en the Bulgars
resisted this propaganda he describes how a gang of thirty Serbs
"met in a darkened room and swore for each Serb killed to kill two
Bulgars." Lots were drawn for who should go forth to assassinate.
"We broke a loaf in two and each ate a piece. It was our sacrament.
Our wine was the blood of the Bulgarians."

A small Serb school had recently been opened in Ochrida, and I was
invited there to the Feast of St. Sava. The whole Serb population of
Ochrida assembled. We were photographed together. Counting the Greek
priest, the schoolmaster and his family, who were from Serbia, and
myself, we were a party of some fifty people. Ochrida had a very
mixed population. More than half were Moslems, most of them
Albanians. Of the Christians the Bulgars formed the largest unit,
but there were many Vlachs. These were reckoned as Greeks by the
Greeks, but were already showing signs of claiming their own
nationality. The Serbs were by far the smallest group, so small in
fact as to be then negligible.

The Kaimmakam was an Albanian Moslem, Mehdi Bey, who kept the
balance well under very difficult circumstances, and to-day is one
of the leading Albanian Nationalists. He asserted always that
Ochrida should, of right, belong to Albania. Albanian it was indeed
considered until the rise of the Russo-Bulgar movement. As late as
1860 we find the Lakes of Ochrida and Presba referred to as the
Albanian Lakes by English travellers.

Through the winter of 1903-4 trouble simmered, arrests were made,
murders occurred. I learnt the ethics of murder, which, in
Macedonia, were simply: "When a Moslem kills a Moslem so much the
better. When a Christian kills a Christian it is better not talked
about, because people at home would not understand it; when a
Christian kills a Moslem it is a holy and righteous act. When a
Moslem kills a Christian it is an atrocity and should be telegraphed
to all the papers."

In February 1904 the Russo-Japanese quarrel, which had been for some
time growing hotter, burst into sudden war, and the whole complexion
of Balkan affairs changed.

At the beginning the Bulgar leaders took it for granted that Russia
was invincible, and anticipated speedy and complete victory for her.
They were also supplied with false news, and refused to credit at
first any Russian defeat. The Bishop of Ochrida was furious when I
reported to him the sinking of the Petropalovski, and fiercely
declared that the war was in reality an