were surrounded by
Albanians and overpowered, so that another wild dream of the old
intriguer was dissipated.... When Mr. Leiper, the _Morning Post's_ acute
representative, was in Montenegro during the summer of 1920 he found
only one person in three weeks who pined for the return of Nikita.
"Presently," he says, "we were accosted by an ancient, wild-looking
'pope,' with a face rugged and stormy as the crags among which he lived,
and long, straggling hair tied in behind by an old leather boot-lace....
The talk turned to politics. My friend wailed over times and morals.
Food was scarce, the wicked flourished like green bay trees, honest
folks were oppressed, starved, neglected; for example, his own self that
sat before me--would I believe it?--after forty years' service he had
not so much as attained the dignity of Archimandrate.... They were a
rascal lot, those at present in power, ripe for hanging, every man-jack
of them. And oh for the days of good King Nicholas, who would have given
them short shrift!" Mr. Leiper subsequently learned that Nikita's
panegyrist had spent his life in the wilds of Macedonia, where he acted
as agent and decoy of the then Montenegrin Government. One murder, at
least, for which he received a good sum of money, could be laid to his
charge. Now he was living in retirement, hoping no doubt for better
days, and meanwhile winked at by the tolerant authorities.

After the assembling of the Podgorica Parliament a proclamation was
issued by the joyous Montenegrins at Cetinje. "Montenegrins!" it began,
"the great and bloody fight of the most terrible world war is over!
Despotism has been smothered, freedom has come, right has triumphed....
Montenegrin arms and the heroic deeds of our Homeland have distinguished
themselves for centuries. The fruits of these great deeds and colossal
sacrifices our people must realize in a great and happy Yugoslavia....
Let us reject all attempts which may be made to deprive us of our happy
future and put us in a position of blind and miserable isolation
henceforth to work and weep in sorrow.... Before us lie two paths. One
is strewn with the flowers of a blessed future, the other is covered
with dangerous and impenetrable brambles." If any disinterested and
intelligent foreigner, say a Chinaman, had been asked whether he thought
that it was more to the advantage of Montenegro that she, like Croatia,
Bosnia and the rest, should merge herself in the Yugoslav State or
whe