and Serdar, but these are mere names. People obey only if they can
gain by so doing. We even heard a common man say to the Bishop's
face: 'Holy Bishop, you lie like a hound! I will cut out your heart
on the point of my knife.' Except that they keep the fasts they have
no religion. They rob, steal, and have many wives. Some sell women
and girls to the Turks and commit other crimes as one hears daily.
All is done with the animal impulse of desire, or hatred, or
selfishness. The inhabitants are used to raid neighbourlands for
cattle, etc., and are even led by their priests on these expeditions
which they think heroic."

This vivid account will be recognized as the truth by all who have
lived in native huts and listened to local tradition. It describes
the life of the Balkan Christian up till recent days. My Montenegrin
guide used to lament the good old times when a second wife could be
taken and no fuss made; and when as many as fifteen men were shot in
a feud; and his great uncle had commanded a pirate ship which plied
between the Adriatic and the Aegean.

There is nothing new under the sun. In 1788, as in the twentieth
century, we find the rival Powers trying to buy partisans. "We never
could satisfy them," says the Austrian Envoy. "When we thought we
had won him with one gift, we found next day he had joined the
opposition party or demanded a new gift as if he had not had one.
Even the Bishop, though he tried by all means to win our favour,
could not hide from us his false intriguing heart."

The struggle was brief. Russia was victorious. Vladika Plamenatz
disappeared suddenly, and the Petrovitches came again to the fore.
Vladika Petar's name headed all official documents, the Gubernator
fell to second rank, and the blood-feud between the Plamenatzes and
the Petrovitches compelled some of the former to seek shelter with
the Turks. Russia has never permitted a pro-Austrian to rule long in
Slav lands. Witness the-fate of the Obrenovitches, in Serbia.
Vladika Petar was a strong man, which is probably why he obtained
Russian support. He drove his unruly team with much success and won
its respect.

Russia and Austria came to one of their many "understandings" and
in 1788 declared war together on the Turk with the expressed
intention of ending the Sultan's rule. Both encouraged the
Montenegrins to harry the Turkish borders. The Austrian Envoy,
however, distrusted the Montenegrins and wrote: "Very much more can
we rely o