later, when Halim Beg Derala and Zena Beg--who, being outside
Albania, were free to utter non-Governmental opinions--said that they
had not the slightest doubt but that the friendship between the fanatic
Moslem and the fanatic Catholic would come to an end and each of them
would again in the first place think of his religion, so that, as
heretofore, they would regard themselves as Turkish and Latin people
rather than as Albanian. This foible does not apply to the Orthodox
Albanians of the South, who are more patriotic.] "I am astonished," said
the Monsignor, "that you should question our friendship with the Moslem.
They have been the domineering party, but all that is finished, and we
are the best of friends. See, they have chosen me to be one of the
Regents![77] Our Government of all the three religions is very good,
and," said he, as he thumped the arm of his chair, "it insists on the
Albanians obtaining justice in spite of our enemies."

It chanced that I had met Father Achikou, Doctor of Theology and
Philosophy, in the Franciscan church. Because his brother had had
occasion to kill an editor in self-defence, this, perhaps the most
enlightened, member of the Albanian Catholic clergy, had been compelled
to remain for eight months in the church and its precincts, seeing that
the Government was powerless to guarantee that he would not be overtaken
by that national curse, the blood-vengeance.

"Well, one cannot praise the custom of blood-vengeance," said the
Monsignor.

"You spoke," I said, "of your Government insisting on justice for the
Albanians."

And some time after this Professor Achikou and another prominent young
priest were deported to Italy and, I believe, interned in that
country.... With their fate we may compare that of Dom Ndoc Nikai, a
priest whose anti-Slav paper, the _Bessa Shqyptare_, is alleged to
exist on its Italian subsidy, and Father Paul Doday, whom Italy insisted
on installing as Provincial of all the Franciscans (after vetoing at
Rome the appointment of Father Vincent Prennushi, whom nearly all the
Franciscans in Albania had voted for). Father Doday, it is interesting
to note, is of Slav nationality, for he comes from Janjevo in Kossovo,
but he studied in Italy, and has abandoned the ways of his ancestors.
This town of some 500 houses, inhabited by Slavs from Dalmatia and a few
Saxons who are now entirely Slavicized, still retains a costume that
resembles the Dalmatian, as also a rather defe