in November
a plot, alleged to be Bulgaro-Montenegrin, against Milan, was
discovered.

Russia was furious that Milan, in spite of these warnings, remained
in Serbia.

And in July 1899 he was fired at and slightly wounded. Milan
insisted on martial law being proclaimed and many arrests were made.
The would-be assassin was a young Bosnian--Knezhevitch. The Times
spoke of the conspiracy as a Russo-Bulgarian one. It is stated to
have been planned in Bucarest by Arsene Karageorgevitch and a
Russian agent.

Pashitch, who since 1888 had been in close connection with the
Karageorges, was accused of complicity and Milan insisted on his
execution. His guilt was by no means proved and he was finally
sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but at once pardoned by
Alexander. In reply he telegraphed, "I hasten in a moment so happy
and so solemn for my family, to lay before your Majesty my sincere
and humble gratitude for the very great mercy which you, Sire, have
shown me from the height of your throne. I declare to you, Sire,
that I will, in future . . . give my whole soul to strengthening
that order in the State which your Majesty introduced in 1897, from
which, thanks to your distinguished father, King Milan, as
commander-in-Chief of the Army, the country has derived so much
benefit." He further promised to put the remainder of his life to
the exclusive service of King Alexander and his country, and ends
with, "Long live the hope of the Serb nation, your Majesty our Lord
and King Alexander!" signed, "The most sincere and devoted servant
of the House of Obrenovitch and the throne of your Majesty, Nikola
Pashitch." This amazing telegram caused consternation in Russia. And
well it might. The annals of crime scarcely contain a more gross
example of perjury.

We now enter upon the last act of the sordid drama. For several
years Alexander had kept a mistress, Madame Draga Maschin, nee
Lungevitza, the widow of a Serbian officer. She was a handsome
woman, considerably older than Alexander, and possessed such a hold
over him that the more credulous of the Serbs--including an
ex-Minister to the Court at St. James's--believed that she had
bewitched him by means of a spell made by a gypsy woman who had
chopped some of Draga's hair fine and made a mixture which she put
into Alexander's food. Only by magic, I have been assured, could
such results have been obtained. Alexander "was crazy about her."

The Serbs are not particular about mo