eved and thanked me. We parted on friendly terms, he assuring me
that he wanted me to know the "truth." So did every one else. And it
was always different. One side said that so soon as the people had
had a voice, a wild scramble for place and power had ensued; that
"freedom of the Press" had loosed such a flood of scurrility, abuse,
and libel that it had to be suppressed by force; that finding
themselves thwarted, a gang of malcontents had plotted to
assassinate the Prince--some said Prince Danilo, too--and to seize
power themselves; that they had been in communication with Russia
and Serbia, and had arranged the affair in the latter country; that
severe example should be made, and wholesale executions take place.

On the other hand, folk said that the Prince, furiously jealous of
power, had offered the "Constitution" merely as a pretence to Europe
that he was up-to-date, and had so arranged as to retain autocracy;
that he purposely suppressed knowledge, kept out literature, and
encouraged only the narrowest education in order to retain power and
keep folk ignorant; that those arrested were the cream of the land,
all the most advanced spirits, all those who were for civilization;
that even schoolboys had been hunted down like wild beasts and
thrown into prison as political offenders; that no one's life was
safe; that spies were everywhere, who curried favour with the
Petrovitches by the numbers they arrested; that the prisoners were
miserably maltreated. The more moderate declared the Prince to be
helpless in a "ring;" that by rashly giving the Constitution he had
deprived himself largely of power, and no longer knew what went on;
that, till he gave up administering justice eight years before, he
had been "the father of his flock," and knew all about everything.
Now he had lost touch and would never regain it. They hoped for a
general amnesty of all prisoners. The Prince's return from Russia
was melancholy. He was reported to be suffering from a feverish
attack, and the Princess, too, was very unwell. His journey was
believed to have been a failure.

The Russians of Cetinje received me with extraordinary enthusiasm.
Filled with joy for the Anglo-Russian agreement, Sofia Petrovna, of
the Russian Institute, kissed me over and over again. The Institute
was a feature of Cetinje, and Sofia Petrovna was its queen. It was
the Pan-Slav centre of the whole district, where Slav girls, brought
in from Turkish and Austrian distr