in a poor land. They had all the vices of Princes
and none of their virtues.

It was a tragic error with tragic consequences. Nikola came to the
throne as a mediaeval chieftain in a yet mediaeval land. To succeed
in his ambitions, and he was then amply justified in believing that
he would succeed, it was needful to train up a successor fit to rule
in the twentieth century.

The gates of time were of a sudden flung open. In the space of a
few years something like five centuries poured over the land. Nikola
stood on the rocks with his sons hoping to escape the devastating
torrent. But there was no way of escape. They must swim with the
stream of time--or drown.

Nor does it now seem likely that one of his immediate descendants
will ever rule Great Serbia.

They failed to take the "tide in the affairs of men" and their
golden dream has been swept, into the Never-Never Land. It is bitter
tragedy to end life as a failure.

CHAPTER THREE.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF LAND AND PEOPLE

In 1901 I visited Montenegro and went down the lake to Scutari.
Scutari captured me at once. It had colour, life, art. Its people
were friendly and industrious and did not spend all their time
drinking rakia and swaggering up and down the street as at Cetinje.
There was something very human about them and of all things I wanted
to go into the Albanian mountains. But our Consul there was but just
arrived. He consulted his Austrian colleague and as Austria was then
keeping the mountains as its own preserve, he replied, emphatically,
that the journey was impossible for me.

No particular political crisis was happening, but there were rumours
of a certain Kastrioti in Paris who claimed descent from the great
Skenderbeg and his possible arrival as Prince of Albania roused a
certain excitement in Albanian breasts. Hopes of independence were
already spoken of in hushed whispers.

In Montenegro Great Serbia was the talk, and I was shewn crude
prints of the heroes of old, on many a cottage wall. And some
flashlights on Montenegrin character showed vividly the different
mentality of the Balkans.

The new British Vice-Consul for Scutari came up to Cetinje on
business, for the British Minister had left owing to ill-health. The
Montenegrins did not like the new Vice-Consul and seriously
consulted me as to the possibility of having him exchanged for
another. I was extremely surprised. "But why do you not like him?" I
asked. "Because he does not li