land was soon at peace and the grateful Serbs
called him "Srpska Majka"--the Serbian Mother.

But the Jannisaries had retired only as far as Widin which was
commanded by the brigand leader Pasvanoglu, whose savage hordes were
devastating the country-side in defiance of the Government. Together
they attacked the Serbs. Hadji Mustafa, true to his trust, organized
the Serbs to resist. The Serbs were now by no means untrained to
war, for many had served in the Austrian Army during the late
campaigns against the Turks. But the spectacle of a Turkish Pasha
inciting Christian rayah against an army of Moslems aroused the
wrath of the Faithful throughout the Empire. They demanded the
deposition of Hadji Mustafa and the re-admission of the Jannisaries
to Belgrade. The Sultan was unable to resist and the Jannisaries
returned. Thirsting to avenge the humiliation of their forced
retirement they assassinated Hadji Mustafa, seized power, and to
prevent a further Serb rising, fell upon the Serb villages and
murdered numbers of the headmen. By so doing they precipitated what
they wished to prevent.

The Serbs rose in mass and called Karageorge, grandfather of the
present King Peter of Serbia, to be their leader. He refused at
first, saying that his violent temper would cause him to kill
without taking council first. But he was told that the times called
for violence. Born of peasant stock about 1765, his upbringing was
crudely savage; his ferocity was shown from the first.

In 1787 a panic seized the peasants when an Austrian attack upon the
Turks was expected. To save themselves and their flocks from the
approaching Turkish army they fled in crowds, hurrying to cross the
Save and finding safety in Austria. George's father was very
reluctant to go, and on reaching the river would not cross it.
George, in a blind fury, refusing either to stay himself and make
terms with the Turks, or to leave his father behind, snatched the
pistol from his sash and shot the old man down. Then, shouting to a
comrade to give his father a death-blow, for he was still writhing,
George hurried on, leaving behind him a few cattle to pay for the
burial and the funeral feast.

On his return later to Serbia he took to the mountains for some time
as a heyduk or brigand.

Such was the man called on to lead the Serbs. Rough and completely
uneducated, he yet possessed that strange power of influencing men
which constitutes a born leader. His practice as a hey