of bidding
her girls trample on the Prince's portrait! Her girls--in a school
paid for largely by the Dowager Tsaritsa! Oh, it was too much. And
the Prince had believed it, and informed her that never again would
the Royal Family visit the school (nor, in fact, did they). Tears
stood in the poor lady's eyes. Her school had been the meeting-place
of the intelligentzia. Ministers, priests, and officials had sought
her advice. Now persons wishing to curry favour with the Prince had
maligned her.

A lying, treacherous race, said one of the Russians. But poor Sofia,
through her tears, said they were foolish and misled. Both she and
the Secretary of Legation wanted me to ask, for an audience with the
Prince, but I decided not to be mixed in anybody's plots, so merely
left a card at the Palace, where I learnt that the Prince was still
very unwell. A report of a conversation between Vesnitch, Serbian
Minister in Paris, and Izvolsky, October 1908 (see Bogitchcvitch,
xvii), throws light on what had occurred. "You must," said Izvolsky,
"however, soon come to an understanding with Montenegro. The
scandalous discord which exists between Belgrade and Cetinje must be
cleared off the carpet. We have most urgently pressed this on Prince
Nikola when he was in Petersburg." The Prince, we may surmise, went
to ask Russian support, received no sympathy, began to realize he
was no longer Russia's "only friend," and was filled with sick
anxiety.

The Montenegrins, too, were much excited about the Anglo-Russian
agreement. Vuko Vuletitch said cheerfully: "Now you can fight
Germany." And the usual group round the hotel door cried: "Of course
you will. For what else is this Entente? You must fight soon, or you
will lose all your trade." They looked forward to an Anglo-Russian
Paradise, where the Teuton ceased from troubling. I fear it is not
so joyful as they anticipated.

Vuko Vukotitch was as sore as Sofia Petrovna. He, too, had been
accused of anti-Petrovitch sympathies, and threatened with the
boycott of his hotel. He was seeking influential marriages for his
many daughters. The eldest, Madame Rizoff, as wife of the Bulgarian
diplomatic agent, was already playing a part in politics. Rumour
said he had been on the point of affiancing another to one of the
men now in prison.

I decided that Cetinje was no place for me, and that I would carry
out my long deferred plan of a tour in the Albanian mountains. Sofia
Petrovna pressed upon me an i