y nervous, for when an Albanian has given his "besa" (peace
oath) he keeps it. Alarmed unnecessarily, he ordered his men to fire
at a group of three armed men. One escaped, fled to Shiak, and
spread the alarm that the Prince had begun to massacre Moslems. A
number of people rushed to aid the Shiak men, and a fight took
place. How much foreign influence was behind it all it is hard to
say. That Italy was not unconcerned in it seems proved by the fact
that the Italian representative at Durazzo at once hurried to
convince the Prince that he was in imminent danger, and persuaded
him to go on board an Italian battleship. The Italians may have
believed that the plot, engineered by Essad, was sure of success.
Other members of the International Control persuaded the Prince to
return to land. But by his flight he had hopelessly compromised his
position.

That Italy was mixed in the affair appeared a little later. Red
signal lights were seen flashing to the insurgents from a house in
Durazzo by many persons, among them the British Vice-Consul.
Lieutenant Fabius, of the Dutch gendai'merie, entered the house and
caught an Italian officer, Colonel Muricchio, red-lamp-handed. Again
no trial was allowed. It was pleaded that the Capitulations had not
been abrogated! And the officer was released. We may blame Wied for
incompetency, but only a man of unusual force of character and
intimate knowledge of the land could have made headway against the
Powers combined against him.

All this I learnt from members of the International Control, from
the Dutch officers, from the Albanians, from the American
Missionaries, and from some private individuals.

That the rising was planned and the ammunition embezzled by Essad
and his gang hardly admits of doubt.

On June 8, 1914, I reached Trieste. Here our vice-consul, M.
Salvari, himself an Albanian, was very anxious about the situation.
I had intended going to Scutari, but he begged me to go to Durazzo,
where I arrived on June 11th. On board the boat I met Mr John
Corbett, who had lately been in South Albania, and said it was
nonsense of the Greeks to pretend no Greek troops had remained there
as he had seen parties of them in many places, and had seen money
being collected in Corfu to aid Zographos's enterprise. Durazzo was
crammed with people of all races. Fighting had ceased, but a large
force of armed men was some miles outside the town and negotiations
were going on. Dr. Dillon, the well-