e cycling a hundred paces ahead and other friends who
were fishing very near the spot in a boat heard nothing whatsoever. It
was eight days after this when the Italians had to go from Kotor and the
neighbourhood.

D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO RIEKA

The question of Rieka had not yet been settled. The more suave Tittoni,
who had succeeded Sonnino, was hoping with the help of France to hold
his own against Wilson. Monsieur Tardieu thought that the town with a
large strip of hinterland should become a separate independent State
under the League of Nations. An arrangement was also proposed by which
the city was to be administered by Italy, while the Yugoslavs should
have a guarantee of access to the sea. These negotiations were still in
a nebulous state, but certain proposals were going to be put into force
which were suggested by the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry. With
French, American, Italian and British representatives this commission
had visited Rieka. One of the recommendations was to the effect that
public order should be maintained by British and American police; on the
very day (September 12) that the British military police were to
inaugurate their service, Gabriele d'Annunzio took matters into his own
hands. He rose, he tells us, from a bed of fever and, refusing to
recognize the Nitti Government, he marched with the appropriate
theatrical ceremonies, into his "pearl of the Adriatic." What he called
the 15th Italian victory, or, alternatively, the _Santa Entrata_--the
Holy Entry--was accomplished without the shedding of a drop of blood.
Rieka, the stage of many fantastic scenes, witnessed one of the
quaintest in the simultaneous arrival at the Governor's palace of a
General to whom the Allies had entrusted the command of the town and a
rebel Lieut.-Colonel who refused to recognize his authority. They seemed
to be on the best of terms. The General (Pittaluga) informed the Allies
that he was still in supreme command. Being invited on the following
morning to explain the situation at a conference on board the U.S.S.
_Pittsburg_, at which were present the Allied naval and military
commanders, General Pittaluga informed them that he would be responsible
for the maintenance of order and that nothing was to be considered
altered in the government of the town. Forty minutes later, without
consulting the Allies, he had handed over the town to a rebel and he
himself, in his private car, had vanished. In a subsequent message