la Kaciorri, a plucky little Catholic
priest, I found an Orthodox Albanian priest from Meljani, near
Leskoviki, who told how the Greeks had burnt his village and ordered
all those who belonged to the Orthodox Church to come along with
them, using force to make them, and falling on those who refused.
They had driven a number along before them, including his wife and
children, whom he could not rescue. He told how the Greeks had given
the inhabitants of Odrichan permission to return to it, and had then
fallen on them and slaughtered them. Mr. Lamb ascertained that this
man's wife and children were alive, but the Greeks refused to give
them up.

Almost as soon as I arrived I was invited to have an audience with
the Princess of Wied. She was very friendly, and much distressed by
the web of intrigue in which she found herself tied. I regretted
that she and the Prince had fallen into the wrong hands, and begged
her to go to Valona or Scutari, and at once start a tour through the
land. I offered to go with her, and assured her safe conduct, saying
all misunderstanding would have been avoided had she and the Prince
made such a journey on arrival. She said she had wished to, but that
Essad always advised against it. I spoke to her of the
Russo-Serbo-French-Italian combine, and said the Albanians wanted
none of it, and that she could yet have the whole country on her
side But she continually quoted the advice of. Carmen Sylva, Queen
of Roumania, till I had to say: "Yes, ma'am. But Albania is not
Roumania. Here you will do much better by appealing direct to the
people." I left promising to support her to the best of my ability.
She struck me as honest, intelligent, and very well-meaning. She
would have made a good Queen for the country had she been given a
chance, and might have done as much for it as did Carmen Sylva for
Roumania.

That same day Mr. Lamb told me that the inhabitants of three Moslem
villages, Nenati, Mercati, and Konispoli, recently burnt by the
Greeks, had sent to beg help, and asked me if I would go and
investigate.

That night, June 12th, came a fresh development. The Dutch
gendarmerie arrested Gjurashkovitch, the Montenegrin, who had still
been allowed to function as Mayor of the town, to which he had been
appointed in Turkish times. Again Albania's enemies stood up for
him. His brother was dragoman to the Russian commissioner; Russia
claimed him as under her protection, and raised the old cry of
"Capitu