not take it, but if I had the courage to do sohe would not prevent me, so I took the relic and put a twenty francpiece in the treasury of the convent, and went my way. 

I found the Prince in his villa at Orealuk, contemplating newmovements in a distant future, and, there being evidently nothing tokeep me there, I decided to go back to Cettinje and await what wasevidently the operation in view, --the movement on Antivari. Mypoor little pony like myself, only half fed for days, was not in acondition for rapid travel, and, though we pushed on in the rain, which began again, as well as we could, when we reached Rieka it wasnearly sunset. Finding no preparation in the little house, our usualshelter there, for any guest, after giving the horse what small rationthe village afforded, I resumed the journey at sunset. The horse hadcome the last few miles very heavily; I had been in the saddle twelveto fourteen hours each of the last two days, and the food I could getfor him was insufficient even for a Herzegovinian mountain pony, sothat it was hard work to get him to a pace above a slow walk as weapproached Rieka; but when we left the place he seemed to realize thathe had a work of necessity before him, and that the light would notsee him through it, and he showed that he understood the case, for heneeded neither spur nor whip to make his best pace over the very roughand difficult road. In spite of his best efforts, the darkness fell onus half way to Cettinje, with rain and a fog which made it impossibleto see the way before me, or even to see the horse's ears. 

There was on that road, on the mountain which frames on that sidethe plain of Cettinje, a passage of the bridle-path which even theMontenegrins, used to it, passed always on foot; a sharp ridge, almostan _arête_ of rock, which carries a path hardly wide enough for twohorses to pass each other on it, and on each side of which the rockfalls away in a steep precipice high enough to leave no hope ofsurvival from a fall down it. If I had dismounted I could not haveseen the path before me; to stop and pass the night there, drenchedand cold as I was, would have been fatal, for we were in the earlycold of autumn in a high country; there was nothing for it but totrust to the horse, and I threw the bridle on his neck and left himto himself. A false step was certain death for us both, but I had nochoice. He picked his way as if he were walking amongst eggs, slowlybut surely, and we descended into the plain of Cettinje at 10 P. M. Without a slip or an attempt on my part to interfere with thediscretion of my pony. If I had possessed even an acre of pasture ora settled home where I could have turned out that good beast for therest of his days, I should never have allowed him to go to anotherowner, for I knew that I owed him my life. 

Of the following campaign, which resulted in the taking of Antivariand Dulcigno, I saw nothing. The jealousy of Jonine had been soexcited by my always forestalling him with the news of the war, thathe persuaded the Prince not to advise me of the movement; so, while Iwas waiting at Cettinje for the promised summons to join the staff, the army moved across the country to Rieka secretly, and the firstwarning we had of the movement was the firing of guns at Antivari. Asthe Prince gave me no further thought, I waited comfortably, "at mineease in mine inn, " for diplomacy to tie the ends of the well-spun outcontroversy. Fighting was practically over and my campaign ended. 

CHAPTER XXXV

THE LEVANT AGAIN

The end of the official war and the hopelessness of seeking toreestablish myself in a literary career in London, as well as thedesire of my wife to try a residence in a climate and surroundingsmore attractive than those of the Isle of Wight--the fact, too, ofbeing without local ties--led to the determination to find a residencefor a time abroad, and the family came to meet me at Turin, _en route_for Corfu, where we decided to pass the winter. If I had hoped toescape political agitation there, I was mistaken. The Greeks had hungfire in joining in the Balkan movement, hoping that the powers wouldinclude them in the arrangements for a final settlement of the Easternquestion. When, in the negotiations which accompanied the conclusionof peace, Greece found that she was ignored, the inflammable publicopinion broke out in a violent demonstration against the treaty ofpeace. When the Russian government had decided to declare war, itproposed to Greece that if a Greek army were sent across the frontiersfor even a fruitless attack on Turkey when that of Russia enteredon the other side, Greece should participate in the benefits of thesettlement. Greece did nothing, and the offer was renewed at a laterperiod, when the war was evidently tending to the complete triumphof Russia, but still there was no action at Athens, and Greece wasconsequently ignored by Russia when the treaty was negotiated. 

Desperate at this delusion of all their hopes, the Greeks demandedthat the invasion of Epirus and Thessaly should be at once undertaken, the semblance of an army corps was formed for the latter destination, and the insurrectionary committees organized (if the word can beapplied to the huddling together of a mass of volunteers withoutorganization) the invasion of Epirus from the coast. A few hundred menof many nations, amongst whom were a number of gallant Italians, fullof Hellenic enthusiasm, were landed at Aghia Saranda, a port oppositeCorfu and in sight of the city, a scant allowance of food andammunition was thrown on shore with them, and the steamer whichbrought them steamed away, leaving them to their fate, which was to bebutchered under the eyes of the spectators at Corfu, looking onwith horror. Only a few of the hapless volunteers escaped under theguidance of one of the Greeks, who knew the country and guided a partythrough the mountains to the Gulf of Corinth, the rest being killedalmost without resistance, no provision for their escape by sea havingbeen thought of. At the other extremity of the frontier the sametactics were successful in raising a brief insurrection aboutVolo, which collapsed after a few days' fighting, during which acorrespondent of the "Times, " Mr. Ogle, was killed by the Turkishtroops. The Greek ministry, in the dilemma of acting or being left outof the settlement, decided that the army to cross the frontier shouldbe commanded by the King in person, but the King so earnestly declinedthe honor put upon him that the plan was abandoned. One of theministers assured me that the King with tears in his eyes begged to beexcused from going. He had never been popular in the country, and thisfailure to realize a step in the Panhellenic policy made him forthe time the object of all the popular indignation. But he probablyrealized that nothing was ready for such a movement and that it wascertain to end in disaster. 

The real cause of failure was in the general indifference to allpreparation, in which the government was supported by the nation. Theoverweening confidence in themselves, which was so great as to permitthem to believe that without any organization or discipline they weremore than a match for the Turkish army, has always been their fatalweakness. One of the leaders of the war party said to me a littlelater, "The Greeks are so clever that they do not need to be trained;they can fight without it well enough to beat the Turks. " We saw atCorfu how ill-prepared they were, for the classes were called out togo to the frontier of Epirus, and those of Corfu marched through thestreets to the place of embarkation weeping as if they went todeath. This delusion as to their natural military capacity was neverdispelled until the later disaster in Thessaly. The army did in factcross the frontier, but within forty-eight hours they were obliged toreturn to Greek territory for want of provisions--the commissariat hadbeen forgotten!

Outside of political agitation we found living in Corfu delightful, and I question if there is, within the limits of the north temperatezone, any more delightful winter residence than was that of Corfu inthe period we were there. What remained of the advanced civilizationof the English garrison period gave the island a distinct advantageover all the other Greek isles, and even over Crete with its superiornatural advantages. Greek enterprise and civilization are so farsuperior to that found anywhere in the Turkish territory that theyare capable of maintaining the substantial progress which the Englishoccupation achieved in Corfu; and, though we found the peasantry notlargely inoculated by the fever of progress, the better classes of thecity population succeed in supporting the better condition attainedto. But the obstinacy of the conservatism retained by the agriculturalclasses is equal to that in the least frequented islands of theAegean. A relative, on whose estate we passed a part of the winter, remote from the city of Corfu, had tried to introduce improvementsin the culture of his olives; but the laborers not only refused tocoöperate with him, but opposed the introduction of laborers who wouldlend themselves to his operations. As the olives had been gathered inthe days of Nausicaa they should be gathered still, and so should theoil be made, and he was obliged to yield. But as we from the westsuffer not a little from over-civilization and artifice, it isgrateful to repose the eyes and the aesthetic sense in a landwhere there still remains something of the antique simplicity andpicturesque uncouthness, and the winter in Scheria remains one of thegrateful memories of a wandering life. 

Leaving Corfu with freedom from any local obligations, and a keenenjoyment of the change from life in England, we decided to establishourselves for a time in Florence, where we passed the whole of thesummer. In October a son was born to us, and we took a house andfurnished it. I took a studio, too, and returned to painting, as wellas the long interval permitted me to gather up the threads of habit. Art is not to be followed in that way, and there is no cause forsurprise, nor, perhaps, for regret, that literature had the strongerhold on my mind; and that, between the "Times, " letters for which wereprovoked by so many themes of interest to the English public, andarchaeology, especially the study of the prehistoric monuments ofcentral Italy, so important in their yet hardly determined relationsto the classical world, the pencil found less attraction than the pen. To my wife, whose enjoyment of Italian art was intense, Florencewas an ideal residence; and on some accounts I still regret thecircumstances which drove us out of the lily city, --to me still themost desirable residence I have ever known, when one is able to adaptone's self to the life there. After the first summer we found theItalian Alps one of the most delectable of retreats, Cadore andAuronzo, with Cortina and Landro, --all places full of picturesque andnatural fascination. And now, as the strength wanes and we live morein memory than in act, the recollection of the summers passed in theland of Titian remains a gallery of the most delightful pictures. 

At Cortina I met and first knew Browning, who, with his sisterSariana, our old and dear friend, came to stay at the inn where wewere. I am not much inclined to reckon intellectual greatness as apersonal charm, for experience has shown me that the relation is veryremote; but Browning always impressed me--and then and after I saw agood deal of him--as one of the healthiest and most robust minds Ihave ever known, sound to the core, and with an almost unlimitedintellectual vitality and an individuality which nothing couldinfringe on, but which a singular sensitiveness towards othersprevented from ever wounding even the most morbid sensibility; astrong man armed in the completest defensive armor, but with noaggressive quality. His was a nature of utter sincerity, and what hadseemed to me, reading his poetry before knowing him, to be more orless an affectation of obscurity, a cultivation of the cryptic sense, I found to be the pure expression of his individuality. He made shortcuts to the heart of his theme, perhaps more unconscious than uncaringthat his line of approach could not be followed by his generalreaders, as a mathematician leaves a large hiatus in hisdemonstration, seeing the result the less experienced must work outstep by step. 

At Cortina, too, I saw again Gladstone, late in the summer, when theplace was abandoned by the general crowd. I had begun a study ofrunning water, over which I lingered as long as the weather permitted, when he came with Mrs. Gladstone and his son Herbert and daughterHelen. The old man was full of physical and mental energy, and we hadseveral moderate climbs in the mountains of the vicinity. They hadnot come out to be together as at home, and each took generallya different walk. Gladstone was a good walker, and talked by theway, --which not all good walkers can do, --but I do not remember hisever talking of himself; and in this he was like Ruskin, --he assumedhimself as an element in the situation, and thought no more about it;never in our conversations obtruding his views as of more importancethan the conversation demanded, and never opinionated, not evendogmatic, but always inquiring, and more desirous of hearing of thethings that had interested him than of expressing his own views aboutthem. It was a moment in which, for some reason I do not now recall, Beaconsfield was much in evidence, and we discussed him on one ofour walks; on his part with the most dispassionate appreciation andkindness of manner. I had said of his great rival that he had struck ablow at the prestige of the English aristocracy, from which it wouldnever recover, and he asked with a quickened interest what that mightbe, and when I replied that it was by his putting himself at the headof it, he thought a moment and replied, nodding his head, "That istrue. "

He was very fond of talking with the people of the valley, who areItalians, and his Italian was better than one is accustomed to hearfrom English people, even from those who live in Italy. We passed afountain one day, at which a washerwoman was washing her linen, and hestopped to talk to her, and asked her, among other questions, if shehad always been a washerwoman. No, she replied, she had been a _bália_(nurse) once. He was struck by her pronunciation of the word _bália_and walked on; but presently he said, "I thought that that wordwas pronounced _balía_" and, when I explained that there were twowords--_bália_ which meant a nurse, and _balía_, which came from thesame root as our "bailiff, " and meant a charge, custody, --he seemedannoyed, and made no more remarks during the continuation of ourclimb. It was evident that he was vexed, not at me, who correctedhim, but at his not having known the trivial detail of a languageefficiency in which he prided himself on. It was the only foible Idetected in him. He was very much interested in America, and askedmany questions about our politics. Two things, he said, in the futureof America, seemed to him ominous of evil: the condition of our civilservice, and the amount of our Western lands going into mortmainthrough the gifts to the great railway systems. 

It would be, perhaps, unjustifiable to form a firm opinion on a man ofGladstone's calibre from the few days of our intercourse, even inthe freedom and openness of mind of a mountain walk, politics andParliament forgotten; but the final impression he gave me was that ofa man, on the whole, immensely greater than I had taken him to be, butwith conflicting elements of greatness which neutralized each other toa certain extent. He had in him the Platonist, the Statesman, and theTheologian, of each enough for an ordinary man, and one crowded theother in action. The Platonist crowded the Statesman, and, at certaindangerous moments, the broad humanitarian feeling overlooked thepractical dangers of the critical juncture in which he had to act. Hisidealism took off the point of his statecraft, and what has alwaysseemed, and still seems, to me his aberration in the artificialproblems of our ecclesiastical theology, is the only thing I cannotyet understand in so great a man. 

That winter I had a commission from the "Century" (then "Scribner's")to make an archaeological and literary venture in Greek waters, theresults of which in a series of papers in the magazine were afterwardspublished in a volume entitled "On the Track of Ulysses. "

Accompanied by Mr. H. M. Paget, the artist, I went to Corfu and hiredthe Kestrel, my old friend of the Cretan days, and I decided to followthe track of Ulysses in his return to Ithaca from Troy. Beginning atSanta Maura we examined every point in the Ionian Islands to whichany illusion is made in the "Odyssey" as far as Cerigo and Cerigotto, meeting a storm off the former island which might well have ended ourtrip. A well-found Greek brig foundered only a short distance from usin the gale, and we drifted all day and till early in the morning ofthe day following, when we managed to make the port of Cerigo, duringwhich time we could neither eat a meal nor even get a cup of coffee. Paget made a capital sailor, and, though the old Maltese captain offormer days was dead, his two sons, lads then, were dexterous sailorsin the rough-and-ready, rule-of-thumb manner of the Levantine boatman, knowing nothing of navigation and little more of geography thanUlysses himself. We had no charts, and only a very primitive compass, but we all had the antique love of adventure and indifference todanger. Leaving Cerigotto, an island out of the line of traditional orhistoric interest, but, curious for its fine and extensive Pelasgicremains, we laid our course for Crete, starting with the breeze thatat nightfall generally blows towards the land, which was visible fromwhere we took our departure, and counted on being at Canea with themorning. 

But the Aegean is a tricky sea, and furnishes many surprises, as St. Paul knew, and, when not more than ten miles from the shelter of theCretan coast, it came on to blow from the southwest with such violencethat we were unable to beat up to the shelter of the Cretan highlands, and under a mere rag of canvas had to run before the wind, wherever itmight drive us. I was the only one on board who knew anything of theArchipelago, and I had to decide the course, which it was possibleto vary only a point or two either way, for the yacht would only runfree, or, under favorable weather, with a beam wind. I had to guessour course, which from my knowledge of the islands I saw could only bedirectly to Milo, about forty miles away. If we hit the harbor, welland good, for it gives excellent shelter in all weather, but if wemissed it we had two chances--to find an opening between the islandsand reefs, or to hit a lee shore and go on it, for there was no hopeof clawing off. I set the course, left the boys in charge, and went tobed. The boat was jumping through the sea with a shock at each waveshe struck, as if she had leaped out of the water, and it seemed as ifshe must be showing her keel with each jump. I awoke in the night and, getting out of my berth to take a look outside, put my feet in thewater which had risen to cover the cabin floor. All hands at the pumpskept it down, but it was clear that the old craft, nearly twenty yearsolder than when I first saw her, was no longer seaworthy, and wehad no hope of the weather lifting, for these southwesterly galesgenerally blow at least a day. I went back to bed again, for there wasnothing to be done but wait on fortune, and be glad that we shouldmake Milo by daylight. 

My previsions justified themselves, for in the course of the afternoonwe made the entrance to the harbor, and ran in before such a sea as Inever saw in those waters before. The waves broke against the greatpillar of rock that stands in the entrance of the harbor, sendingthe spray to its very summit, and as we ran to the anchorage off thelittle port the whole population poured down to see the arrival, wondering what sent the tiny craft out in such weather. The old pilotsaid that it had been the worst gale of forty years, which I couldwell believe. The weather having abated, we ran over to Crete, whereI found the island laboring with reforms, a constitution, and aChristian governor, in the person of my old friend Photiades Pasha. Wewere invited to dine at the Konak, and of the company was Edhem Pasha, a charming, intelligent, and thoroughly civilized Turk, by far themost liberal and progressive of his race I had met, with the singleexception of A'ali Pasha. We played at "Admiration" that evening, agame which puts a series of questions as to the qualities one admires. In reply to the question "What kind of courage do you admire?" thepasha, turning to me, replied, "I admire the courage of that gentlemanin going to sea in so small a boat in such weather, " and he admittedlaughingly that his courage was not at that level. 

I found in the place of my old friend Dickson, consul for England andcolleague of the Cretan days, since dead, Humphrey Sandwith, a nobleand faithful representative of the dignity and humanity of hisnation, and for many years subsequently my intimate friend, who hasdisappeared while I write from the lessening list of living friends, but who will ever keep his place in my regards as a noble, just, andhumane representative of his race, as of his government. In the yearsof the subsequent Cretan difficulties, Sandwith was always the goodand wise friend of the islanders. It is good to remember such arepresentation of the power and dignity of England in lands where hiscolleagues have not always honored England or humanity, and I shallalways think of Sandwith with greater respect for his nation. 

The results of the "Century" expedition were nothing in respect ofexcavation, and the records of the tracing of the route of the GreatIthacan were written out in the Dolomites in the course of the summer. We found that excavation was a matter beyond achievement with thelimited funds at my disposal, but Photiades was munificent in promisesof support if I wished to return for serious undertaking in thatdirection. In the following winter I was accordingly requested to takecharge, for the American Archaeological Institute, of an expeditionfor research and if possible for excavation. Trusting to thebenevolent promises of the pasha, I accepted the mission. He renewedhis assurances of aid, and showed me the greatest cordiality andbenevolence, invited me to dinner and to spend the evening, andtreated me generally with a friendliness which astonished the oldTurkish element, who considered me the devil of the island. (In fact, my appearance was considered the omen of trouble, and the Mussulmanssaid when they saw me, "Are we going to have another war?") It waseasy to see, however, that the elements of trouble in the island hadnot been eliminated by the appointment of a Christian governor or theconcessions which had been made to the Christian majority. So long asthe power of rendering ineffective any reforms, or blocking the wayto progress of the higher civilization of the island, remained atConstantinople, the Turkish minority in the island would retain theirfaculty of making the concessions to the majority fallacious. 

Photiades Pasha, an amiable and very intelligent man, recognized thedominant fact of his position to be the necessity of keeping the favorof the Mussulman oligarchy at the capital, and he could not offendthe Mussulmans of the island by even a maintenance of equal justicebetween the two religions. He was therefore obliged to satisfythe leaders of the Christian agitators by the concession of minoradvantages in the local conflicts, oftener of Christian againstChristian than of the same against the Turk, and finally he wasobliged to resort to the inciting of feud and jealousy between theclans, villages, and provinces in the island, to keep them fromuniting against him. He found it convenient to employ me as a tub tothe whale, and, having first excited the insular jealousy againstarchaeological intrusion by foreigners, and inducing his clique ofsubordinate intriguers to oppose my operations, though the Christianpopulation in general were in favor of permitting me to excavatewherever I liked, he made them the concession of refusing me thepermission I sought. Therefore, while he promised me all things andurged me to go at once to select my locality, he wrote to the Porteadvising the refusal of the firman, which had been applied fordirectly by the Institute, through the minister at Constantinople. 

My assistant, Mr. Haynes, who had been sent by the Institute to takehis first lessons in archaeology and photography, having arrived, wewent to Candia to select our site. We decided on attacking a ruin onthe acropolis of Gnossus, already partially exposed by the searchesof local diggers for antiques. It had a curiously labyrinthineappearance, and on the stones I found and described the firstdiscovered of the characters whose nature has since been made thesubject of the researches of Mr. Evans. I made an agreement with theTurkish proprietor of the land, and prepared to set to work when thefirman should arrive. After more than one letter from Photiades, assuring me in unqualified terms that I might confidently count on thereception of the firman, I received a communication from the ministerat Constantinople, that on the advice of Photiades Pasha the firmanwas refused. I had selected as the alternative locality the cave knownas the burial-place of Zeus, on the summit of Mount Yuctas, notfar from Gnossus, in the excavation of which I am convinced thatarchaeology will one day receive great light on early Cretan myth. Theimportance of the locality in the prehistoric research in which Creteis one of the most important sections of our field of study, will, I am convinced, one day justify my anxiety to attack it; and thesubsequent discoveries, so important, made by Halbherr in thecompanion cave on Mount Ida, where Zeus was believed to have beenhidden and nursed, confirm my conviction of the value of the evidencestill hidden on Yuctas. 

Debarred from carrying out the purpose of my expedition, I contentedmyself with making such a survey of that part of the island as shouldserve the Institute for another attempt when the artificial obstaclesshould be removed; and I was on the point of visiting Gortyna whentroubles broke out, initiated by the murder of two Mussulmans atGortyna, revenged by the murder of Christians at Candia, and therewas nothing to be done but to get back to civilization. From theMussulmans of the island I had less hostility to endure than from themore influential of the Christian Cretans, with whom the dominantpassion of life seemed to be that of intrigue, and with whosemendacity and unscrupulousness I could not contend. 

I had a curious instance of the honesty of the Mussulman in a dealerin bricabrac, embroideries, and stuffs with whom I used to deal atCandia. Arapi Mehmet, as he was called, i. E. Mahommed the Arabian, wasa man in whom no religious fanaticism disturbed his relations with hisfellow-men; no English agnostic could be more liberal, and we oftenhad dealings in which his honesty was evident. On one of the lastvisits I made to his shop I looked at two embroidered cushion coverswhich I wanted to purchase, but the price he put on them made itout of the question, and as he refused to take less I gave up thebargaining, and he called for the coffee. While we were drinking itand conversing of other matters, I said to him, "Arapi, why do you asksuch absurd prices? You know that the cushions are not worth so much. ""Oh, " he replied, "you are rich and can afford it. " "What makes youthink I am rich?" I asked. "You travel about and see the world, andtake your pleasure, " he said. "But I am not rich, " I said; "I am aworkingman; I do not travel for pleasure, but to earn my living. I ama scribe, and am paid for what I write, and what I earn is all Ihave to live on. I have no property. " "Is that true?" he asked me, earnestly, looking me in the eyes. "That is quite true; I have nothingbut what I earn, " I replied; "I make the living of my family in thisway. If I do not write we have no bread. " The cushions had meanwhilebeen sent back to his house, as he kept all his fine goods there; and, without another word to me, he shouted to his shop boy to go and getthem, and, when brought, he threw them to me, saying, "Take them andgive me what you like. "

I always found that the Mussulman merchants were more trustworthy intheir dealings with me than the Christians, and, though there was, asa matter of course, at first an amount of bargaining and beating downthe prices, which was expected, they never attempted to deceive mein the quality of the goods, and they often called my attention toarticles of artistic or archaeological value, which were cheap, andwhen they came to know me well they gave me, at the outset, the lowestprice they could take, while it never happened with a Christianshopman in Crete that I was treated with frankness or moderation. Thenext time I went back to Candia, Arapi was dead. 

Returning to Canea, my archaeological mission being abortive, I wastold by the Christian secretary of the pasha that the difficulty hadbeen that I had not offered to give to His Excellency the coins thatmight be found in the excavations, and that if I did this I might hopefor a firman. As it was not in my power to give what, by the agreementarrived at with the proprietor of the soil, had been definitelydisposed of, half to him and the other half to the museums of theisland, and as the troubles had begun, there was nothing more to bedone, and I made a flying trip to some parts of the island which I hadnot seen. Of this, the passage through the valley of Enneochoria(the nine villages) will remain in my memory as the most delightfulpastoral landscape I have ever seen, and the ideal of Greek pastoralpoetry. A beautiful brook, to the perennial flow of whose waters theabundant water-cresses testified, which is a very rare thing in anAegean scene, meandered amongst mingled sycamores and olives, and gavefreshness to glades where the sheep fed under the keepership of theantique-mannered shepherd lads and lasses; and in the opening of thebordering trees we saw the far-off and arid mountains, rugged andpicturesque peaks. The Cretan summer for three or four months israinless, and a valley where the vegetation is fed by the springs soabundantly as to sustain a perpetual flora is rarely to be met inone's travels there. I saw many new flowers there, and amongst thema perfectly white primrose, in every other respect like the commonflower of the English hedgerows. The scenery had that attractiveaspect which can be found only where immemorial culture, withoutexcessive invasion of the axe, has left nature in the undiminishedpossession of her chief beauties, without a trace of the savagewildness--a nature which hints at art. It was classic without beingformal, but no description can give an idea of the charm of it incontrast with the general aridity of the Cretan landscape. 

As we rode through the villages we found the population animated bythat joyous hospitality which belongs to an antique tradition, towhich a stranger guest is something which the gods have sent, andsent rarely so that no tourist weariness had worn out the welcome. Something of the welcome was, no doubt, due to the reputation I hadacquired in former times as a friend of the Christians of the island, but I found that in Crete, where the invasion of the foreign elementhad been at a minimum and the people were most conservative, ancientusages and ancient hospitality had retained all their force, as, toa lesser extent, I had found them in the Peloponnesus, while incontinental Greece I never found hospitality in any form. The Cretansare probably the purest remnant of the antique race which resultedfrom the mixture of Pelasgian, Dorian, Achaian, Ionian, and the bestrepresentative of the antique intellect. 

It was almost impossible to travel in the interior of the island, where the Christian element still held its own unmixed, without comingin contact with remnants of the most ancient superstitions. In oneplace my guide pointed out to me a cave where Janni the shepherd oneday gathered his sheep in the midday heats to fiddle to them, whenthere came out of the sea a band of Nereids, who begged him to playfor their dancing. Janni obeyed and lost his heart to one of the seadamsels, and, sorely smitten, went to a wise woman to know what heshould do to win her, and was told that he must boldly seize her inthe whirl of the dance and hold her, no matter what happened. Hefollowed the direction, and though the nymph changed shape many timeshe kept his hold and she submitted to him and they were married. Inprocess of time she bore a child, but all the while she had neverspoken a word. The wise woman, consulted again, told Janni to take thechild and pretend to lay it on the fire, when his wife would speak. Heobeyed again, but made a slip, and the child, falling into the fire, was burned to death, whereupon the wife fled to the sea and was neverseen again. This was told me in all seriousness as of a contemporaryevent, and was evidently held as history. I bought from a peasant oneof the well-known three-sided prisms with archaic intaglios of animalson the faces, and had the curiosity to inquire the virtues of it, forI was told that it was greatly valued and had been worn by his wife, who reluctantly gave it up. He replied that it had the power ofpreventing the mother's milk from failing prematurely. 

We passed through Selinos, where the riflers of the antique necropolisbrought me quantities of glass found in the graves, and a few bronzeand gold ornaments; and when I had loaded myself and my attendantswith all the glass we could safely carry, the people begged me stillto buy, if only for a piastre each piece, what they had accumulatedfor want of a buyer. But what is found in this district is mainly orentirely of a late period, that of the Roman occupation of the island, I suppose, for we found no archaic objects of any kind, or earlyinscriptions, and only a few in late characters. But the ride throughthis section of the island is one of the most delightful one couldtake, so far as I know, in classical lands. The kindly, hospitableSeliniotes, known for centuries as the bravest of all the Cretanclans, persecuted with all the cruelty of Venetian craft in the dayswhen the island city ruled the island sea, always refractory underforeign rule and often unruly under their own régime, seem to haveenjoyed in the later centuries of Roman rule and the earlier of theByzantine a great prosperity, if one may judge from the evidence ofthe necropolis, the graves in which yield a singular indication of awell-distributed wealth. These graves lie for great distances alongevery road leading to what must have been the principal centre of thecivilization, though there are no ruins to mark its location. Thissingular absence of ancient ruin indicates a peculiarity in thecivilization of that section of the island which history gives no clueto. Northward, near the sea, there are the remains of great Pelasgiccities, of which when I first traveled in the island the walls were instupendous condition, but of which at this visit I had found hardlya trace--the islanders had pulled them down to get stone for theirhouses. The site of Polyrhenia, connected in tradition with the returnof Agamemnon from Troy, was one of the finest Pelasgic ruins I haveever seen when I first visited it, but on this visit I could hardlyfind the locality, and of the splendid polygonal wall I saw in 1865not a stone remained. 

Our route brought us through Murnies, celebrated for its orange grovesand for the horrible execution of many Cretans by Mustapha Kiritly inthe "great insurrection"--that of 1837--to punish them for assemblingto petition the Sultan for relief. It is one of the most ghastly ofall the dreadful incidents of Turkish repressions, for the Cretans, pacifically assembled without arms, were arrested, and all theirmagnates, for the better repression of discontent and to overawerebellions to come, were hanged on the orange-trees in such numbersthat, as the old consul of Sweden, an eye-witness, told me during myconsulate, the orchard was hung with them, and left there to rot. According to the statement of the consul, not less than thirty of thechief men of that district were so executed. 

But the history of the Venetian rule shows that it was no less crueland even more treacherous, and Pashley gives from their own recordsthe story of the slaughter of many of the chief people of the samedistrict to punish refractoriness against the government of that day. Read where we will, so long as there is anything to read, we findthe history of Crete one of the most horrible of the classicworld--rebellion, repression, slaughter, internecine andinternational, until a population, which in the early Venetian timeswas a million, was reduced in 1830 to little more than a hundredthousand, and during my own residence was brought nearly as low, whatwith death by sword and bullet, by starvation and disease induced bystarvation, added to exile, permanent or temporary. Yet in 1865 ithad been reckoned at 375, 000, Christian and Mussulman. But it must beadmitted that the Cretan was always the most refractory of subjects, and, though at the time of this visit the island had obtained thefundamental concessions which it had fought for, in the recognition ofits autonomy with a governor of the faith of the majority, in a latervisit in 1886 I found it ravaged by a sectional war of vendetta, Christian against Christian, in which, as Photiades Pasha assuredme, in one year 600 people had been killed and 25, 000 olive-treesdestroyed in village feuds. But the evidence was at hand to show thatthe pasha himself, finding the islanders no less difficult to controlfor all the concessions made them, had been obliged in the interest ofhis own quiet and permanence in government to turn the restlessnessof the Cretans into sectional conflicts during which they left him inpeaceful possession of his pashalik. In eastern countries governmentbecomes a fine art if not a humane one. 

CHAPTER XXXVI

GREEK BROILS--TRICOUPI--FLORENCE

The troubles initiated at Gortyna increased until the eastern end ofthe island was drawn into them, and, as the Greek government at thesame time began to agitate for the execution of those clauses in theTreaty of Berlin which compensated it for the advantages gained by theprincipalities through the war, I received orders to go to Athens andresume my correspondence with the "Times. " Athens was in a ferment, and the discontent with the government for its inefficiency wasuniversal; the ministry, as was perhaps not altogether unjustifiableunder the circumstances past, allowed the King to bear his part of theresponsibility, and discontent with him was even greater than thatwith Comoundouros, the prime minister, whose position became verydifficult, for the King and his _entourage_ opposed all energeticmeasures, and the people demanded the most energetic. Excitement ranvery high, and the ministry was carried along with the populace, whichdemanded war and the military occupation of the territory assigned toGreece. 

Comoundouros was, on the whole, the most competent prime minister forGreece whom the country has had in my time. Tricoupi, who was thechief of the opposition at the time, was an abler man, and a statesmanof wider views, --on the whole, the greatest statesman of modernGreece, _me judice_; but in intrigue and Odyssean craft, which isnecessary in the Levant, Comoundouros was his master. In 1868, whenthey were both in the ministry, they formed the most competentgovernment Greece has known in her constitutional days, but it wasbetrayed by the King, who paid now in part for his defection, for noone placed the least confidence in him. The diplomatic corps pressedfor peace, and the nation demanded war, for which it was not in theleast prepared. The animosity towards the King was extreme. I sawpeople who happened to be sitting in front of the cafés rise and turntheir backs to him when he walked past, as he used to do without anyattendant. Comoundouros ran with the diplomats and hunted with thepopulace, --I think he really meant to continue running and avoidhunting at any risk, but he talked on the other side. I knew him well, and used continually to go to his house when he received all the worldin the evening, in perfectly republican simplicity, as is the way inAthens, and he said to me one evening that the King prevented action, and impeded all steps to render the army efficient. 

This was evidently the feeling of the populace, and publicdemonstrations took place which menaced revolution, and on oneoccasion shots were fired, and the demonstrators were dispersed by thecavalry. I asked him on that occasion why the ministry did not let therevolution loose, and drive the King away. "Ah! they think now that wehave no stability, --what would they think then? and what could we getbetter?" I find in a file of my letters of the time one which says: "Iam not surprised at Mrs. ----'s opinion of the King, --there are fewpeople of either sex here who are not of the same opinion, and theconviction is getting very general that no progress or reform is to behoped for until he is expelled the country. " Another, a little later, says: "It looks very much as if there were a revolution preparing, andthat the King would have to go. He is so detested that I don't thinkany one wants to save him. " To complicate matters, there came somescandals to light concerning the frauds and peculations in thefurnishing of supplies for the army, which was being prepared fora campaign in extravagant haste, and rumor involved persons in theclosest intimacy with the prime minister. I do not believe thatComoundouros was personally complicated, but I find in one of myletters the following, under date, "Athens, June 10:"--

"Things here are in a horrible state. The latest disclosures ofthe great defalcations seem to involve so many officials andnon-officials, and break out in so many new directions, that onedoes not know whom to exonerate. The King and most of theministers--quantities of officials, persons in high social positionsand unblemished reputation--seem to have been carried away by thefever; Comoundouros himself is accused of participation; ---- and ----are clearly guilty, and I think the ministry must resign. So far wehave no accusation against Tricoupi or any of his friends. That is theonly comfort we can draw out of the affair. I am holding back fromexposing the affair in the 'Times' from the double motive that thescandal will affect all Greece, and because the affair is not yetfully disclosed and we don't know what it may lead to in the way ofexposures. The government is doing everything it can to prevent theinvestigation extending, and this I mean to stop by exposing thewhole matter in the 'Times, ' but until it succeeds in arresting thedisclosures I shall let them go. Comoundouros is buying up all thecorrespondents he can, and one of his emissaries told me two or threedays ago that if I would help him out I could pocket 20, 000 francs. "

To this offer I replied by a letter to the "Times" attacking theministry savagely, and when it was printed and reached Athens, and Isaw the minister again, he remarked with his imperturbable good-humor, which indeed never failed him, "How you did give it to us to-day!" AsI recall the old man, running over the twenty odd years during whichI had known him more or less with long interruptions, I retain myimpression of his genuine patriotism and personal integrity; but hewas surrounded by people who did profit by their relation to him. Hewas singularly like Depretis in manner and character; and of Depretisit was said that he would not steal himself, but he did not care howmuch his friends stole; but I think that the Greek was the abler manby much. Comoundouros mitigated the rancors usual in the politics ofGreece (as in those of Italy of to-day) by his unvarying good-nature, never permitting his antagonisms to degenerate to animosities. In theyears when I first knew him, during the Cretan insurrection of 1866, he was at his best in power and in patriotism; but during the yearswhich followed, full of the base intrigues which had their birth inthe influences surrounding the court, he got more or less demoralized, for patriotism and honesty were no passports to power, and he wasambitious before all things. Not to be in office or near coming tooffice is in Greece to have no political standing whatever, and theKing's defection and betrayal of the interests of Greece in 1868convinced Comoundouros and many others that with the King there wasnothing to be done for a purely Hellenic and consistent policy. Allmy study of Levantine politics since that day convinces me that insacrificing the interests of Greece to the demands of the Russianministry in 1868, the King threw away the only opportunity whichGreece has ever had of attaining the position her people and herfriends believed her destined to, --that of the heir of the Ottomanempire. The case is now hopeless, for the adverse influences havegained the upper hand, and the demoralization of Greece has progressedwith the years. The sturdy independence of Comoundouros in 1868 waswasted, and I can imagine that the old man understood that, though theforms of independence and the semblance of progress must be kept up, there was really no hope of a truly Hellenic revival, and with hishopes and his courage he lost all his patriotic ambitions. In thisjuncture he was satisfied with the husks which the diplomats threw toGreece, and blustered and threatened war to attain a compromise whichshould keep him in office and in peace with the King, whom he wouldgladly have rid Greece of if it had been practicable. 

In the struggle with diplomacy he so far gained his point that therewas an adjustment of the frontiers in accordance with the treaty. Thecommission for the delimitation, at the head of which was GeneralHamley, met at Athens with the intention of beginning the trace fromthe Epirote side, and I had made all my preparations for accompanyingit, when there happened one of those curious mischances which arepossible only in the East. The summer was hot and dry, and the mayorof Athens, foreseeing a drought, had decided to turn the stream knownas the "washerwoman's brook, " one of the few perennial sources in thevicinity, into the aqueduct which supplied the city with drinkingwater. As all the dirty clothes of Athens, comprising those of themilitary hospital, in which there were grave cases of typhoid, werewashed in that stream, the consequences were soon evident in a greatoutbreak of the malady in the city, the victims being estimated at10, 000 persons; and, two days before that on which the commission wasto start on its work, I was taken ill. I sent for a doctor and hedeclared the illness to be fever, and probably typhoid. I went to bed, and took for three days in succession forty grains of quinine a day, getting up on the fourth, to find the commission gone and myself in nocondition to follow it; and so I missed the most interestingjourney which had ever offered itself in my journalistic career. Myexasperation at the imbecility of the mayor can be easily imagined, and it was vented in a proper castigation in my correspondence. Inthe burning weeks that followed, the state of Athens reminded one ofBoccaccio's description of Florence in the plague. There were notphysicians enough in the city to attend the sick, or undertakers tobury the dead. The funeral processions to the great cemetery beyondthe Ilissus seemed in constant motion, and the water-sellers drove abrisk trade in the water of a noble spring under Hymettus. 

At the next municipal election the mayor was reëlected triumphantly!The ministry was less fortunate, a dissolution resulting in a majorityfor the opposition, and Tricoupi came into power. As the mostcompetent and eminent of the rulers of Greece in the following years(for Comoundouros died not long after), and cut off prematurely in themidst of his services to the land he always served with an honest, patriotic devotion, he deserves the commemoration which, as hisintimate friend for many years, I am better qualified, perhaps, torender him than any other foreigner. Our friendship began in theperiod when he held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs in 1867-8 andcontinued till his death. He was educated and, I think, born inLondon, where his father held for many years the legation of Greece. The elder Tricoupi and his wife were two of the most sympatheticand admirable people of their race I have ever known, and the elderTricoupi's history of his country in its later fortunes is recognizedas the standard, both in its history and in its use of the modernGreek, purely vernacular, which we have. The son, head of thegovernment or leader of the opposition from an age at which in fewcountries a man can lead in politics, was, _rara avis_ in those lands, an absolutely devoted patriot and honest man; but his country hasnever been in a state of political education or patriotic devotionsuch as to enable it to profit by his ability or his honesty. I wellremember that during his first premiership I said to him that I hopedhe was in for a long term of office, which might establish somesolidity in Greek politics, and he replied, "They will support meuntil I am obliged to tax them, and then they will turn me out. " Andso it happened. 

The general elections, which were stormy, brought Tricoupi into power;but the violence to the freedom of election of which the governmentwas guilty made them very exciting. One of Tricoupi's chief supporterswas standing for Cephalonia, I think, and we heard that there weregreat preparations to defeat him by the common device of overawing hissupporters and driving them from the polls, and I decided to go atonce to the locality and watch the method of the elections. Thepresence of the correspondent at the polling booths, all of which Ivisited in rapid succession through the day, completely deranged allthe plans, and only at one place was there an attempt at illegalpressure, on which occasion one man was shot. The chief of policeat the place came to me from time to time, saying, "Have you seenanything illegal?" as if he were under orders to convince me that thelaw had been obeyed. The result was that the Tricoupist candidatewas elected, and he admitted to me that his election was due to mypresence. He had only had one man shot, the general plan of carryingthe elections by violence having been abandoned in deference to publicopinion in England, represented by the correspondent of the "Times. "

I decided to go to Volo as soon as the annexation was accomplished, and took letters of introduction to several leading citizens, amongstthem one from Tricoupi. The Christian portion of the town was, ofcourse, in exultation, but an attempt at inspection of the Turkishquarter had to be abandoned precipitately before a demonstration ofthe Mussulman juvenility. My visit had to be abbreviated, for thefilthy khan which was the only place of entertainment for man andbeast swarmed with bugs and mosquitoes; and, though the five lettersI had were to the wealthiest persons in Volo, amongst them being themayor, not one offered me hospitality when I told them the next daythat I must return by the steamer that brought me, in default ofa decent bed and eatable food; and, though they expressed politeregrets, they saw no alternative, and I took a return passage. Hospitality in continental Greece has no traditions; and even inAthens, except from Greeks who had lived in England, I have never beenasked to accept bed or bread, while in Crete and in the Peloponnesusthere was always a more or less active competition as to who shouldgive me both. The stranger, who was in the classical days themessenger of the gods and received welcome as such, has degenerated tothe position of the modern tramp. The difference is, no doubt, due tothe centuries of oppression and isolation in which the fragments ofthe race have lived, and in which they have suffered the intrusionof unwelcome elements amongst them, always overborne and finding noprotector except their own cunning, and no friend save in their ownreligion. 

A thought that comes up very often while one deals with the Greek inHellenic lands, is the wonder at the tenacity of the religion of theGreek, surviving the hostility not only of the Turk, but of his fellowChristian of the rival creed. No other nation has ever endured thehostile pressure on its religious fidelity which the Greeks have hadto submit to since the fall of Constantinople. The Venetians were evenmore cruel with the Greeks under their rule than the Turks have everbeen, and the influence of the Papal See has always been exerted withthe most inflexible persistence for the suppression of what in Rome iscalled the Greek schism, to which it has shown an animosity greatereven than that displayed toward the Protestant Church. And yet I havealways found the Orthodox Church in all its ramifications the mostcharitable and liberal of all the forms of Christianity with which Ihave come in contact. No stranger is turned from the doors of a Greekconvent or refused such succor as is in the power of its inmates, behe Protestant, atheist, or even of their bitterest enemies, the RomanCatholics. No questions are ever asked, and it has twice happened tome that I have lodged at a Greek convent during the most rigid fastsof the Church, when the inmates sat down to a dinner of herbs and drybread, while to me was given the best their resources could compass--aroast lamb or kid, generally. The _kalogeros_ in attendance, when Iwas dining on one occasion with the prior of a convent on Good Friday, and ate flesh when the prior himself had nothing but herbs and bread, turned to his superior with a perplexed smile, saying, "Why! he isnot even a Christian!" but was none the less cordial afterward--heevidently had no other feeling than that of pity that a man who hadbeen their protector (it was in Crete during the insurrection) shouldnot enjoy the privileges of the Church. This liberal hospitality onthe part of the ecclesiastics makes the want of it on the part of thepeople all the more conspicuous and inexplicable. 

In the event Comoundouros found his game of bluff a safe one, for hisclaims were just, and diplomacy was derelict, or there would have beenno utility in the demonstration. But the futility of the Greek threatswas most conspicuously shown, for not a battalion got to the frontierin a condition to fight, and two batteries sent off from Athens ingreat pomp broke down so completely that not a gun was fit to go intoaction when they reached the frontier. The (for them and for themoment) fortunate issue of the contention by the cession of theterritory in dispute seemed to the Greeks in general due to their goodmilitary measures, and so confirmed them in the dangerous convictionthat the powers were afraid that they might beat the Turks and openthe question of Constantinople, etc. , which the powers had determinedshould not be opened. Tricoupi alone of all those who had a policy wasof the opinion that the powers should not have interfered, but shouldhave let the Greeks have their way and learn their lesson. It was hisopinion that the political education of the Greeks was thwartedby this continual intermeddling of the powers, which made theirindependence a fiction. Subsequent events showed that he did notnourish that blind confidence in the military capacity of hiscountrymen which they had, but he said until they were allowed to testtheir abilities they would never know on what that confidence reposed. The common opinion was that one Greek was worth ten Turks, even in thestate of the Greek training. This was not Tricoupi's opinion, whichwas that it was impossible under the tutelage which the powersexercised for them to know the truth, and he had, from 1867, persistently urged the let-alone policy, which would at least enablethem to find their level. 

Time has shown that Tricoupi was the only party leader in Greece whosaw affairs justly. Had his counsel prevailed, the nation would havefound in 1881 what they discovered only in 1897, that they neededtraining and concentration to hold their own, and that the path ofconquest of their ancient estate was set with obstacles which onlySpartan discipline and endurance could clear away. As it has happened, the lesson has been learned only after all the competing elements havehad theirs and are on the way to the primacy in the Balkans which theGreeks thought the heritage of their race, but of which they can nowhold no hope. The protection of the powers has been fatal, forthe future of the Levant belongs to the Slav in spite of all theintelligence, activity, and personal morality in which the Greeksexcel all their rivals. An English statesman who had to deal withTricoupi in regard to official matters said to me once that he foundhim apparently open and business-like, but that when they came tothe transaction of matters at issue he proved to be as slippery anddishonest as any of his countrymen. But Tricoupi was a Greek, andevasion, diplomatic duplicity, and the usual devices of the weakbrought to terms by the strong, are ingrained with the race. He feltthe truth, viz. , that all the powers, while professing to protectthem, were really oppressing them by their protection, and that thenegotiations in which they posed as friends were really hostilemeasures which he was, in duty to his nation, bound to fight by allthe means in his reach; and in this case the means were those of theweak, deprived of liberty of action as much as if they were held downby the troops of the powers. 

In all these considerations Tricoupi stands as much the type andimpersonation of the modern Greek in his best phase, and theHellenic cause lost in his early death the largest exponent of thecharacteristics of the race I have ever known, but, as fate had it, lost him only when his abilities could only serve to mitigate disasterand accentuate failure. Had he been alive, I am convinced that thedisaster of 1897 would not have taken place, and, if a conflict was, through the ignorant impetuosity of the masses, unavoidable, it wouldhave resulted more creditably to the Greek army, not in victoryindeed, for this was under the circumstances not to be hoped for, butin a defeat which was not irretrievable. 

The campaign finished, I returned to Florence, where, during the lullin Eastern matters, I found my only public occupation in the contestwith regard to the restoration of ancient buildings in Italy. Thosewho can remember the aspect of the Ducal Palace and St. Mark's inthose years, shored up to prevent large portions of them from fallingin crumbling ruin into the Piazza, and can see that now at least thegeneral aspect of the perfect building is preserved, and in the caseof the Ducal Palace even the details of the most important decorativeelements restored with a fidelity which defies examination, willhardly be inclined to resent the restorations which have abolishedthe hideous balks of timber and bulkheads of most of the southern andwestern façades. The southwest angle of the Palace was preventedonly by massive shoring from falling bodily into the Piazzetta. Theanti-restoration society in England had raised a great outcry over theworks, which had, however, been going on without criticism during theAustrian occupation since 1840; and, after a thorough examination ofthe state of the two precious buildings, and the plans and appliancesfor their restoration, I undertook the defense of the restorers, andthe hot controversy in the "Times" and other journals on the subjectresulted in the confirmation of the authorities in their resolutionto continue the works which have left the Ducal Palace at least in acondition to be seen for a few hundred years to come, and relieved thechurch of the scaffolds and bulkheads which disfigured it up to 1890. The works in St. Mark's reëstablished in more than its originalsolidity the south flank, which was in such a state of ruin that onlythe abundant shoring had prevented the façade from top to bottom fromfalling bodily into the Piazza. 

On the other hand, I found at Florence that the authorities, inanticipation of the completion of the present splendid façade of theDuomo, had decided to refresh the entire surface of the flanks to putthem in keeping with the new sculpture of the front, and had actuallyinaugurated the system of removing with acids, followed by the chisel, of all the toned surface of the sculptured parts so that the Duomoshould, when the façade was revealed, present the aspect of abride-cake in the brilliant whiteness of its marble, but without atouch remaining of the workmanship of its original architects andsculptors. At this juncture the editor of the "Cornhill Magazine"asked me for an article on the restorations in Italy, and I profitedby the invitation to write a scathing article on the cleaning up ofthe Duomo, which, falling under the attention of the government atRome, provoked a telegram ordering peremptorily the cessation ofall restoration on the church. I received the thanks of the Italianministry and the formal request to inform it of any other similaroperations which should fall under my attention, and when a fewweeks later I saw the scaffold raised around the beautiful pulpitof Donatello at Prato, a note to the ministry had the effect oftelegraphically stopping operations. The indignation of the goodpeople of Florence at the cessation of the house-cleaning brought mea request from a high quarter to undertake the defense of the cityagainst the insolent Englishman of the "Cornhill!"

The subsequent years of my residence in Florence were on the whole themost tranquil and the happiest of my mature life. We all enjoyed itwithout serious drawback, the routine becoming a visit in early summerto Venice, then visits to the Venetian Tyrol, Cadore, Cortina, andLandro, and the return to Florence in the autumn. I found in Florencean intellectual life and serenity of which there was no evidenceelsewhere, with surroundings of the noblest art of the Renaissance, and an intellectual atmosphere hardly, I think, to be found in anyother Italian city. Amongst our dearest friends were the Villaris, with whom we still remain in cordial sympathy. I can wish Italy nogreater good than the possession of many children like PasqualeVillari. Our great diplomat George P. Marsh had an unboundedadmiration for him--he used to say, "Villari is an angel;" and hecertainly stands at the head of the list of noble Italians I haveknown for the personal and intellectual virtues and subtlety ofappreciation, not rare amongst Italians, but unfortunately to besought for in their politics in vain. In Italy as in America men ofthat type are pushed to the wall and crowded out of the conflicts ofpolitical life. 

I was finally, after five years of residence, obliged to abandon ourhome at Florence by the constant recurrence of fevers, which gave usperpetual anxiety as well as perplexity, for there is no malaria inthat part of Tuscany. After an attack which nearly proved fatal to oneof the children, my courage gave out, and we broke up housekeeping, and the family, with the exception of myself and my eldest daughter, went back to England. It was only subsequently that I discovered thatthe secret of the fevers was in the water drawn from the wells ofFlorence. These are sunk in a stratum of gravel in which are countlesscesspools, the filtration of which extends through the entire stratumand poisons every well within the limits of their influence. Onmy accession in later years to the service of the "Times" as Romecorrespondent, I attacked the system of drainage and water supply ofFlorence in a series of letters, and brought down on my head the mostfurious abuse which my journalistic life has known, but which ended inthe reformation, not yet complete, however, of the water supply of thecity, and the admission by the Florentines that if they had attendedto my warnings earlier they would have been saved great losses, chiefof which was the abandonment of a projected return to Florence byQueen Victoria, on account of a serious epidemic of typhoid whichbroke out after her first visit. Like most reformers, I was threatenedwith violence if I returned to the scene of my labors, to be hailed asa friend when I had been found to be right and my warnings salutary. But at the moment, the effect of the fevers was to drive me out ofFlorence, where residence had on many accounts proved most delightful, and send me off again on adventure. 

I passed the next year at New York on the staff of the "Evening Post, "sending occasional correspondence to the "Times, " and during thisabsence my father-in-law became involved in financial embarrassmentswhich ultimately cost my wife her allowance, after we had againestablished our residence for the family in London. With a widenedliterary experience and connection I could see my way to a bettersituation than that of the past years, but in 1886 the death of theRome correspondent of the "Times, " and the definite retirement of Mr. Gallenga, the Italian correspondent _par excellence_, brought me intoa regular and permanent employment by the paper as its representativefor Greece and Italy, with residence at Rome. 

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE BLOCKADE OF GREECE

I took possession of my double charge of the (to me) most interestingof all foreign lands, Greece and Italy, at a moment when affairs werequickening for new troubles in the former, where demagoguery had againtaken the upper hand. Comoundouros was dead, and Tricoupi, who hadsucceeded, as I had long before anticipated that he would, to the leadin Greek politics, had fallen, as he had foretold, on the question oftaxation. The new successor to the bad qualities of old Comoundouros, Deliyanni, in his electoral programme had promised to relieve thepeople of all taxation, and had, of course, been elected, and I foundTricoupi still at the head of the opposition. I had stayed atRome only long enough to take possession of my place and have aconversation with the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, GeneralRobilant, as to the course which Italy would follow if there weretroubles in Greece, and received his assurance that Italy would standwith England, whatever might happen. 

Robilant was one of the ablest ministers of foreign affairs Italy hashad in my time, and, if not the most conspicuous occupant of thatposition in intellectual qualities, he certainly was so, with oneexception--that of Baron Blanc--in sound common sense and a large andcomprehensive perception of the situation of Italy amongst the powers, and her true affiliations. To him, more than to any other individualItalian, was due the entry of Italy into the Triple Alliance, ameasure which has probably been very largely instrumental in keepingthe peace between the European powers ever since it was formed. Simpleand reserved in his manner to a correspondent, he was entirely frankand courteous in communicating what could be communicated, and quietlysilent beyond. Always the butt of the most savage hostility of theItalian radicals, he resigned the year after, though supported by themajority in the Chamber, rather than expose himself longer to thevulgar and brutal partisan insolence of Cavallotti and his allies inthe Chamber. As individual, as soldier, and as minister, Robilant wasthe type of the Italian at his best. Very few of the extreme Left inthe Italian Chamber made any pretensions to a comprehension of thenature of a gentleman, and the vulgarity of the outbreak whichprovoked his resignation--it was on the occasion of the disaster ofDogali--was of a nature which only a hardened politician could adapthimself to. It was my first experience of the indecencies of Italianparliamentarism, and, when he left the Chamber under the unendurableinsults poured on him in language adapted only to street broils, Isaid to a colleague that he would never appear again in the Chamber. Iwas right, for, though the ministry obtained a vote of confidence, andhe was urged to withdraw his resignation, he refused. In his chargethe foreign policy of Italy was at its best. 

I found affairs at Athens in a critical condition. Deliyanni wastrying the game of bluff which had succeeded in the hands ofComoundouros, but with quite a different measure of competence. WithDeliyanni it was an evident sham. He had promised war without theleast intention of preparing for it, in the childish expectation thatEurope would oblige the Sultan to make some concession which wouldsave his credit in the country and enable him to continue in office. But circumstances were different; Greece had on the former occasion avalid claim, admitted by the powers, while on this there was only thepretension that Greece should receive a compensation for bettermentsacquired by Bulgaria. In the former, the Treaty of Berlin hadsanctioned the cession; in the latter, there was only the bareimpudence of Mr. Deliyanni to move the powers. The ministry called outclass after class of the reserves and sent them northward, but made noeffective preparation for war; the men were ill-clad, worse provided, and everything was lacking to make them ready for a campaign. Thecasual observer could see that war was not intended, and thatDeliyanni was silly enough to believe that the agents of the powersdid not see through his sham, and thought that he could frighten them. The men on the frontier finally amounted to about 45, 000 men, keptthere as a scarecrow to the powers at an expense, ascertained from thesafest authorities, of 1000 deaths per month. The powers insisted ondemobilization. Deliyanni replied by waving his torch and threateningto set fire to Europe if they did not give him a province; andmeanwhile the Turkish government was gathering a solid force of about40, 000 men on the menaced frontier, and preparing silently to march onAthens. 

The common people of the city, ignorant of everything connected withwar, and inflamed by the jingo official press, conceived that nothingwas needed but to set the Greek army in motion to insure a triumphantmarch on Constantinople, and were shouting for the troops to cross thefrontier. Deliyanni had never had the least intention of making war, but he dared not withdraw for fear of his own people and the war feverhe had inoculated them with. The worst feature in the position wasthat he had armed and provided with large quantities of ammunition theentire population of the Greek frontier, and the irregulars so formedhad no discipline and obeyed no orders, but began each on his ownaccount to harass the Turkish outposts. The Turks, obedient to theirorders, contented themselves with repelling these minute stings, keeping their own side of the frontier, and waiting till the attackdeveloped to take up a solid and thoroughly prepared offensive. Thesummons came from the powers to demobilize, or the Greek coast wouldbe blockaded. This was Deliyanni's only escape from a terribledisaster to the country, or the personal humiliation of withdrawal hewould not submit to, with the added risk of violence on the part ofthe mob of the city, fired to a safe and flaming enthusiasm by thereports continually coming in of new victories on the frontier, each little skirmish with a picket being invariably followed by thewithdrawal of the Turks to a position well within their own territory, according to the general order to accept no combat under actualconditions, so that the least skirmish was magnified at Athens toa new victory. The summons to demobilize was met by a point-blankrefusal, when the fleets of the powers--Russia and Franceexcepted--entered on the scene, and the blockade of the Greek coastwas declared. This saved the credit of the ministry with the country;and Deliyanni, protesting against intervention as a measure on behalfof the Sultan, and hostile to Greece, resigned, but gave no orders tohis commandants on the frontier to withdraw, and the skirmishing wenton. The King in this crisis behaved well, and put Deliyanni in thealternative of demobilizing or resigning; and, when he chose thelatter course, the King called Tricoupi to form a ministry. 

Tricoupi's position was difficult. He protested against the blockadeas an unwarrantable interference with the freedom of action of Greece, as he considered that the government should have been allowed on itsown responsibility to make war and take the consequences, as the onlymethod of teaching the Greeks how to fulfill their internationalobligation. But the withdrawal of the diplomatic representatives ofthe great powers, whose fleets were blockading the coast, had lefthim without any channel of communicating with the powers, either forprotesting or for yielding, and the fighting was increasing in extentif not in intensity. On the day, too, on which Tricoupi accepted thecharge, the Turkish commander had received his orders to cross thefrontier on the next day and march on Athens if the annoyance werenot stopped. A great extent of the frontier was not provided with thetelegraph, and the chosen partisans of Deliyanni were in command, anddetermined to force a conflict. The blockade prevented Tricoupi fromsending officers by sea to take over the command, and there was nottime to send them by land. General Sapunzaki was the only generalofficer on whom the minister could depend to obey orders, and he couldreach only a part of the line on which the fighting was going on. There was no subordination and no general plan in the offensive;but each detachment of troops on the frontier made war on its ownresponsibility, and the Turks contented themselves with repellingattacks. 

I went to the telegraph office to get the late advices in theafternoon of the last day of the fighting, when it had become verygeneral all along the frontier. Tricoupi had sent imperative orders tocease hostilities, but the telegraph had been cut, probably by someone who wanted the war to ensue, and when I found Tricoupi at thetelegraph in the afternoon in conversation with Sapunzaki overthe wire, he turned to me with an expression of intense distress, exclaiming, "They are fighting again all along the line, and if itcannot be stopped at once we are lost. " "Can I do anything?" I asked. He replied, "I should be glad if you would go to Baring" (who had beensent to take charge of the legation, but with no diplomatic powers orrelation with the Greek government) "and tell him the position, andask him to telegraph to his government to urge Constantinople to sendword to Eyoub Pasha that the Greek government had given stringentorders to stop the fighting, and ask him to coöperate. "

It was an intensely hot day in the end of May, and the streets ofAthens, deserted by the population, were an oven; not a cab was to befound on the square or in the streets. I ran to the British legation, fortunately found Baring there, and explained the position, sayingthat Tricoupi, in the absence of any diplomatic relation between them, had begged me to present myself personally to urge intervention. Baring was convinced that Tricoupi, as well as the late premier, wasbent on war, and would not at first believe that his request wassincere, but finally, overpersuaded, did telegraph to London. I thenflew to all the other legations, except the French and Russian, which had been supporting Deliyanni, and repeated the request to thesecretaries in charge, winding up with the Turkish minister, whoseship had not yet arrived, and who was therefore still in Athens, pending its arrival, and gave him the fullest explanation ofTricoupi's position and the difficulties of it, and begged him totelegraph Constantinople to order Eyoub Pasha to withdraw from thefrontier far enough to leave the bands no outlying detachment toattack. I succeeded in convincing him that Tricoupi was sincere in hisefforts to keep peace, and the good fellow said at once, "If Tricoupiis sincere, I will not stand on diplomatic etiquette, but will go tosee him at once. " He did so, and found the Greek minister at the waroffice, as he had taken that portfolio with the premiership, andthey arranged between them that the Porte should be telegraphed to, requesting Eyoub Pasha to put a sufficient distance between him andthe attacking bands of Greeks to make a conflict out of the question;and before nightfall the white flag was flying along the frontier, andcommunication established between Eyoub and Sapunzaki via Salonica, and peace was secured. 

Eyoub's orders to cross the frontier with his solid column of thirtyto forty thousand men, and march straight to Athens if the attackspersisted another day, were peremptory, and there was no force ordispositions of defense to prevent his triumphal movement. There wereno defensive works, for the jingo Greeks ridiculed the idea of needinga defensive preparation against an invasion of the Turkish army, whichthey were confident of annihilating ten to one. There was no lack ofpersonal courage on the part of the Greek population, but there was noefficient organization even of the so-called regular army, and therewas really nothing to prevent a Turkish walk-over as far as the oldfrontiers of Greece, and even there there were no earthworks. 

The sequence was disgraceful and humiliating. I wrote at the time that"The wounded are not yet all in the hospitals when the attacks onTricoupi for having ordered the demobilization already begin in theChamber and the press. His happy arrival at the moment of danger hassaved Greece from, a disaster which, now that it is averted, theGreeks in general will never believe to have been so near, and willnot accept as a lesson. " And for the trifling part I had taken in thefinal negotiations I was afterwards insulted in the streets of Athensas having "prevented the Greeks from marching to Constantinople. " Theygot their lesson years after, when they were far better prepared forwar than on this occasion. But Tricoupi was right when he said thatthe blockade was a mistake, and that the powers should have allowedthe Greeks to take their own course and learn their lesson. Undiscriminating Philhellenism has been the worst enemy of Greece. 

The flurry over and quiet restored, the heat, the excitement, and thehard and unremitting work and anxiety of that month of May told onme, and I broke down with an attack of nervous prostration and acutedyspepsia, by which I was quite incapacitated from movement. Takingthe first steamer to Naples, I passed the rest of the summer at Rome, disabled, until the heats had passed, for any considerable exertion. But, contrary to the general superstition regarding Rome, it is acity where one may pass the summer months most agreeably if not veryactively. The English ambassador of that time, Sir John SavilleLumley, afterwards Lord Saville of Burford, to whom I owe manydelightful hours in that and subsequent years, used to say that heknew no city where one could pass the year so delightfully as in Rome. By strict diet and an activity limited to the hours of the earlymorning and afternoon I weathered the summer, but each return of theheats during the succeeding six years brought me a relapse, so thaton the whole I paid a long penalty for my participation in Greekpolitics. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII

CRISPI--A SECRET-SERVICE MISSION--MONTENEGRO REVISITED

The following year was marked by the accession of Crispi to thedirection of the government of Italy. So many fables have accumulatedregarding Crispi, and such bitterness of prejudice against him even inEngland, that as one of the very few disinterested witnesses of hisconduct from that day until his second fall after Adowah, and supposedto be in his confidence, I am disposed to put briefly on recordmy impressions of him. His popularity at that date (1887) wasincontestably greater than that of any other Italian statesman, butthe animosity entertained for him by the Radicals was intense, owingto his most vigorous repression of all anti-dynastic tendencies, andthe bitterer for his having once been himself a Radical leader; but, what was at first sight inexplicable, the hostility to him ofthe Conservatives was scarcely less bitter than that of theRepublicans, --the former because he had once been a Republican, andthe latter because he had ceased to be one. The leading chiefs ofgroups among the politicians were afraid of him on account of hisstrength, and the court had the most cordial hatred of him, partlybecause he had never tried to conciliate it or to conceal his distrustof it, and partly because Signora Crispi was an object of aversion toall the society of Rome. This aversion was intensified by the factthat, as the wife of a member of the order of the Annunciata, she wasentitled to precedence over all the Italian nobility not so honored. 

A Knight of the Annunciata is technically the cousin of the King, andat the receptions of the Queen, Signora Crispi, who was really anantipathetic person, had her seat in the royal circle, where shesat as completely ignored by all present as if she were a statue ofAversion. I am convinced that the larger part of the animosity shownfor Crispi by the better classes in Rome was due to her. One ofCrispi's oldest and most constant friends told me of a visit he oncemade to his house with General----, one of the Mille of Marsala, when, as they left the house, the general said mournfully, "Poor Crispi, hehas not a friend in the world. " "Nonsense, he has thousands, " repliedthe other. "No, " returned the general, "if he had _one_ he would killthat woman. " In the latter part of Crispi's first ministry we were onfriendly terms, though our first intercourse was anything but kindly;but I avoided going needlessly to his house to the end of my term ofresidence in Rome, except when the service demanded it, because I didnot like to meet his wife. 

Crispi and I were never intimate, and the supposed confidence betweenus never extended beyond the communication of political matter whichhe thought should be made public, and which could be made publicwithout violation of official secrecy. He had far too high an estimateof his position as the head of the government of one of the powersof Europe to enter into intimacy with a correspondent of even the"Times, " a journal of which, nevertheless, he always spoke with therespect due another power. "It is not merely a journal, but a greatpublic institution, " he said, and he treated me as the agent of thatpower; but intimacy in any other sense there never was. Crispi had, toa degree I never knew in any other Italian minister, the sense of thedignity of his position, which, to those who did not read the manthoroughly, seemed arrogance, and made him many enemies. He had aninvincible antipathy to newspaper correspondents, but at the outset ofour acquaintance I made him understand that even if he did not seefit to treat me with cordiality, he should not treat the "Times" withdisrespect. He had two secretaries, Alberto Pisani Dossi, one of themost noble Italian natures I ever knew, and Edmond Mayor, a Swiss, naturalized in Italy, and an admirable diplomat, now in its service, an honest, faithful child of the mountain republic; and both thesebecame and remain my excellent friends, and, as they were permitted, they kept me informed of the matters which it was for the advantageof the "Times" to know; but until near the end of the first term ofCrispi's premiership we never came nearer than that to being friends. I found his manner intolerable, as, no doubt, other journalists did, and, as the relations of the journalists to the man in office are inItaly generally corrupt, Crispi's aversion to them and their waysaccounted easily for the very general and violent hostility betweenhim and the press. 

The tone of the journals in Italy has very little to do with publicopinion. All the world knows that, with the exception of two orthree dailies, the Italian papers are the organs of purely personalinterests, ambitions, and opinions, --not even of parties, which do notexist except in the form of fossil fragments; and when a journal emitsan opinion or formulates a policy, everybody knows that it is theopinion or policy of the man who has a dominant or entire control ofits columns. Crispi had his own journal, "La Riforma, " which franklyand entirely expressed his views, and he paid no attention to theothers. I happened to be on the way to the Foreign Office the dayafter Crispi assumed the reins of government, and by the way fell inwith the foreign editor of one of the journals of the Left, exultingin the accession of a minister of his old party. He said to me, "Iwill wager you, Stillman, that in six weeks we are recognized asofficial, "--which meant subsidized. He had his audience first, andit was short, but within the fortnight his paper was one of the mostviolent opponents of the ministry. I had my audience, and in fiveminutes I turned my back on the premier and walked out of the office, and never put my foot in it again until, many weeks after, sometrouble on the African frontier between English and Italian officersbrought me a request from Crispi to come and receive a communication. 

I finally conquered his respect by showing him that I was the sincerefriend of Italy, and our relations became confidential as far as hisvery rigorous sense of his official limitations permitted, but not aline beyond. I have seen in his hands the copy of the treaty ofTriple Alliance, but I never drew from him the faintest hint of itsprovisions except that it was purely defensive and contained nostipulation for any aggressive movement under any circumstances. Ilearned them from other sources, and, with the changes of ministriesand the diversities of their policies, foreign as well as domestic, there is no doubt that all the powers are fully informed of thedetails of the treaty. But personal intimacy, in the sense of thatfriendship which obtains amongst equals, could never have existedbetween us. Crispi is extremely reticent and reserved in his personalrelations and has very few intimate friends, and those, so far as Iknow, entirely amongst the faithful few who were his intimates in thedays of insurrection and conspiracy; but I know him as well as anyone out of that circle, and I know him to be an absolutely honestand patriotic statesman, the first of Italy since Cavour. It is myopinion, too, that he is the ablest man not only in Italy but inEurope, since the death of Bismarck. In 1893 he was urged to assumethe dictatorship, and the King in the general panic was willing toaccord it, but Crispi refused, saying, "I am an old man with fewyears to live, but I will not give my countrymen an example ofunconstitutional government. "

But Italian politics are only the wrangle of personal ambitions and offaction intrigues. The Chamber is a legislative anarchy from which afew honest and patriotic men occasionally emerge as ministers througha chance combination, to disappear again with the first tumult, andthe influence of the chief of the state was never such as to guide itout of the chaos. King Humbert, one of the truest gentlemen and mostcourteous sovereigns that ever sat on the throne of any country, nevermade an effort to defend the prerogatives of the crown, and acceptedwith the same _bonhomie_ every ministerial combination proposed tohim, whether it comprised dangerous elements or not. At no time did heattempt to exert the enormous influence which the crown possesses inItaly for the maintenance of a consistent policy, internal or foreign. Lord Saville told me that, when Crispi came to power in 1887, he askedthe King if he was a safe head of the government, and the King repliedthat it was better to have him with them than against them, for atthat time Crispi was regarded by all Conservatives as the devil ofItalian politics. But in the following years Crispi's profound--evenexaggerated--reverence for the King, and his masterly administrationof the government, had laid all the apprehensions of the sovereign atrest, and gained for him the widest popularity ever possessed, in myknowledge of Italian affairs, by any minister. The King said to methat he had the most absolute confidence in his devotion, integrity, and abilities. Yet, when in 1891 an artificial crisis in the Chambergave Crispi his first defeat on a question of so little constitutionalimport that his successors adopted his measure and passed it, the Kingaccepted with the same equanimity a ministry composed of the mostdiscordant elements, ignoring all the constitutional proprieties. Ata later epoch, that of 1893, when Crispi saved Italy from menacingchaos, the King repeated to me his expression of confidence in Crispiand his very low opinion of his only possible alternative, Rudiní, butin the succeeding crisis accepted Rudiní with the same cheerfulness hehad shown when Crispi saved the position in 1893. 

Nothing could exceed the devotion of the King to his subjects andtheir personal welfare, but he allowed the ship of state to drift intothe breakers because he would not maintain the highest prerogativeof the crown, that of insisting on a ministry which possessed anddeserved his confidence. Knowing, as he did, that parliamentarygovernment in Italy had become a mere farce and the derision of thecountry, he never attempted to insist on exercising any influence onthe composition of the ministry, which represented his authority aswell as the popular will, and in 1896 he yielded the dissolution ofthe Chamber to the pressure of a court favorite against the advice ofall his constitutional advisers. Personally I was a warm admirer ofthe man, but I regard his reign as a long disaster to the kingdom ofItaly, the greater because his personal qualities gave him such a holdon the population that he might safely have assumed any initiativebeneficial to the state. He might have abolished the Chamber--heallowed it to abolish him. 

The return of the summer heats bringing on a recurrence of the maladyacquired at Athens, I was obliged to leave Italy for the summer and Ireturned to England. On my arrival the "Times" manager proposed tome a trip to America in quest of evidence connected with the Parnellcase. A professional detective sent out some time before had failed toget hold of the threads of the question, and MacDonald, thinking thatas an American I might succeed where the professional had failed, desired me to try my luck. Of the general history of that case thepublic has long ago learned all that it cares to know. I had nothingto do with that and am not here concerned with it; but I had a curiousand interesting experience in my visit, the object of which was theobtaining of documents that would confirm the connection of Mr. Parnell with secret and illegal acts in Ireland, with which the Irishconspirators in America were probably connected, it being hopedthat some of the latter might be induced to give up documents inconfirmation. 

I had warned MacDonald that the published facsimile of a letterpurporting to have been written by Parnell in connection with thePhoenix Park murders was not what he supposed it to be, and that thetheory that it had been written by Parnell's secretary and signed byParnell was erroneous. It was clear to me that it had been written andsigned by the same hand and by the same pen. I had once gone througha complicated case of forgery with Chabot, the great expert inhandwriting, in the course of which I became greatly interested inthe man. We had become friends and he had taught me all that couldbe taught of his profession, so that I had some capacity to form ajudgment on the matter. MacDonald replied that they were certain oftheir facts, and that they should maintain that position. There wasample personal evidence that a letter of the import of that producedin facsimile in the "Times" had been sent by Parnell to Sheridan, whowas implicated in the Phoenix Park murders, and that this letter hadbeen seen by many persons supposed to be in the councils of the Irishparty! and it is probable that Pigott had seen it and bargained forits delivery to some party on behalf of the "Times. " He was probablydeluded in this expectation, and, not to fail in his promise, reproduced it from memory and with the aid of the handwriting ofParnell's secretary and an old signature of Parnell, and delivered itas the original. Confirmation of this hypothesis is given by the factthat Parnell dared not bring his suit against the "Times" until theforged letter had been shown in court in the course of the connectedcase of O'Donnell, and was seen by him not to be the original. Thatwas safe in the custody of Sheridan, who had taken it to America andkept it in hiding from both parties. It was the special object of mymission. 

The English detective who had preceded me had the naïveté to applyto the chief of the New York detective police, an Irishman, forassistance, and was handed over to pretended colleagues who werereally agents of the Irish organization, and so completely duped bythem as to be induced to send a supposed detective (who was one ofthemselves) to Mexico, where he was assured that Sheridan had gone, and led to undertake various operations which were simply contrivancesto make him lose his time and his money. 

On carefully surveying the ground at New York before attempting tomake any direct application to any person whom I supposed capable offurnishing me with what I sought, I discovered that the detectiveservice of New York was in the hands of the Fenian organization, thatthe chief of police (now deceased) was their confederate, and, above all persons, not to be taken into my confidence, and that theprincipal line of transatlantic telegraph was under the supervision ofa confederate of the association. The latter betrayed himself at onceby the absurd difficulties he made about my registering a Londontelegraphic address, which I at the instant saw to be assumed for thepurpose of delay and imposing on me a prearranged address, which, however, I accepted with apparent simplicity and good faith. Mytelegrams were of course to be in cipher, and this was so secure fromall attempts at deciphering that I had no anxiety about the Irishchiefs solving it. I have heard in later times that they boasted ofhaving copies of all my messages (which is probable) and having readthem, but this was impossible, as not only was the cipher extremelydifficult to any one even who had the key, but the key was changedevery day by a scheme arranged before I left London and known only bythe office and myself. My cipher, if used according to the directions, is absolutely insoluble by any patience or experience, and the Fenianboast that they read it was pure "blague. " I knew that they had thetelegraph in their hands and made my arrangements accordingly. But thesecret power of the organization surprised me, though I knew very wellthe political influence at election time which the rottenness of ourpolitics gave them. 

I obtained from a leading New York merchant a letter of introductionto a well-known private detective whom, as a fellow-countryman, Isucceeded in so far interesting in my work that I had no difficulty ingetting from him all the useful information that he possessed; butto my request for practical assistance he replied that half of thedetectives in his own employment were Irish, and that the knowledgethat he had taken part in any such undertaking as mine would lead totheir desertion and the paralysis of his own service. But he put mein the way of getting the services of a most competent detective whoworked on his own hook, and from whom I obtained all that I needed. Hesucceeded in tracing Sheridan to a ranch in Nevada, and ascertainedthat he had the Parnell letter which we wanted, but that he did notcarry it with him, for fear of being robbed of it, and that he waswatched so closely by the agents of the Fenian organization that, asmy mission was suspected, my connection with the "Times" being knownto all the world, any attempt on my part to enter into personalrelations with him would be dangerous to me personally, and if I didsucceed in purchasing the desired document from him, I should bekilled, if necessary, to get it from me. Sheridan was willing to sellit, but he considered his life to be in such danger if it were knownthat he had done so, that he demanded a price which would, in theevent of his being assassinated, put his wife at ease for the rest ofher life. Later he would have accepted a much smaller price, and it issaid that a prominent English Radical, to put the matter out of thepossibility of renewal of the accusation, subsequently purchased it. 

Pending these researches and the arrival of a reply by post tomy request at length for more detailed instruction as to certainnegotiations which I had entered into, I went into the Adirondackwoods for ten days, a movement which proved how closely I was watchedby the Irish agents. Since my early knowledge of that wilderness, arailroad had been built through it, and to see the portion throughwhich it passed--a section far from my old haunts--I followed it asfar as "Paul Smith's Hotel, " on the northern edge of the woods, andthen took a boat across the lake country, reaching "Martin's, " on thesouth, near my former camping-grounds. Two days later an Irishmanarrived at "Martin's" from "Paul Smith's, " in a buggy. As I had madeno secret of my destination in leaving Smith's, having no suspicion ofbeing shadowed, and quite indifferent to it if attempted, I suspectedat once that our Hibernian guest was on my track. He brought with himan old army carbine, but as it was the close season for the deer, andthe arm was rusty and unfit for sporting uses, I was confirmed in mysuspicions that his business was with any person who might come tohold a conference with me. Finding that no one came to meet me, hegrew friendly and, under the influence of the good whiskey plentifulthere, confidential. He pretended to have served in the Federalcavalry during the War of Secession, and that the carbine was hisaccustomed weapon; but one day when well soaked with whiskey he wasinduced to come out and join in a shooting match, when we found thathe actually did not know how to fire at a mark, and it was evidentthat his employers considered that a revolver would be a greaterdanger to him than to the man he was expected to punish, and so hadprovided him with a safer weapon. I kept him pretty drunk for two orthree days, and he told us frankly that he was employed usually incarrying messages between New York and Ireland. There remained noquestion that his business was to take care of any traitor to thecause who might have been so incautious as to meet me in secret, andthe caution of my detective that my life was in danger if I enteredpersonally into negotiation with Sheridan was shown to be justified. 

As the negotiations had showed me that the members of the party werenot all incorruptible, and as I had learned that Tynan, who wasthen in New York, and who was supposed to be the famous No. 1, wasconversant with all the facts relating to the murder in Phoenix Park, I suggested to my friend the principal detective that I should makeTynan a direct bid for the information we wanted, offering an amplecompensation. He replied that Tynan was incorruptible, and that myproposition would most probably be regarded as an insult which hewould resent by a revolver bullet, "and, " he added, "in the presentstate of politics here, no jury could be found which would convict himof murder. "

As the result of my expedition, we obtained some unimportantdocuments, though nothing that related to Parnell; but the pictureof the state of politics in New York, dominated by a clique ofconspirators and murderers, in possession of the police of the city, and the telegraph service, sitting as a Vehmgericht in the principalcity of the Union, and paralyzing the criminal law whenever itssecurity was threatened, was worth some trouble and expense. Of itstruthfulness there remained no question. I did not depend on onesource of information in my researches, but, having had a confidentialletter to the English consul in New York, I applied to him for helpsimultaneously with my dispatch of the detective, and he ultimatelyconfirmed the report of the detective in every respect, but cautionedme on my first visit against coming to the consulate again, as thesurveillance of the Fenians was constant, and if my business with himwere suspected it might lead to needless complications, so that I wasobliged, in order to consult him, to meet him at some prearrangedplace, a restaurant by choice, where we could exchange informationwithout attracting the attention of the Fenian spies. 

Though the chief object of my mission was not attained, theinformation I did gather was considered of such importance that on myreturn to Rome the "Times, " "for the good service rendered, " added tomy salary the rent of my quarters, the only advance in my pay evermade from the beginning of my service. I remained in charge of the twopeninsulas, Greece and Italy, as long as Mr. MacDonald lived. He diedin 1889, and though I have never had any ground for discontent at therelation I was in with the office, under either his successor or thechange of proprietorship which took place not long after, I felt whenMacDonald died that the strongest personal tie which bound me to thepaper was severed. When I joined the staff Delane was the editor, andthough, on account of his health, he rarely interfered in the detailsof the management, and my relations were entirely with the sub-editor, Mr. Stebbing, whose real and hearty friendship was matter of greatpersonal satisfaction to me then and since, we always felt that Delanewas over us. When Chenery succeeded, the relation became one ofcordial friendship with the chief, who was a scholar as well as ajournalist, of whose sympathy for a good piece of work one was sure. His death and the accession of Mr. Buckle in no manner changed mysituation at the office, but it was another editorial change, whilewith MacDonald not only had I the relation of a subordinate with afriendly chief, in constant correspondence on every point of dutyfrom the beginning of my service, but there were many and strong tiesbetween us in outside sympathies, and he was as kind to me as an elderbrother. He was most unjustly credited with the Pigott fiasco, but, as I have shown, the evidence of the genuineness of the letter whichPigott had forged was so strong that the experienced counsel were alldeceived by it, and the conduct of Parnell himself showed that he wasnot sure that it was not the genuine document until he saw it. _Aufond_ the "Times" was right, and its accusation against Parnell wasfully justified, but by one of those chances which occur to even themost prudent, there was a defect in the chain of evidence at the mostimportant point. 

The animosities developed by the affair found expression in terms ofthe most unjustifiable imputations of collusion with the forgery, onthe part of MacDonald and Mr. Walter, which I have seen repeated inlater years; but no one who knew either of the men would for a momentadmit that there could be a shadow of justice in the imputation. Mr. Walter, though of an uncompromising hostility to any politicalmeasures or persons that he considered dangerous to the country, wasof an inflexible sincerity and honesty, and absolutely incapable ofthe remotest complicity with a fraud. No other man of his race have Iknown in whom the patriotic fire burned more intensely, or whobetter merited the description of the Latin poet, "Justum et tenacempropositi virum, " or had more of the English bulldog tenacity in acause which he considered just and of vital importance to the country. Slow to form antipathies, he was immovable in them once formed, and asconstant in his confidences once he found them merited. To his intenseconservatism and antagonism to shifty politics was probably duethe unvarying opposition of the "Times" to Home Rule and all otherattempts at infringement of the British Constitution, but so far as myown experience goes he never attempted to influence the views of thecorrespondence. There were points in which, in regard to Italian andGreek affairs, he differed from me seriously, but he never imposeda hair's weight on what I had to say, nor do I believe that heintentionally influenced the tone of the paper beyond the exercise ofthe inevitable control over its national policy. The antagonism to theUnited States at the outbreak of the War of Secession was Delane's, and not in accordance with Mr. Walter's feeling, but, like most ofDelane's views, borrowed from London society or the government. The"Times" has its traditions like those of a monarchy, interests todefend which are not in all cases those of an ideal state policy, butare those which have made England what she is, and which are probablythose which will keep her what she is the longest and most safely. Andof these interests, and of this inflexible maintenance of them, JohnWalter was the most strenuous of supporters. He was a consistentliberal as far as he felt liberalism to be perfectly safe, but he hadthe most vivid dislike of Gladstone and his ways; a dislike datingfrom their earliest contact in the House of Commons, long beforeGladstone adopted Home Rule. And to this nature the character ofMacDonald responded as the natural executive. The following letterwhich I received from Mr. Walter in reply to mine of grief at thedeath of MacDonald, tells the story of their relation better than Ican. 

 Bearwood, December 19, 1889. 

 Dear Mr. Stillman, --One appreciates true sympathy at such a time as this, and none that I have received has touched me more than yours. It is sad indeed to go down to the office and be no more greeted with MacDonald's cheery voice and kindly look. His illness was unexpected and its progress rapid. Within a few days after his return from his holiday in Mull, he was attacked by the complaint which proved fatal--"an enlargement of the prostate gland"--brought on, I have no doubt, by exposure day after day to continual rain, and accompanied by recurrent attacks of fever. To myself personally his loss is irreparable, for I had been intimately associated with him for thirty years, while his connection with the paper, formed in my father's time, was very much longer. He was confident, to the last, of the successful issue of the great cause to which he had devoted so much time during the last three years, and I would that he had been spared to witness it. 

 Yours very truly, J. WALTER. 

Of the fourteen years of increasing and finally cordial intimacythat followed Mr. MacDonald's acceptance of my services as casualcorrespondent of the "Times, " I have the unbroken record in the fileof letters received from him at every post where my duty carried me. These contain the evidence of a noble, honest, and sympathetic nature, whose loss to me was, as Mr. Walter found it, "irreparable, " forsuch friendships sever themselves from all relation of interest andbusiness. 

During the tenure of the joint jurisdiction over Greece and Italy, Ihad an amusing experience through a report of my assassination by theAlbanians. I profited by one of the visits to Athens and Crete topass through Trieste and take Montenegro and northern Albania inthe itinerary. Disembarking at Cattaro I drove by the new road toCettinje, a magnificent drive with unsurpassed views seaward andinland, but the abolition of the natural defense of Montenegro againstthe Austrian artillery. No doubt the astute Prince understood thatafter the recognition of Montenegrin nationality by all Europe and theemphasis put on its importance by the Dulcigno demonstration and itsresults, he could afford to ignore the hostility of Austria and takehis chances as the head of a civilized nation which had rights Austriamust respect. But even in this breaking down of a barrier provided bynature he showed his shrewdness and tenacity, for the Austrians, inpassing the frontier, had made the trace of the road pass over anelevation from which their artillery would command the difficult gorgethat was the gate to the principality, and the Prince refused to bringhis portion of the road to meet it but brought it up to the frontierby a safe route, and left the terminus there until the Austriansbrought their road to meet it where the junction was in favor of theMontenegrin defense. 

My reception in Cettinje was one of the pleasant incidents of mycareer as correspondent, for it was marked by a grateful cordialityunique in my experience, and I saw that a people and a Prince couldretain gratitude for past services where nothing was needed or to beexpected in the future. The Prince received me as a brother. There wasno time to revisit under happier circumstances the familiar places asI should have been glad to do, but I determined at least to see thenew possessions on the coast, and passing from Cattaro I followed thecoast road by Spizza, the impregnable (if defended) fortress whichhad surrendered to Montenegro towards the close of the war, and was, without the shadow of a right, taken possession of by Austria in thesettlement, and made a halt at Antivari. Here all was decay and ruin;the damages by the bombardment years before had not been repaired, theformer Albanian inhabitants, mainly Mussulmans, had not returned, andthe Montenegrins had not come. I could not even pass the night there, but took a boat from the port (there is no harbor) to Dulcigno. Theowner of the boat put a mattress in it where I could lie at length, and so, sleeping, or listening to the songs of the rowers, or watchingthe stars overhead, I found myself in the course of the night atDulcigno, where I was warmly received and hospitably entertained bythe governor, a comrade of the war-days. With a little expenditure andenergy Dulcigno might be made a delightful winter resort, the climatebeing that of Naples and the surroundings picturesque, but Montenegrohas neither the capital nor the appliances to profit by its position. A company had proposed to the Prince to build a port and constructa hotel and all necessary appurtenances if he would give, incompensation, the right of establishing gaming-tables, after thefashion of Monte Carlo, but the Prince, awake to the importance ofmaintaining the respect of Europe so fairly won, refused the offer. 

From Dulcigno the road I had to take to Scutari was a plunge into theunknown. I hired two horses, one a pack-horse for the baggage and theother a poor hack for riding. The roads were fetlock deep in mud, and the whole region so inundated that we often had to take acrosscountry, profiting by the ridges to avoid fording the unconjecturabledepths of water in the ancient roads. At one point we had to pass adeep ditch, over which I forced my horse to jump, but the baggagehorse refused it until pushed to it by main force, when he plumpedin over head, ears, and baggage, and we had very great difficulty toextricate him, as the water was at least four feet below the bank. But I reached Scutari fortunately before night, wet, bedraggled, andmuddied from head to foot, my clothes in tatters from the tenaciouswait-a-bit thorn hedges we had had to force our way through, and allmy baggage soaked, more or less as the water had had time to penetrateto it. Not an inhabited house did we pass on the way, such had beenthe terror of the border warfare still not dissipated. But fromScutari south there were other dangers. The Albanians were in a stateof incipient revolt, and the country was unsafe for a Turkish escort, if even such protection were not to me a greater danger, and I found, not I confess without a little trepidation, that the only protection Icould count on was the consular postman who rode with the mail-bag toSan Giovanni di Budua, the first point at which the Austrian Lloydsteamers called. We met with no annoyance, however, and though we hadat some points curious looks we encountered nothing more offensive, but I decided to give up the remainder of the land journey till morepropitious times. San Giovanni seems to have been an important Romanport and there are interesting remains of the Imperial epoch. 

On my arrival at Athens I received a telegram from my brother-in-lawin London mysteriously praying me, "If you are alive, wire us. " On theheels of that came another from my father-in-law, "If you are safe, telegraph to Marie, " one to Tricoupi, then prime minister, to ask newsof me, one to the English legation from the Foreign Office demandinginformation of my whereabouts, and another to the same from the"Times"--to all which I could get no explanation nor could anybodyin Athens conjecture the why of the querying. We soon learned that atelegram from Cettinje, based on a report from Albania, had reportedmy being beheaded in the interior of Albania. I was honored by aquestion in the House of Commons, and obituary notices were generalin the American papers. The official Montenegrin journal went intomourning. Several kind-hearted ladies waited on my wife in Florenceto condole with her, but as I had telegraphed her on receipt of thetelegram from her father that I was well, and the Italian papers withthe news of my death had not frightened her, for she never read them, the condolence was discounted and the condoling friends went away, their object unexplained and their equanimity upset by the informationthat she had received a telegram from me that morning. There wasa small compensation in the reading of my obituary notices, asatisfaction that can rarely be given a man. 

CHAPTER XXXIX

ITALIAN POLITICS

In the reorganization of the office consequent on the entry of a newmanager, I was offered the choice between the posts of Athens andRome. Personally I should have preferred Athens, but I had recentlyestablished my family at Rome, and the serious objection to a familyresidence at Athens in the want of any refuge from the heats of theintense summer of that city at a practicable distance from it, wasan insuperable obstacle to my accepting it. The succession of LordDufferin to the Embassy at Rome, and the friendly personal relationswhich his large-hearted nature established between the Embassy and thecorrespondentship, made the position highly agreeable. He was of allthe diplomats I have ever known the one who best understood howto treat a correspondent. He took my measure as correspondent andaccepted me _pro tanto_ into his confidence. He used to say, "I tellyou whatever information there is, because I know that then you willnot telegraph what ought not to be telegraphed, while if you find itout for yourself I have no right to restrain you. "

In 1890 the negotiations between England and Italy in reference to theoccupation of Kassala by the latter, culminated in the congress ofNaples, where Crispi met Sir Evelyn Baring (now Lord Cromer), for thediscussion of the conditions. Until that time my relations with Crispihad been such as he generally maintained with journalists, viz. , adistant civility, but in my case attended by confidential relationswith his two secretaries. I attended the congress, and was admittedby both Dufferin and Baring to such confidential knowledge of thenegotiations as was possible. From Crispi's private secretary Ilearned his views, and, knowing the opinions on both sides, I was ableto remove certain prejudices on the part of Crispi and so smooth thedifficulties which his suspicious nature raised. Unfortunately therewas one misapprehension on his part of which I became aware too late, namely, that Sir Evelyn Baring was hostile to Italians in Egypt andpredisposed to combat Crispi's conditions. This was due to sheermisrepresentation on the part of the Italian delegates, who were bothAnglophobes; and the conviction on the part of Crispi that he mustfight Baring as an enemy led to protracted and obstinate contest ofeach point in the conditions, till finally, just as agreement had beenarrived at, a dispatch from Lord Salisbury ordered the withdrawal fromthe negotiations, and the convention fell through, to Crispi's greatannoyance. His total miscomprehension of the large-hearted andgenerous ruler of Egypt was a misfortune to Italy and to Crispi, butthe defect was in his temperament--a morbid tendency to suspicion ofstrangers characteristic of the man and in the roots of his Albaniannature. Crispi was not a judge of men--had he been he would haveavoided the friends who ruined his political career, and made friendswho would have strengthened his position. The efforts I had made toremove misunderstandings satisfied Crispi that I was reallyfriendly to Italy and established more cordial relations between usthenceforward. In acknowledgment of his mistaken treatment of me heconferred on me the cross of commander of the Crown of Italy. 

A little later the combination was formed in the Chamber to overthrowthe ministry. I had some time before befriended Monsignor X. , thevictim of an outrageous act of injustice on the part of the Frenchgovernment, and of accessory indifference on the part of the Vatican, and he had repaid me by valuable information from the Vatican fromtime to time. When this ministerial crisis was in progress, MonsignorX. Came to me one evening to tell me that the chiefs of the factionsin opposition were in conference with agents of the Vatican to supportthem in the overthrow of Crispi. The Vatican promised to releaseCatholics from the _non expedit_ in case of the fall of the ministryand the necessity of going to the country in a general election. Theministerial combination which accepted this pact with the immitigableenemy of the unity of Italy, whose sole motive for hostility to Crispiwas the latter's invincible antagonism to the temporal power andthe immixtion of the Church in civil affairs, comprised a leadingRepublican and Radical, Nicotera, and Rudiní, the chief of theultra-Conservative group, beside members of various groups ofintervening shades of politics. Knowing little of the rottenness ofthe politics of Italy at that time I was amazed by the information ofMonsignor X. , and went at once to the Palazzo Braschi to inform Crispiand ascertain if there was positive confirmation of the information. Iasked him to use his means of intelligence at the Vatican, which wasalways sure, and so well informed that Cardinal Hohenlohe told me oneday that Crispi knew better what was passing at the Vatican than thecardinals did. On inquiry he discovered that my news was true, andfor the first time he understood the full meaning of the combinationagainst him. 

That the King should have accepted Crispi's resignation under thecircumstances (the adverse vote in the Chamber, being a surprise voteinvolving no question of policy, and, as all knew, the result of asecret combination--a conspiracy, in fact) was a grave mistake onthe part of His Majesty, and opened the way to all the confusionand parliamentary anarchy which has followed, and which to-day isincreasing and menaces the stability of the throne and the unity ofItaly. The government of Crispi had been most successful, his attitudein the Bulgarian affair had rendered an important service to thecause of European peace, as was acknowledged by Lord Salisbury in apublished dispatch, and he had strengthened the ties between Englandand Italy; he had maintained perfect order, and had effected economiesin the national expenditure to the amount of 140, 500, 000 lire a year, besides suppressing some annoying taxes and without imposing any newone, and when he fell gold was practically at par and the financialposition solid as it had not been since 1860. He had decided onthe reform of the banking system, which would have prevented thecatastrophe that fell on the succeeding ministry, and the rotten banksand the corrupt element in the Chamber which was in their pay werethe leading element in the combination against him. Under thesecircumstances the King's duty was to support a minister who had at thegrave crisis of the death of Victor Emmanuel saved the dynasty froma serious danger, who was universally known to be the only Italianstatesman whose nerve was equal to any sudden emergency, and of whosedevotion, as the King personally assured me later, he was absolutelycertain. That no reason for the crisis existed was shown by the factthat the succeeding ministry adopted the identical measure on whichCrispi was defeated. But the King (whose death has occurred while I amrevising these chapters) showed on many occasions that, though loyalto his constitutional obligation so far as deference to parliamentaryforms is concerned, he never had the nerve to assume a responsibleattitude or maintain the authority of the throne; and, while he wasready to abdicate if popular opinion demanded it, he was unable towithstand a factious and revolutionary movement as his father haddone, by calling to his support the statesmen who could maintain orderwhen menaced. His form of constitutionality was perfectly adapted toa country where the Conservative forces were supreme and theinstitutions solid; but in a half-consolidated monarchy, attacked fromwithin and without by dissolvent influences as is Italy at present, hewas a cause of weakness to good government. And Rudiní assured me whenI went to pay the formal visit of congratulation on his accession topower, that the King had said that he was in the position of the youngEmperor of Germany when he threw off the yoke of Bismarck--he wastired of Crispi's strong hand. The King later denied the statementin an audience he gave me, but I am afraid that Rudiní was, for anovelty, nearer the truth. 

Rudiní as minister of foreign affairs began with a blunder which mightwell have been fatal. When the murder of the Italian prisoners at NewOrleans took place, he determined to show his energy and patrioticspirit, and he telegraphed to the Italian minister at Washington todemand of the federal government the immediate bringing to justice ofthe murderers under the alternative of sending the Italian fleet toNew Orleans. This amazing display of ignorance of the situation andof geography appeared in the Roman journals of the next morning. As Iknew enough of the temper of my countrymen to foresee that this demandwas certain to end in war or a humiliating result to Italy, I jumpedinto a cab and drove over to the ministry of public instruction, thetitular of which, Professor Villari, was an old friend of our lifein Florence, and begged him to go at once to Rudiní and urge thecountermanding of the telegram of the previous night, for, as thefederal government had no jurisdiction in the case, it could notcomply, and the imperious demand of the Italian government, intendedfor home consumption and as demonstration of the high spirit of theministry, was certain to be peremptorily responded to, while themenace of sending the ironclad fleet to New Orleans was absurd andimpossible of execution as the Mississippi did not admit ships oftheir draft, to say nothing of the defenses of the river and thecertainty of war if the ultimatum were pushed. Vlllari at once tooka cab and drove to the house of the minister, and we never heardanything more of the matter. 

The presence (which nothing but the amorphous state of Italianpolitics could explain), in that scratch ministry, of Villari, oneof the most devoted, honest and patriotic of living Italians and foryears one of my best friends in Italy, secured my support of theministry until their financial measures came on, and I was obligedto expose their specious character in the "Times, " when our friendlyrelations ceased temporarily. Political opponents in Italy are morelikely to meet with seconds than at a friendly dinner party, as usedto be the case in the days of Minghetti and Sella, and this passionatepersonal antagonism for purely political motives which influences allpolitical and social intercourse in Italy is one of the gravest causesof political decline. 

Amongst the notable men whose friendship I gained at this period of myservice was Von Keudall, the German ambassador, one of the most humandiplomatists whose acquaintance I have ever made. Like Dufferin, he measured exactly the distance to which a correspondent couldbe treated confidentially, without encouraging him to presume oncordiality. Introduced to him by Sir John Saville Lumley, I wastreated as one of the diplomatic body, with the confidence which isso important to a journalist, and as long as he remained in Rome ourrelations were of the most cordial and unceremonious. Wishing to makeme a confidential communication one day and the coast not being clear, he asked me, in the presence of others, if I had ever seen the viewfrom the tower of the embassy, and, as of course I had not, he invitedme to come and see it, and we had our conversation on the platformof the lookout with all Rome and the Campagna spread out before us, beyond the reach of others' hearing. Von Keudall was a power in Rome, and no ambassador of any government in my time had the influence atcourt that he had. 

During the period of Von Keudall's residence Lord Rosebery cameto Rome, in an interval of being in opposition, and, as the lateSecretary for Foreign Affairs, and probably a future occupant of thesame post, it was important that in a brief stay he should see allthe important people in the capital. Lady Rosebery, who was the mostassiduous and intelligent manager possible of her husband's interests, had sent for me to ascertain who were the people whom he should knowin order to learn the true condition of affairs in Italy. Chiefamongst them I put Von Keudall, but, as Lord Rosebery did not knowhim, and the custom of Rome is that the newcomer makes the first call, Lady Rosebery was in a quandary, her ideas of the position of herhusband not consenting that he should make the first call on anambassador. At the last moment, for he was to leave Rome the midnightfollowing, she begged me to tell her how the acquaintance could bemade, without derogation of Lord Rosebery's position between twoportfolios. "Give me his card, " I replied, "and I will manage it. " Ihad intended to ask Von Keudall for some information, and I made myvisit, finding him engaged with a dispatch, and as I wrote a messageon the business on which I had come, I added that Lord Rosebery was atthe Hôtel de Rome and was leaving that night, and left his lordship'scard with mine. When I got back to the hotel I found Von Keudall'scarriage at the door and him closeted with Lord Rosebery. Andcertainly no man could then have told the English statesman the stateof things in Italy so well as the large-hearted German ambassador, who enjoyed the confidence of every element in Italian politics as asincere friend of the country. He was recalled later on account of apique of Herbert Bismarck, whose untimely meddling with public affairshad, I believe, more to do with his father's fall than any act of thePrince. As an eminent German statesman put it, in a conversation notlong after the recall of Von Keudall, "a Bismarck dynasty could not betolerated. " Von Keudall was succeeded by his antithesis, a nullity incourt and country of whom even his fellow diplomats could say nothingin praise. 

The Rudiní ministry had no long life and merited no more, while thatof Giolitti, which followed, ended in scandal and disaster. TheMinister of Foreign Affairs, Brin, with whom alone I had had to do, was an honest, able, and patriotic man, and my relations with himwere always excellent. The fall of that ministry coincided with theculmination of the financial and political disorders which were thedirect consequence of the overthrow of Crispi and the demoralizationwhich ensued. From the beginning of the financial embarrassment whichcame to its crisis during the term of Rudiní's government, I haddevoted much attention to the financial situation and had predictedthe crash when no one else foresaw it. But for Villari I shouldhave been expelled from Italy on account of my letters exposing thesituation, which created such a sensation that Rothschild wrote to afinancial authority in Rome to inquire what truth there was in them, receiving naturally such assurances as only hid the trouble. But whenthe crash came people said, "How did you know? What a prophet youwere!" etc. , etc. Tanlongo, the director of the Banca Romana, whichled off in the crash, threatened the "Times" with a libel suit, and accompanied the threat by offers to me of personal "commercialfacilitations" to drop the subject. The _argumentum ad hominem_ didnot weigh, but it was desired in the office to avoid legal troublesand I was advised to keep a more moderate tone. The disaster came sosoon after, however, that I got all the credit, and maintained abroadthe prestige of a greater authority in Italian finance than I perhapsdeserved. 

It is true that honesty and courage are two things that acorrespondent has no right to boast of, for honest editing andmanagement presupposes them in him, and a conspicuous want of eithercuts his career very short unless he is uncommonly clever; but as theresult of my personal experience I may say that, having campaignedwith many English colleagues, I have found them to be almostuniversally men of thorough honesty and unflinching courage. Personality aside, I think I may be permitted to say so much of aprofession of whose real character and besetting temptations no onecan know so much as one of themselves, and of whom the general publicknows very little. 

The financial authority which thus accrued to me became of notunimportant influence a little later when the second scratch ministrybroke up under the financial depression, with gold at 16 premium, thescandals of the bank affair oozing into publicity, and insurrectionbreaking out in Sicily and Tuscany, with movements pending in theRomagna, where the spring had come late and so saved the countryfrom a great disaster. It became so clear to even the most benightedpartisan that a strong hand at the Palazzo Braschi was imperiouslynecessary, that even the strongest Conservatives submitted in silenceto the call for Crispi which came from all parts of Italy, and nosection of the Chamber except the extreme Left, who were the primemovers in the insurrectionary movement, raised the least objection tothe old Sicilian's return to the position from which the most corruptand ignoble intrigues had driven him hardly three years before, yearsof discredit and steady demoralization. 

The disgraceful struggle for office then grown characteristic ofItalian parliamentary politics now assumed the most shameful formthat I have ever known. The general sentiment of the country was thatCrispi should be given dictatorial powers, and one of the Venetiandeputies, an ultra-Conservative, coming fresh from an audience withthe King, said to me that Crispi ought to be made dictator and thatthe King had professed his readiness to confer that power on him; andthe chiefs of all the factions that had been engaged in the conspiracyfor his downfall in 1891 were among the most eager to enter hisministry, when the King finally gave him the call to form one, afterhaving combined in the most desperate intrigues to effect some othercombination. In the anteroom of the minister designate all thepolitical world, personally or by deputy, was represented except thefriends of the insurrection, who fought him by every device. I metthere a Roman deputy who was one of the amphibious politicians thatbreed freely in Italian politics, who gave his right hand to Crispiand his left to Rudiní, and who, under the impression that I had greatpersonal influence with the old man, begged me to urge him to offerthe portfolio of Foreign Affairs to Rudiní. In fact, my defense ofCrispi in the "Times" in 1891 and the fulfillment of my predictions ofhis inevitable and necessary return to office, at a moment when therewas no one in Italy who did not consider his career at an end, gaveme a purely fanciful importance as a counselor in the crisis and ashaving great weight with the minister. 

The obsequiousness of the leading politicians at that juncture musthave given Crispi a savage satisfaction for the contumely he had hadto suffer in 1891, and there is no kind of question in my mind that, if he had then insisted as a _sine qua non_ on a dictatorship, hewould have had it with the almost universal approbation of Italiansout of office and the acquiesence of those who hoped to be in it. Cavalotti, his most implacable opponent and personal enemy indisguise, in a session of the Chamber made a passionate appeal to himto avoid Sonnino and take a ministry of one color, i. E. The Left, promising his entire devotion on such a concession. The hostility wassullen and masked, but purely parliamentary; the country at largewould have been delighted to see the old man sweep the parliament outof existence, and I am convinced that he might then have played therôle of Cromwell and received the support of nine tenths of allItalians. The Chamber had become nauseous to the nation. 

I was cool enough to see that the key of the position was finance, forI knew that Crispi would make short work with the insurrection, and Iknew also the full value of all the possible ministers of financein the country, and their influence abroad. When I saw that theconstitution of the cabinet really hung on the disposition of thatportfolio, I did not hesitate to say to Crispi that, while I could notpretend to any judgment as to the formation of the ministry at large, I could assure him that if there was to be a rehabilitation of thefinancial position of Italy abroad by his ministry, it could only beby the appointment of Sonnino to the Treasury. I said to him in somany words that Sonnino was as necessary to the restoration of thecredit of the financial situation as he himself was to that of order. The pressure in the Chamber was very great to induce him to take thefinance minister from the Left and so move toward the constitutionof the government in accordance with the color of the majority, andCrispi was urged that way by most of his oldest and most faithfuladherents, either unconscious of or indifferent to the influence offinancial opinion through Europe on the stability or success of theministry. I could see that he was hesitating and that the ideaof reconstituting parties, which had always been one of his mostcherished and important schemes, was very present with him, but Ithink that the conviction of the necessity of the restoration of theconfidence of the financial publics of Europe finally prevailedwith him, for he decided to offer the Treasury to Sonnino, to whosemeasures he subsequently gave the most thorough and loyal support, though some of them were the reverse of popular and not of possibleeffectuation without his earnest support. It is possible that myadvice turned the balance in his mind, but it is, with one laterexception, the only instance in which I ever ventured to advise him asto a political line of conduct, though I was generally credited with agood deal of meddling. 

The conduct of the Italian factions and politicians during the twoyears of the second ministry of Crispi, the internecine war ofintrigues to which the King lent a negative but effectual assent, andwhich ended in the disaster of Adowah, showed me that the Italiancommonwealth is incurably infected with political caries, and that, though the state may endure, even as a constitutional monarchy, foryears, the restoration of civic vitality to it is only to be hoped forunder the condition of a moral renovation, to which the Roman CatholicChurch is an unsurmountable obstacle, because the Church itselfhas become infected with the disease of the state, --the passion ofpersonal power, carried to the fever point of utter disregard of thegeneral good. The liberty which the extreme party in Italian politicsagitates for is only license, and, with the exception of a few amiableand impracticable enthusiasts in the extreme Left and a few honestand patriotic conservators of the larger liberties towards the Right, there are nothing but self-seekers and corrupt politicians in thestate. During the years of my residence in Italy, the strengtheningconviction of these facts has dampened my early enthusiasms for itspolitical progress and my faith in its future, and, retiring at thelimits of effective service from a position into which I had enteredwith sympathy, I buried all my illusions of a great Italian future asI had those of a healthy Greek future. My profound conviction is thatuntil a great moral reform shall break out and awaken the rulingclasses, and especially the Church, to the recognition of thenecessity of a vital, growing morality to the health of a state, there will be no new Italy. The idle dreamers who hope to cure thecommonweal by revolution and the establishment of a republic willfind, if their dream come true, that to a state demoralized in itsgreat masses, more liberty can only mean quicker ruin. The courtitself is so corrupted by the vices and immoralities which alwaysbeset courts, that it does not rally to itself the small class ofdevoted patriots who cannot yet resign themselves to despair, and whofind in a change of persons the possibility of a revival which theyhope for rather than anticipate, while it offends every day more andmore deeply the equally small class of honest and patriotic reformersof the Radical side in politics. The mortally morbid condition ofpublic feeling is shown, not in the fact that the Hon. X. Or Y. Isan immoral man, but in that he is not in the least discredited bywell-known immoralities which would banish a man from public life inEngland or America, and compared with which those with which Crispiwas charged were trivial. 

One cannot pronounce the same judgment on Greece and Italy. The decayin Greece is economic and civic, poverty of resource and resources onone side, and on the other invincible insubordination, refusal in theindividual to submit to discipline or sacrifice, the conceit of a deadand forgotten superiority which makes progress or docility impossible. The measure of apparent renovation in Athens and some other points isowing to the influence and benefactions of the Greeks who have livedand prospered in other lands, where their natural mental activity hasborne fruit, but the normal progress of the nation is so slight thatit has no chance in the race of races now being run in the Balkans. But the Greeks are preserved from a moral decay like that whichthreatens Italy by the domestic morality, due in part to temperament, but in part also to the influence of the clergy, who, if not scholarsand wise theologians, are generally men of pure domestic morality andleaders of the common people. The Orthodox Church is national, liveswith and for the people, has no political ambitions, and cannotendanger the state. 

In Italy the danger is other. The Roman Church has long ceased to be adistinctly religious institution; it has become a great human machineorganized, disciplined like an army, for a war of shadows andformalities, but now employed in the conquest of political influence, a kingdom absolutely of this world. It is as much a foreign body inItaly (or France) as if it were the Russian Church; it has no partor lot in the well-being of the Italian people, and, so far as thecentral power of it is concerned, the Vatican and its councils, itsonly purpose is to acquire political influence for its own politicalaggrandizement, to the exclusion from its field of operations ofall other creeds. For the attainment of this end it works with thesingle-eyedness which Christ recommended for other ends, to theneglect of all pressure on the people in the direction of commonmorality. The Pope, in the present case an amiable, excellentecclesiastic, is only one part of this machine, and through him itspeaks, saying, practically, to the Italian people, "Be what youplease, do what you please; only in all things which we command obeyus, "--obedience to the prescriptions of rites and ceremonies being, so far as my observation during my years of residence in Italy goes, considered as of far greater importance than the observance of thelaws of sexual morality, veracity, or common honesty. The rule ofconduct of the parochial clergy has appeared to me to be to keep theirinfluence over their flocks in purely ecclesiastical matters, and runno risk of straining that influence by interfering with their personalmorality, or by making Christianity the difficult rule of life whichit is in Puritan countries. 

I have no hostility to Roman doctrine or dogma, for the distinction Imake between the different forms of anthropomorphic religion is onlyone of degree, and I have so many personal friends amongst RomanCatholics in whom I see the fire of pure and living spiritualityglowing through the forms and superstitions of their creed that Icannot join in that indiscriminate denunciation which is commonamongst Protestants. My experience in these matters has taught me thatto certain natures the anthropomorphic forms of religion are a Jacob'sladder to that spiritual life which is the end of religion. Nor can Isee that a little more or a little less of the credulity which is, inall human minds, mingled with pure faith in the Divine, can make avital difference in the character of the religion, whatever it maymake in the creed. The most earnest man is hampered by an heredity ofcredence that makes the conception of the Supreme Being a matter ofan intellectual struggle which is to some minds insuperable, and todeprive such of the symbols which lead to a final comprehension of thetruth is no service to humanity or truth. The suppression of the RomanCatholic religion in Italy, if possible, would be only to leave itsplace vacant for unreason and anarchy, for the intellectual status ofthe common people does not admit of a more abstract belief. For thatevil influence, however, which a recent writer has designated asCurialism, which to-day has its seat at the Vatican, and whose aimand end are the absolute antagonism of all pure religion, I have norespect, and only the feeling due to unmitigated evil. It is a deadlypolitical malady, malefic in proportion to its influence on thepeople; and, I fear, until Italy is freed from it, no progress orhealthy political life or morality is possible. 

For myself, the study of the system and a comparison of its relationswith other religions completed that evolution of my religious idealwhich I regard as the principal outcome of my life. The Roman Catholicreligion is to me the _reductio ad absurdum_ of all anthropomorphicreligions, and such a study of it as was there possible drove me to alogical conclusion on the whole matter, not by a sudden revulsion, but as the gradual and normal growth of a rational evolution ofmy conceptions of the spiritual life, starting from that stage ofemancipation which my residence at Cambridge and the intercourse withthe liberal thinkers there had brought me to; the influence of Norton, Lowell, Agassiz, and Emerson especially. In this liberation I amaware of no sudden break in my belief from its crude acceptance ofmiraculous conversion and eternal damnation for the unconverted, but aslow opening of my eyes to larger truths. If any individual influenceother than those I have named came in, it would have been the readingof Swedenborg, which gave me a comprehension of what spiritual lifewas and must be; but Swedenborg himself had never been emancipatedfrom the anthropomorphic conception of Deity. He was a seer, not aphilosopher. Emancipation from ignorance will never be complete, andignorance and even superstition have their divine uses as infancy has. Once the idea of evolution as the law of life is accepted, the logicalconclusion is the reign of law and the rejection of all miraculousinterposition, and the perception of this fact by the clever schemersat the Vatican underlies the implacable hostility they show to scienceand evolution. If they could, they would have burned Darwin as theyburned Giordano Bruno. They are, and they must ever be, as thecondition of keeping up the existence and power of the Vatican and itspeculiar institutions, the enemies of mental emancipation. It is notignorance which is the enemy of wisdom, but the passion of domination. 

The Roman Catholic Church with its hypothetical succession of Peterwill exist forever, because the necessity of seeing through forms andof obedience to authority will endure as long as humanity endures, forcertain orders of mind and certain temperaments; but the politicalproblem of the existence of the Vatican in a free and united Italy, progressive and maintaining her place amongst the European powers, is one the solution of which I shall await with great interest, notregarding the triumph of the Vatican as possible according to itshopes, but not sure that the internecine struggle may not end in theruin of both contestants, since the Italians have not the courage orthe patriotism to accept the only safe measure, formal and completesuppression of all civic privileges for the Pope and his bishops--therelegation of religion to a place outside the organization ofgovernment. 

CHAPTER XL

ADOWAH AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The dolorous history of the defeat at Adowah, the decisive eventin the decline of Italy, is an epitome of all the tendencies andweaknesses of the Italian nation; and, as I was more or lessintimately informed of all the causes of it, the intrigues andtreachery which made it possible, and as no Italian who knows thestory will, for very shame, tell it, I will leave the record of what Ilearned and what I believe to be the indisputable facts. 

When Lord Salisbury came to power in 1895, he renewed a compact withItaly and Austria which had been made when Crispi was in office in hisfirst premiership, about 1888, for a common action in all questionsconcerning the Turkish Empire; and on the occasion of the Armenianmassacres he called for the execution of its provisions, sending theEnglish fleet to Turkish waters and making a requisition on Austriaand Italy for the support of their fleets. Crispi, who saw in themeasure the longed-for opportunity of action in league with England, ordered the fleet to follow that of England, and prepared themobilization of an army corps to coöperate by land. He had alreadyrevived the ancient hostility of France by the rejection of an offerof the French government, made at his accession to office, ofall desirable friendly offices, a treaty of commerce, financialfacilities, etc. , if he would withdraw from the understanding withEngland as to Mediterranean questions. The entry into the plans ofEngland for the Armenian question, which were diametrically opposed tothose of Russia, provoked the active enmity of that power, with whichItaly had until then been on friendly terms. Thenceforward Russiaunited her influence with that of France in creating difficulties forItaly in Abyssinia as the punishment of Crispi, and at the same timethe means of paralyzing one of the members of the Triple Alliance. Lord Salisbury, vacillating, as is his way, and under persuasion ofthe powers opposed to his action, consented to delay and negotiate, thus giving the Sultan time to prepare the defenses of theDardanelles, making the _coup de main_, possible at first, thenimpossible, and necessitating serious naval operations, whichwere likely to involve considerable losses if the pressure atConstantinople were to be successful. 

The abandonment of the inconsiderate scheme, initiated in obedienceto a religious agitation and far too daring for a statesman of LordSalisbury's nervelessness, having drawn Italy into such difficultiesas the result of her obedience to his call, the least that Crispicould expect was that he would be supported by all the moral if not bythe military power of England, whose influence in Abyssinia was verygreat. During the government of Lord Rosebery that influence had beendistinctly exercised in favor of Italy, in opposition to that ofFrance, and, when Crispi asked for the privilege of landing troops atZeila, the English port for Abyssinia, in case of war, it had beenaccorded, giving Italy the advantage of a menace on the rear of allthe positions of Menelek, which had in the early stages of the troublebeen efficient. The Italian government had no intention of sending anexpedition through Zeila to attack Harrar in any contingency foreseen, but the possibility of such a movement compelled Menelek to keepa strong force in Harrar and prevented the concentration whichultimately proved so disastrous at Adowah. The French governmentprotested against the concession, but the English ministry refused torecognize the right of France to protest. Lord Salisbury withdrew theprivilege, enabling the French agents to convince Menelek that Englandwas hostile to Italy, and thus decided the question of peace or warbetween Abyssinia and Italy. 

That the occupation of Abyssinia had been a folly had always been theopinion of Crispi, who, in the outset, opposed it in a speech whichproved a prophecy of all the disasters which followed; and on hisreturn to power I very strongly, in one of the two cases in which Iattempted to exercise any influence on him, urged him to withdraw fromAfrica, but the old man's patriotic pride was too intense for him toconsent to an abandonment of an undertaking in which Italian bloodhad been shed. "The flag cannot retreat, " he said, and in fact publicopinion was at that moment so strongly in favor of the maintenance ofthe colony that no ministry could have carried a proposal to abandonit. It has been the habit of the Italians since the disaster to throwthe blame for it on Crispi, but I, who was always opposed to theundertaking, can testify that at the outbreak of war, and especiallyafter the brilliant if slight victories won by the Italian troopsin Africa, Crispi would have been defeated in the Chamber if he hadproposed withdrawing. In the Chamber there was only the extreme Leftwhich opposed the war policy, and the order of the day which wasaccepted by the government as the war programme was presented by theMarquis di Rudiní, then head of the opposition, and carried by anenormous majority. As I was present at the sitting of the Chamber atwhich the vote was taken I do not speak uncertainly. 

Baratieri had been recalled to Rome on the suspicion that he wasintending to extend the conquest unduly, and I met him at a breakfastarranged by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to enable me to discussthe subject with the general. He then made the most unqualifieddeclarations that he was opposed to all extension of operations, andthat he did not ask for a man or a lira more than had been accordedto him by Crispi. Baratieri was a Garibaldian general, a daring andbrilliant commander of a brigade at most, without a proper militaryeducation, but with some experience. He was a political general, however, a partisan of Zanardelli, who had been the most insistentrival of Crispi at the formation of a ministry in 1893, and he hadbeen Zanardelli's candidate for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his nomination having been protested against by Austria on the wellunderstood ground that he was an Irredentist, that is, in favorof taking the Tyrol from Austria. In the battle of Coatit, whichinaugurated the hostilities, he had shown brilliant qualities as apartisan commander and had become very popular, so that to removehim, as Crispi had intended when he was recalled to Rome, was verydifficult, the more as he protested his strict adherence to thedefensive policy imposed on him by the ministry; but on his return itsoon became evident that he cherished more ambitious plans than hehad owned up to when in Rome, and Crispi soon saw that his recall wasnecessary. But Baratieri had now the support, not only of the commonpublic favor, but of the entire court circle, which saw in him aconvenient weapon against Crispi, and of the military party, and, through these, of the King, who refused to assent to the recall of thegeneral when Crispi finally demanded it. 

The premier was not supported in his insistence and pressure on theKing by the whole of the cabinet, and the only practical method ofgetting rid of Baratieri was by increasing the forces in Africa to thenumber at which, by the regulations, a superior officer was necessaryto command. The general chosen, Baldissera, a safe and competentcommander, was already in Africa, at Massowah, when Baratieri, warnedof his supersession in spite of all the precautions to keep secrecy, precipitated hostilities against the distinct orders of Crispi neverto attack a force superior to his own, so as to force the issue beforehe should be deprived of the command. A court-martial sat to tryBaratieri, nominally, but its sentence simply concealed all the factsand covered the responsibility, which there was good evidence to showwas morally if not technically divided between Baratieri and certainparties in the court and army cliques more desirous of overthrowingCrispi than of securing a victory. The mystery that hid all thedetails of the investigation that could fix the disgrace where itbelonged, and allowed only unimportant transactions to appear, willnever be dispelled. 

Crispi was disposed to renew the struggle, for there was within amarch of a day or two a larger Italian force than that which hadbeen defeated, under a competent commander, and the losses of theAbyssinians had been so heavy that they were unable to advance, whilethe season of rain was so close on them that they must have retreatedin a few days, even if not attacked, and if attacked in their retreatthey must have abandoned all the fruits of their previous victory. But to do this it was necessary to prorogue the Chamber until theoperations were concluded, and this course was opposed in the cabinet;Saracco, the Minister of Public Works, threatening to resign if afurther prorogation was decreed. The public panic was such that apartial crisis would have been the signal for an outbreak of disorderson the part of the parties opposed to the African policy, headedby the extreme Left in the Chamber, --a risk which several of theministers were indisposed to face, --and the ministry resigned withoutwaiting to meet the Parliament. 

Civic courage in Italy is so low that any grave military or civildisaster, no matter on whom should fall the responsibility, entails achange of ministry, and in this case even the King abandoned Crispi, though the chief responsibility for the disastrous result of thecampaign rested on himself. Humbert always retreated before anypopular commotion. He never understood that the duty of the sovereignwas to lend his moral support to his ministers so long as noconstitutional question was involved, or until there had been theexpression of the will of the nation, deliberately formulated, and notby the accidental votes which in the Italian Chamber are oftener theresult of conspiracies or panics than of any question involving apolitical measure. Parliamentary government in Italy is a caricatureof the form, demanding for its safe working the most conservativeinfluence of the Crown to control its action. But Humbert, by yieldingto every gust of excitement in the Chamber which, even by a surprise, menaced the ministry, encouraged and developed the disorderly tendencyand the strength of the subversive party which always profited by thedisorders. Victor Emmanuel in a similar case quelled the anarchy bydissolving the Chamber; Humbert had never that degree of courage evenwhen he knew that the disorder was directed against the monarchy, notmerely against a ministry; and he is, more than any other person, thecause of the decline and anarchy in parliamentary government in Italy. 

In the succeeding ministry the King had the unprecedented courage torefuse to accept Rudiní and his programme, but admitted his inclusionin the ministry of General Ricotti, an old and admirable soldier andmilitary organizer, who was resolved to begin his administration bya long desired and needed reorganization of the army, reducing itsnumbers and increasing its efficiency. On this point the King wasinflexible, for he always refused to allow the army to be reducedorganically, though he never refused to accept such a diminution ofthe rank and file as made it utterly inefficient for an emergency, solong as the _cadres_ and the number of officers were not diminished. He sent a message to some senators who were in his confidence to theeffect that the measure of Ricotti must be defeated there, as he couldnot count on its being rejected by the popular assembly. The senaterejected it, and Ricotti, unsupported by his colleagues, resigned. The régime of half measures and little men returned. The accession ofVictor Emmanuel III. May bring about a change, if the new King hasstatesmen to fall back on, but I do not see them amongst the old men. The only man competent to assume an effective reconstitution of thestate is Sidney Sonnino, the Secretary of the Treasury with Crispi, but he is not a popular man, and, if he attempts to govern by thestrong measures necessary, he will meet the same hostility whichalways assailed Crispi. Nothing less than the courage and abilities ofa Cromwell could reform government in Italy, and, in the opinion ofsome of the wisest and most patriotic Italians I know, the task ishopeless and the decay inevitable. 

Fully convinced of this myself, I could but lose that interest in thefuture of Italy which had always made residence there so attractiveto me. Moreover, I had arrived at an age which rendered the properperformance of the duties of my position on the "Times" impossible. Accordingly, I sent in my resignation and returned to England, wherein such condition of social and intellectual activity as my years andcircumstances permit, I hope to end my days, no longer a participantin political affairs and content simply to live. 

INDEX

 A. , Miss, spiritualistic medium A'ali Pasha Abyssinia, Italians in Adams, Charles Francis, minister to England during the Civil War Adirondack Club Adirondacks, life in the _Adirondacs, The_, poem by Emerson Adowah, defeat at, the decisive event in the decline of Italy circumstances which led to it results _After the Burial_ Agassiz, Louis is pleased with one of Stillman's pictures first meets Stillman makes excursion with the Adirondack Club his scientific work personal character brief mentions of Agios Rumeli Aiguille de Varens Alabama, the Confederate cruiser Albania, Stillman's travels in Albanians, character and customs of intellectual capacity Albert, Prince, his attitude towards the United States in the Civil War Alcott, A. Bronson Aldrich, T. B. , contributes to _The Crayon_ Ali Saib Pasha Alps, _See_ Switzerland. Aluga American Archaeological Institute, Stillman undertakes expedition for American Art Union "American Pre-Raphaelite, " Stillman so called Ames, Mr. , Stillman's companion on voyage to England Ampersand Pond Anakim, procession of the Anti-rent war in New York Antivari Antonelli, Cardinal, character of Appleton, Thomas Gold, contributes to _The Crayon_ his character Appleton, William H. Arethusa, English frigate, at Crete Arkadi, convent of Arkadi, the blockade runner Armenian massacres, action of England and Italy in regard to Armitage, Mr. , fellow art-student with Stillman Art in America in Stillman's youth Art instruction in France and England compared Art Union of New York buys a picture by Stillman Arthur, Chester A. , school and college friend of Stillman Askyphó Associateship of Design, Stillman elected to, 140. Assurance, English vessel, at Crete Atlantic, the steamer, 139. _Auf Wiedersehen_

 Bacevich, Maxime Backwoods experiences. _See_ Adirondacks, life in the. Bailey, Philip James Baldissera, General, appointed to command of Italian forces in Africa Ball, Daniel Banovich, Mitrofan Baptists, Seventh-Day. _See_ Seventh-Day Baptists. Baratieri, General, commanding Italian forces in Africa Barbieux, French officer in Herzegovina Baring, Sir Evelyn Barnum, P. T. Basil, St. , Herzegovinian bishop Bath, Marquis of Beaconsfield, Lord, his Aylesbury speech comment on Montenegrin affairs discussed by Stillman and Gladstone Beaulieu, M. Le Hardy de, Stillman's meeting with Beaver Brook _Bed of Ferns_, Stillman's picture Buskin's criticism of, rejected by the Academy _Being a Boy_ Bennett, James Gordon Berdas, the, Stillman's journey into invasion by the Turks Berlin, Treaty of Bigelow, John, managing editor of the _Evening Post_ _Biglow Papers_, edited by Thomas Hughes Bilek Binney, Dr. Amos Binney, Mrs. Amos Bismarck, Herbert Black, Rev. William Blair, Mr. , engineer Blanc, Baron Bliss, Elder, ancestor of W. J. Stillman anecdotes of his family Bodichon, Barbara Borthwick, Colonel Boston Boutakoff, Captain Boyce, Mr. , artist, visits Stillman Boyle, Mr. , artist Brett, Mr. , artist, Rossetti's aversion for Brigandage in Rome Briggs, C. F. Brin, Sig. , Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs "Brooklyn School, " Brown, Mr. , consular agent at Civita Vecchia Brown, Ford Madox Stillman's judgment of, and his influence on Rossetti Brown, H. K. , the sculptor Brown, Mrs. H. K. Browning, Mrs. , mother of the poet Browning, Robert, father of the poet Browning, Robert, the poet Browning, Sariana, sister of the poet Bruno, Giordano Bryant, William Cullen Stillman's association with, on the _Evening Post_ contributes to _The Crayon_ feeling towards Lowell Buchanan, Robert, his criticism of Rossetti Buchanan, James, his influence on English public opinion Bulgaris Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Burnside, General Ambrose E. Burr, Aaron Butler, Benjamin F. , his influence in Massachusetts at opening of the Civil War

 Calvin, doctrines of, held by Ruskin Cambridge, Mass. , life at Camp life. _See_ Adirondacks, life in the. Camp Maple, _See_ Adirondack Club. Canandaigua, U. S. Corvette, at Crete Candanos, collision between Mussulmans and Christians at serious fight at relief of Cass, Major Castellani, Sig. Cattaro Cattaro, Gulf of Cattermole, George, Turner's liking for Cavallotti, Sig. Crispi's opponent Cemeteries, prehistoric _Century, The. See Scribner's Monthly. _ Cettinje Chabot, Charles, the handwriting expert Chalons, Alfred, miniature painter Chalons, Edward, miniature painter Chamois-hunting Chamounix Chase, Salmon P. _Childhood of the Virgin Mary_, Rossetti's picture Children's Crusade, referred to Cholera _Christ in the Carpenter's Shop_, picture by Millais Church, F. E. , artist and teacher of Stillman Civil War in the United States, Stillman returns to America on account of English attitude concerning Clermont, Fulton's steamer Clough, Arthur Hugh, Norton gives Stillman letter to intercourse with Col des Fours Cole, Thomas, landscape painter Collegiate education, discussion of Collins line of steamers Colucci, Sig. , Italian consul at Crete Comoundouros, Greek prime minister his character brief references to Coney Island "Conscious mind in creation, " Constable, John, artist Constantinople Consular service abroad, weakness of Conversion, Baptist views concerning _See, also_, Revival meetings. Corfu _Cornhill Magazine_, Stillman contributes article to, on architectural restorations in Florence. 

 Coroneos, Colonel, his action in the Cretan insurrection Corot, Jean Baptiste, comparison of his work with that of Rousseau Cortina Cosmopolitan Club, London Coutet, Alpine guide Couture, Thomas Coxe family, traveling companions and friends of Stillman _Crayon, The_, Stillman's art journal Creswick, Thomas, artist Cretan committee of Athens assists Stillman Cretan committee of Boston Cretan insurrection Stillman writes history of Cretan women, beauty of Crete, Stillman made consul in consular life in plan for its annexation to Egypt later visit to survival of ancient superstitions horrible history of Crete Crispi, Francesco, Italian premier, Stillman's association with, and estimate of his relations with King Humbert with Sir Evelyn Baring his overthrow its consequences his second ministry review of his conduct of Italian affairs in Abyssinia Crispi, Signora Cromer, Lord. _See_ Baring, Sir Evelyn. Cunard line of steamers Curialism Cushman, Charlotte, in Rome Cuvier, Baron Georges

 _Daily News_, Stillman is placed on staff of Dalmatia, journeys and correspondence in, attitude of the people towards the Herzegovinian insurrection Dana, R. H. Dancing, disapproved of by Stillman's father Danilo, Prince of Montenegro Danilograd Danish Effendi Darwin, Charles R. , his evolutionary hypothesis Davidson, Charles, gives Stillman lessons in art _Dead House, The_ Delacroix, Eugène, artist Delane, Mr. , of the London _Times_ Delaroche, Paul Delf, Mr. Deliyanni, Greek premier Delos Dendrinos, Russian consul at Crete Depretis, Agostino Derché, M. , French consul at Crete De Ruyter, N. Y. , school at Dervish Pasha Diamond, the steamer Dickson, Charles H. , English consul at Crete Dickson, Mrs. T. G. , cares for Stillman's children Didot, Mlle. Didot, Firmin, Stillman's meeting with, in Paris Diplomatic service, American Dobrilovina, convent of, Stillman's visit to Dormitor, Mt. Dossi, Count Alberto Pisani, Crispi's secretary Doughty, Thomas, artist Drobniak, province of Duby, secretary of the Prince of Montenegro Dufferin, Lord, succeeds to the Embassy at Rome Dulcigno Duprés, the Durand, A. B. , artist, contributes to _The Crayon_ Durand, John, partner of Stillman in publishing _The Crayon_ Dusseldorf, visited by Stillman "Dutch courage"

 _Echo_, English paper, prints letter from Stillman Edhem Pasha Edmonds, Judge Edmunds, Senator Elliott, Sir Henry, English ambassador at Crete Emerson, Edward W. Emerson, R. W. , his estimate of Alcott Stillman's first meeting with his relations with Longfellow excursion with the Adirondack Club visits Stillman in England influence on Stillman England, first visit to second visit her attitude during the American Civil War later visits and residences in English church in Rome Enneochoria, valley of Ennosis, blockade runner Ense, Varnhagen von Epirus, invasion of Erie Canal Eshref Pasha Estee, Elder Evans, Mr. , archaeologist _Evening Post, The_ Evolution, theory of Eyoub Pasha

 _Fable for Critics_ Father's influence in forming character of children Fenian organization _Festus_, Bailey's Fielding, Copley _First Snow-Fall, The_ Fish, Hamilton, urges Stillman's dismissal from Crete Fleming, Colonel, of Florida Florence Florida, Stillman's trip to Fogg, George G. , American minister at Berne Follansbee Pond. _See, also_, Adirondack Club. Forbes, Archibald Forbes, J. M. , gives Stillman a commission for a picture France, relations with Italy Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria "Franco, Harry" (pseudonym). _See_ Briggs, C. F. Freeborn, Mr. , English banker and friend of Stillman Freeman, Professor Edward A Freemasons in Rome Froude, James Anthony, Stillman's friendship for Fuller, George, Stillman's companion on voyage to England

 Gallenga, Mr. , Rome correspondent of the _Times_ Garibaldi, Giuseppe Garrick, the ship Garrison, William Lloyd Geissler Pasha, German officer, in Crete General-Admiral, Russian frigate at Crete Geneva, Stillman's visit to "Geodesy, " nickname of a professor at Union College George, King of Greece, his character his weakness of action and unpopularity calls Tricoupi to form a ministry Gérôme, the artist Gettysburg, battle of Ghost at Chamounix Gibson, John Gifford, S. R. , artist Gilder, Richard Watson Giolitti, Sig. , Italian minister Girtin, Thomas, artist Gladstone, W. E. , his satisfaction with himself Beaconsfield's banter of Stillman's intercourse with Mr. Walter's dislike of Gnossus Goldsborough, Rear-Admiral "Good Americans, when they die . . . , " Görgey, Arthur, treason of Gosdanovich, Montenegrin interpreter and traveling companion of Stillman Gray, Judge Gray, Asa Gray, H. P. , artist Greece, political affairs in Greek Church, influence of Greeley, Horace, opposes coercion of the South Greene, Colonel W. B. Greene, Mr. , English consul at Scutari Greenleaf, Dora Greenough, Horatio, contributes to _The Crayon_ Griffiths, Mr. , London picture dealer

 Halbherr, Federico, archaeologist Halford, Mr. , his collection of pictures Hall, S. C. , editor of the _Art Journal_ Hamilton, Alexander _Hamlet and Ophelia_, Rossetti's picture Hamley, General Hancock, Mass Harding, James Duffield, artist Haynes, Mr. , accompanies Stillman on his archaeological expedition

 _Hector_, Rossetti's picture _Herald_, the New York, correspondence of, from Vienna, during the Exposition; further correspondence. Herzegovina, Stillman's journey to, as _Times_ correspondent; condition of the country during the insurrection; battle at Muratovizza _See also_, Dalmatia _and_ Montenegro. Hibernia, Fla. Hoar, Judge E. R. , joins the Adirondack Club; Grant's attorney-general. Hobart Pasha, English admiral at Crete. Hohenlohe, Cardinal. Holland, J. G. Holmes, John. Holmes, Oliver Wendell; Stillman's estimate of. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. Holmes, Sir William, English consul at Mostar, Herzegovina. Hooker, Mr. , secretary of legation at Rome. Hosmer, Harriet. House of the Four Winds. Houssein, Hadji. Howe, Dr. Estes. Howe, Dr. S. G. Howells, William Dean, Stillman's first meeting with; consul at Venice. Hubbard, Richard W. , artist. Hudson and Mohawk Railroad, opening of. Hughes, Thomas, Lowell gives Stillman letter to; intercourse with. Humbert, King of Italy, character of his rule and relations with Crispi. Hungarian crown jewels, concealed by Kossuth; schemes for their removal; recovered by the Austrian government. Hungarian politics. _See_ Kossuth, Louis. Hunt, Holman. Hunt, William M. Huntington, Daniel, contributes to _The Crayon_. Hussein Avni. 

 Ignatieff, General. "Indian Chiefs" of the anti-rent war. Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique. Inman, Henry, artist. International copyright. Ioannides, Dr. , in the Cretan insurrection. Irby, Miss. Isle of Wight. Ismael Pasha, Stillman's relations with, during his consulate at Crete; character of his rule; action during the insurrection; his dismissal. Italian politics. Italian prisoners murdered at New Orleans. Ivanovich, General. 

 Jacque, Charles, artist. "Jack-hunting, " James, Henry, father of the novelist, contributes to _The Crayon_ Jay, John, American minister at Vienna. Jesuits. Jews in Newport, R. I. Johnson family, in the Adirondacks. Jonine, Russian agent. _Juliet and her Nurse_, Turner's picture. 

 Kalepa. Karam, Joseph, prince of the Lebanon. Kaulbach, Wilhelm von. Kestrel, the yacht, Stillman makes use of, about Crete; hired for the voyage "on the track of Ulysses. " King, John A. King, Rufus. Kingsley, Charles. Kingsley, Henry. Knapp, Mr. , revival preacher. Kolashin. Kossuth, Louis, his tour in America; his intercourse with Stillman. Koumani Kovachevich, Slavonic patriot

 Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de _Landscape Element, The, in American Poetry_, series of articles by Stillman in _The Crayon_ Landscape in America, lack of picturesqueness in Larcom, Lucy, contributes to _The Crayon_ _Lark, The, and her Young_, fable of Lasithe Laufenburg Lausanne Leighton, Sir Frederick, visits Stillman Lemaître, Frédéric, actor Lenox, James his attempts to obtain Turner's _Téméraire_ possession of another work by Turner Leslie, Sir Charles R. , artist _Levant Herald_, Stillman's work upon Leys, Baron Lincoln, Abraham, at the outbreak of the Civil War his understanding of the North in the Mason and Slidell case brief mentions of his assassination Lind, Jenny, fellow-passenger with Stillman from England Linnell, John, artist Ljubibratich, Herzegovinian leader _Llanthony Abbey_, Turner's picture Lloyd, Mr. , English consul at Syra Lockwood, Le Grand Longfellow, H. W. Stillman's intercourse with his spiritualism comparison with Emerson Longfellow, Mrs. H. W. Lowell, James Lowell, Charles Lowell, James Russell assists Stillman with _The Crayon_ is appointed a professor at Harvard complimentary dinner to comparison with Holmes Stillman's personal association with and judgment of brief mentions of Lowell, Mrs. James Russell Lumley, Sir John Saville. _See_ Saville, Lord, of Burford. Lyons, Lord, English ambassador at Constantinople

 MacDonald, Captain MacDonald, Mr. , manager of the _Times_, Stillman's association with Mack, Dr. David Mack, Laura, of Cambridge. _See_ Stillman, Laura, wife of W. J. Mackail, J. W. , his life of Morris Macmillan's, evenings at _Magdalene_, Rossetti's picture Mahmoud Pasha, Hungarian general, in Turkish army Mahommed the Arabian, bricabrac dealer Mantz, Paul, French correspondent of _The Crayon_ Marsh, George P. , American minister to Italy Marshall, John, surgeon Martins, Professor, French scientist "Mason and Dixon's line" Mason and Slidell, capture of Matanzas, Fla. Maxson, Mr. , grandfather of W. J. Stillman Maxson, Eliza Ward. _See_ Stillman, Eliza Ward Maxson Maxson, John, ancestor of W. J. Stillman Maxson, William B. , uncle of W. J. Stillman Mayor, Edmond, Crispi's secretary Mazzini, Giuseppe Medun Mehmet Ali, governor-general of Crete Mehmet Pasha Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernst Melos. _See_ Milo Menelek Meskla Metellus, his siege of Canea Milan Millais, Sir John his picture _The Proscribed Royalist_ Stillman meets his facility of execution his influence compared with Rossetti's Millet, J. F. , Stillman's meeting with, at Barbizon his work his personal relations with Rousseau appreciation by Americans Millianoff, Marko, Kutchian chief Milnes, Monckton, Stillman makes acquaintance of Milo, Montenegrin hero Milo, the island of Mirko, father of Prince Nicholas _Modern Painters_ Mohawk River Monson, Sir Edward Mont Blanc Montenegro, Princess of Montenegro, Stillman's journey to, as _Times_ correspondent condition and character of the people incidents of travel participation in the Herzegovinian insurrection declaration of war and military operations Russian intervention campaign of 1877 siege of Niksich later visit to the country _See, also_, Herzegovina. Montenegrin women, courage of Monteverde, Colonel Moratsha, Stillman's journey to scene of defeat of Mehemet Ali Pasha Morley, Lord Morris, E. Joy, American minister at Constantinople Morris, William; character of his work and Rossetti's influence upon him Mosier, Joseph Mostar, visit to Mother's influence in forming character of children Moustier, Marquis de Mukhtar Pasha, commands Turkish troops in the Herzegovinian insurrection is replaced by Suleiman Pasha Müller, Max, quoted reviews _The Cretan Insurrection_ with Mrs. Müller, meets Lowell at Stillman's house in London Muratovizza, battle of Murnies Murray, Captain Patrick, commander of the Wizard Mussulman honesty Mustapha Kiritly Pasha, his campaign in Crete his relations with Stillman his recall his execution of Cretans in 1837

 Naples, Congress of Naples, King of Napoleon III. Natural selection, theory of Neuchâtel Nevius brothers, missionaries New Orleans, murder of Italian prisoners in New York city the schools of description of, in Stillman's boyhood artist life and journalism in New York politics Newport, R. I. , "Seventh-Day Baptists" in Niagara Nicholas, Prince of Montenegro, opposes Herzegovinian insurrection in its early stages Stillman's first audience with his character and appearance his civil list incidents in Stillman's intercourse with unwillingness to take responsibility of a war his conditions refused by Turks relations with Austria his gratitude to Stillman for sympathy aroused by his _Times_ correspondence his opposition to Russian suggestions movements during the war brief mentions of Nicotera, Sig. Niksich, siege of Njegush _Nooning, The_, plan of Norich, Mr. Normandy North Conway, N. H. Norton, Charles Eliot, first meets Stillman contributes to _The Crayon_ friendship with Stillman brief mentions of Nott, Mrs. , wife of President Nott Nott, Eliphalet, President of Union College

 _Ode to Happiness_ Ogle, Mr. , _Times_ correspondent, killed by Turkish troops Omalos Omar Pasha succeeds Mustapha Kiritly in Crete his campaign his recall _On the Track of Ulysses_ Orealuk Orzovensky, Dr. Osman Pasha Ostrog convent of fighting near Owen, Richard Owen, Robert Dale

 Page, William, portrait painter, contributes to _The Crayon_ Paget, Admiral Lord Clarence Paget, H. M. , accompanies Stillman "on the track of Ulysses" _Palinode_ _Pall Mall Gazette_, Stillman contributes to is dropped from Palmerston, Lord Paris, visits to Parnell case, Stillman's search for evidence connected with Parrot, a pet Parthenios Kelaides, in the Cretan insurrection Pashley, Robert Paul Smith's Hotel Pavlovich, Peko, commands Montenegrin troops in Herzegovinian insurrection, Peirce, Professor Benjamin Pesth Petropoulaki, Grecian officer in Crete Petrovich, "Bozo" (Bozidar) Phi Beta Kappa Society Phoenix Park murders Photiades Pasha, Turkish minister at Athens governor of Crete Photographs of Athenian views, taken by Stillman _Pictures from Appledore_, first part appears in _The Crayon_ Pierce, Franklin Pigeons, immense flocks of Pigott, Mr. , his connection with the Parnell case Piperski Celia, convent of Pius IX. Plainfield, N. J. Plamenaz, Montenegrin minister of war Podgoritza Poe, Edgar A. , Stillman meets at Church's studio Pope, the, office of Post, Mr. , artist Preveli, convent of Princeton, N. Y. Prinsep, Valentine C. , visits Stillman Protestant chapel in Rome Protracted meetings. _See_ Revival meetings Psyche, English dispatch boat, at Crete Public School Society in New York Pulzsky, Franz, Kossuth's colleague Puritans, rigor of their rule in Massachusetts Putnam, G. P. Pym, commander of the Assurance Pyne, J. B. His work as a painter influence on Stillman

 Quarantine in the Levant

 Rachel, the actress Ragusa, affairs in and about during the Herzegovinian insurrection _Rain Dream, A_, first published in _The Crayon_ Randall, Alexander W. Raouf Pasha Raquette River Rarey, John S. , impostor using his name Red Cross Society Regnault, Henri Reid, Whitelaw Reinhart, Benjamin F. Reschid Effendi Retimo, Stillman's trip to Revival meetings "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" Ricotti, General, Italian minister Rieka _Riforma, La_, Crispi's journal Ritchie, Anne Thackeray Robertsbridge, residence at Robilant, General, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Rodich, Baron, governor of Dalmatia Rogers, Mr. , ex-officer of the English army Rogers, Randolph Roman Campagna Roman Catholic Church and the public schools character and influence of, in Italy Rome residences in description of civil and political condition immorality in the Catholic Church Pius IX. Abolition of American legation at Rosebery, Lady Rosebery, Lord in Rome attitude of his government toward Italy Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Stillman's intercourse with and judgment of Rossetti, Maria Rossetti, Mrs. Gabriele Rossetti, William, English correspondent of _The Crayon_ Stillman's later intercourse with Rossetti family, Stillman's intercourse with Rousseau, Théodore, Stillman's meeting with, at Barbizon his work compared with Turner's Rowse, S. W. His portrait of Emerson remark about Ruskin Rudiní, Marquis di, Italian statesman his action in regard to murder of Italian prisoners in New Orleans fall of his ministry brief mentions Ruggles, Dr. Edward, artist Ruskin, John Stillman's first meeting with further intercourse influence summer in Switzerland with Ruskin, Mrs. John Russia coöperates in Montenegrin affairs declares war against Turkey the campaign unites with France in creating difficulties for Italy in Abyssinia Russian influence in Cretan affairs in Herzegovina in Europe generally Russians, characteristics of the

 Sabbatarians. _See_ Seventh-Day Baptists. Sabbath, the St. Augustine, Fla. St. Martin Salisbury, Lord orders withdrawal from negotiations with Italy in reference to occupation of Kassala acknowledges Crispi's services to the cause of European peace renews compact with Italy and Austria vacillation of Sandown Sandwith, T. Humphrey, English consul at Crete Sapunzaki, General Saracco, Sig. , Italian Minister of Public Works, Saturday Club Stillman's first attendance at Emerson as a member of Judge Hoar as a member of Sauer, Mr. , correspondent of the New York _Herald_ at Vienna Saville, Lord, of Burford Savoy, annexation of Schahin Pasha Schenectady commercial importance of, in early part of the 19th century Stillman's early life and education in Schmidt, Madam, a German refugee Scotch Cameronians in Princeton, N. Y. Scott, General Winfield, urges peaceful separation of North and South Scott, Mrs. Winfield, dies in Rome _Scribner's Monthly_, Stillman's connection with Scutari Sectarian persecution, freedom from, in Rhode Island Seemann, Dr. Selim Pasha Selinos Server Effendi Servia negotiations with Montenegro revolt against Turkey Seventh-Day Baptists Severn, Arthur Seward, William H. His relations with Dr. Nott his influence in New York at the opening of the Civil War position in the Mason and Slidell case sustains Stillman in matter of passports his manner of making appointments dispatch from, to Stillman at Crete consents to Stillman's recall, which, however, is revoked Sexton, Samuel, portrait painter, teacher and friend of Stillman Shawnik Shefket Pasha, inaugurator of the "Bulgarian atrocities" defeated by Lazar Socica recalled Sheridan, Irish patriot Sigourney, Mrs. , contributes to _The Crayon_ "Six Greeks, seven captains" Slavery in Florida, as seen by Stillman Small-pox hospital, Newport, R. I. Smalley, E. V. , assists Stillman in _Tribune_ correspondence at Vienna Smalley, G. W. , European manager of the New York _Tribune_ Socica, Lazar defeats Shefket Pasha at Muratovizza quarrels with Peko Pavlovich joins Peiovich his method of attacking towers Societies, secret, at Union College Sonnino, Sidney, Italian Minister of the Treasury Southerners in Rome Spartali, Marie. _See_ Stillman, Marie, wife of W. J. Spartali, Michael, Greek consul general at London Spelling-matches Sphakia Spiritism, Stillman's investigation of Spuz Stagecoaches, between Albany and Schenectady _Star, The_, John Bright's paper Stead, William T. Stebbing, William Stebbins, Emma Steedman, Commodore Stefan Nemanides, founder of the convent of Moratsha Stephen, Leslie, Stillman's acquaintance with, in London Stephen, Mrs. Leslie Stillman, Alfred, brother of W. J. Stillman, Bella, daughter of W. J. Stillman, Charles H. , brother of W. J. Stillman, Effie, daughter of W. J. Stillman, Eliza Ward Maxson, mother of W. J. Her early life marriage residence in Schenectady, N. Y. Strong religious nature ambitions for her children charity family discipline general character old age death Stillman, George, ancestor of W. J. Stillman, Dr. Jacob, brother of W. J. Teaches in De Ruyter, N. Y. Takes part in séances Stillman, Joseph, father of W. J. Marriage residence in Schenectady, N. Y. Opposes his sons' going to college family discipline character death Stillman, Laura, first wife of W. J. Engagement marriage winter in Paris return to America remains in Cambridge while Stillman goes to his consulate at Rome rejoins husband life in Crete death Stillman, Lisa, daughter of W. J. Stillman, Marie, second wife of W. J. Stillman, Mrs. , sister-in-law of W. J. Stillman, Paul, brother of W. J. Stillman, Russie, son of W. J. His illness his death Stillman, Thomas B. , brother of W. J. Stillman, William James early life and training religious experience intellectual slowness love of nature and struggles of conscience runs away from home returns attends school in New York city, living with his eldest brother goes to a school at De Ruyter, N. Y. Mental slowness disappears college education decided on by the family continues preparation in Schenectady enters Union College tries teaching a "district school" conflict of will with his father returns to college college life, religious doubts, renewal of acquaintance with a former teacher at De Ruyter begins serious study of art voyage to England life in London visit to Paris returns to America continues painting from nature enlists under Kossuth, and goes to Hungary to carry off the crown jewels studies art in Paris returns to America and continues painting investigates spiritism spends much time in the Adirondacks curious mental experiences takes a studio in New York obtains position of fine-art editor of the _Evening Post_ relations with Bryant with Mr. And Mrs. H. K. Brown conducts _The Crayon_ breaks down in health life in Cambridge and vacations in the Adirondacks betrothal to Miss Mack of Cambridge formal organization of the Adirondack Club, and purchase of tract of land severe illness trip to Florida returns to Cambridge in the Adirondacks goes again to England life in London, conversion to the theory of evolution summer in Switzerland with Ruskin marriage to Miss Mack and winter in Paris, acquaintance with the Browning family excursion to Normandy returns to the United States on account of the Civil War is appointed consul at Rome goes to England, thence to Italy life in Rome journey to America for wife and child dissatisfaction with the Roman consulate transference to Crete journey thither consular life trips about the island journey to and from Rome for wife and children death of T. B. Stillman to Athens on leave of absence photographic work is dismissed from Cretan consulate death of Mrs. Stillman returns to Crete to make consignment of the consulate in accordance with wish of Mehmet Ali, the new governor-general, goes to Constantinople to discuss condition of Crete illness of Russie Stillman, journey to London, and thence to America death of his mother publication of book of photographs undertakes painting again takes position on _Scribner's Monthly_ returns to London, --association with Rossetti and other English artists second marriage literary work for various periodicals continued ill health of Russie Stillman copyright controversy goes to Vienna as correspondent of the _Tribune_ reports Beaconsfleld's Aylesbury speech for the _Herald_ makes journey to America with Russie death of Russie goes to Herzegovina and Montenegro, as correspondent of the _Times_, to report the insurrection there journey through Montenegro and Albania stay at Ragusa goes to England returns to Montenegro goes again to England false reports against his character as a correspondent receives assurance of Gladstone's confidence again returns to Montenegro following the war journey into the Berdas witnesses the taking of Niksich lost in the forest with the prince excursion to Moratsha returns to find that Antivari and Dulcigno have been taken spends the winter in Corfu removes to Florence intercourse with the Brownings and Gladstone exploration of the "track of Ulysses" undertakes expedition for the American Archaeological Institute revisits Crete goes to Athens as _Times_ correspondent returns to Florence is interested in preservation of old buildings letters to London journals pleasures of life in Florence gives up residence on account of prevalence of fevers Mrs. Stillman and younger children return to England, Stillman spends next year in New York, on staff of the _Evening Post_ is appointed representative of the _Times_ for Italy and Greece, with residence at Rome goes to Athens, finding political affairs there in a critical condition breaks down in health and returns to Rome relations with Crispi is sent by the _Times_ to America in quest of evidence connected with the Parnell case revisits the Adirondacks résumé of his connection with the _Times_, to 1889 revisits Montenegro rumor of his assassination in Rome as _Times_ correspondent evolution his religious ideal resigns his position on the _Times_, and settles permanently in England Story, W. W. Suleiman Pasha Sultan, the Sumner, Charles Swedenborg Swinburne, A. C. Switzerland, Stillman's journeyings in Szemere, Bartholomew, colleague of Kossuth

 Tanlongo, Sig. , director of the Banca Romana Taylor, Bayard, contributes to _The Crayon_ assists Stillman in _Tribune_ correspondence at Vienna Taylor, Tom Tcherniaieff, Russian general, commands Servian army Tennyson, Alfred, writes a sonnet on Montenegrin affairs Theriso Thoemel, Colonel _Three Fishermen_ Tilton, John Rollin, American landscape painter _Times_, prints letter from Stillman on copyright matters correspondence from Herzegovina and Montenegro from Florence from Athens from Rome from New York on the Parnell case résumé of Stillman's connection with his resignation from Tintoret Trebinje "Tree of Judgment" _Tribune_, the New York, Stillman correspondent for, at Vienna Exposition Tricou, M. , French consul at Crete Tricoupi, Charilaos, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs his friendship with Stillman his character and ability course as prime minister Tricoupi family Triple Alliance Trollope, Mrs. Trollope, T. Adolphus, defends Stillman in copyright discussion Trout, Stillman's first capture in Montenegrin streams Troyon, Constant Turkey, her treatment of Crete condition of the empire after the Cretan affair. _See, also_, Herzegovina _and_ Montenegro. Turkish maladministration Turner, Joseph Mallord William Stillman's meeting with criticism of his works his influence on Stillman comparison of his work with Rousseau's appearance through a spiritualist medium scenes painted by him in the Alps his power of composition Tynan, Irish patriot

 Union College, Schenectady Utovu, battle of

 Vafé Valide, Sultana Van Buren, General, chief commissioner for America at the Vienna Exposition Varnhagen von Ense, Carl August Veloudaki, Costa, Cretan chief Victor Emmanuel II. , King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III. , King of Italy Victoria, Queen, her attitude towards the United States during the Civil War her visit to Florence Vienna, Stillman visits, as Kossuth's agent Exhibition of 1873 Villari, Pasquale Virchow, Rudolf, Stillman sends skull of Albanian chieftain to Volo Von Keudall, German ambassador at Rome Vrysis Vucidol, battle of Vucotich, father-in-law of Nicholas, Prince of Montenegro Vucovich, the village Vucovich, Voivode, chief of the Wassoivich

 Walter, John, of the London _Times_ Ward, Samuel, of Rhode Island Ward, Samuel G. , of Boston "Ward schools" Warner, Charles Dudley, early friend of Stillman Washington monument, stone for, sent from Rome Wassiltchikoff, Russian friend of Stillman Waterloo, battlefield of Watts, G. F. , Stillman's first meeting with Waverley Oaks Wehnert, Edward, artist and friend of Stillman in London Wells, Mrs. Whipple, E. P. _White Lady_, Rossetti's picture White Mountains Whittier, John G. Williams, Roger, his colony in Rhode Island Wilson, John, artist and teacher of phonography, gives Stillman drawing lessons. _Wind Harp, The_ Winsor, Justin, contributes to _The Crayon_ Wizard, English gunboat, at Crete Woodley, Mr. , American consul at Corfu Woodman, Horatio Wyman, Jeffries

 Yates, Edmund, correspondent of the New York _Herald_ at Vienna Yewell, Mr. , Stillman takes studio with, in Paris Young, John Russell, correspondent of the New York _Herald_ at Vienna Yvon, Adolphe Stillman enters studio of his work

 Zanardelli, rival of Crispi in 1893 Ziem, Félix Zimbrakaki, commander of Greek volunteers in Crete Zschokke, Johann H. D. Zupa, monastery of