g off his enemies' heads--and he had owned to
over fifty--as he thought of destitute homes and weeping women and
children, seemed decidedly tragi-comic; but the old man was earnest
enough, and was quite unconscious of the grim humour of the situation.

"Why," he went on, excitedly pacing the room, "why do not the German
Emperor and the King of England fight out their quarrels _alone_? Why
drag thousands of men from their homes and farms to fight _their_
quarrels?"

Again the idea of our King fighting a solemn duel, with perhaps
Maxims, over a question of an island in the Pacific, with the German
Emperor, while admiring millions looked on and applauded, caused a
smile which we with difficulty repressed from diplomatic reasons.

He took his scimitar now in his hand.

"Look, too, at the generals," he said excitedly, "directing battles
from safe places, while hundreds of innocent lives are thrown away in
an assault which that general has ordered from his place of safety.
Once," he went on--"I was fighting for the Turks then, and commanded a
body of soldiers--a general came to me, saying, 'Storm that hill,' and
I answered, 'No; thou art our leader, lead us to the assault.' And he
refused, saying, 'How can I direct the battle if I lead this
attack--who shall take my place if I fall?' And I drew my sword"--and
here he suited his action to his words--"and said I would kill him if
he did not take his true position as leader of men and lead us to the
attack--then I and my men would follow wherever he went. And the
general, who was a brave man, led us to the assault and fell--but we
took the hill and the battle was won."

It was strange talk to hear from such a man, little better than a
savage, yet unlike any of his adopted countrymen. That man in a
civilised country would have made himself known and even celebrated.

Not far from Podgorica, at the junction of the rivers Moraca and Zeta,
lie the remains of the once famous Dioclea or Dukla, as it is locally
called. The town is of Roman origin, and was surrounded by a complete
moat, which the Romans formed by digging a channel between the rivers.
It must have been a place of immense strength in the olden days, but
successive generations of warfare, which raged so pitilessly in this
district, have levelled it to the ground, and to-day little or nothing
can be seen from the adjoining roadway. On approaching there is also
very little to be seen, here and there a wall, and small f