orrors perpetrated by the Krjalis, or troops of disbanded soldiers and
desperadoes, who, in defiance of the Turkish authorities, roamed through
the country, supporting themselves by plunder and committing every
conceivable atrocity. After the peace of Belgrade (1737), by which Austria
lost her conquests in the Peninsula, the Servians and Bulgarians began to
look to Russia for deliverance, their hopes being encouraged by the treaty
of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774), which foreshadowed the claim of Russia to
protect the Orthodox Christians in the Turkish empire. In 1794 Pasvanoglu,
one of the chiefs of the Krjalis, established himself as an independent
sovereign at Vidin, putting to flight three large Turkish armies which were
despatched against him. This adventurer possessed many remarkable
qualities. He adorned Vidin with handsome buildings, maintained order,
levied taxes and issued a separate coinage. He died in 1807. The memoirs of
Sofronii, bishop of Vratza, present a vivid picture of the condition of
Bulgaria at this time. "My diocese," he writes, "was laid desolate; the
villages disappeared--they had been burnt by the Krjalis and Pasvan's
brigands; the inhabitants were scattered far and wide over Walachia and
other lands."

_The National Revival._--At the beginning of the 19th century the existence
of the Bulgarian race was almost unknown in Europe, even to students of
Slavonic literature. Disheartened by ages of oppression, isolated from
Christendom by their geographical position, and cowed by the proximity of
Constantinople, the Bulgarians took no collective part in the
insurrectionary movement which resulted in the liberation of Servia and
Greece. The Russian invasions of 1810 and 1828 only added to their
sufferings, and great numbers of fugitives took refuge in Bessarabia,
annexed by Russia under the treaty of Bucharest. But the long-dormant
national spirit now began to awake under the influence of a literary
revival. The precursors of the movement were Paisii, a monk of Mount Athos,
who wrote a history of the Bulgarian tsars and saints (1762), and Bishop
Sofronii, whose memoirs have been already mentioned. After 1824 several
works written in modern Bulgarian began to appear, but the most important
step was the foundation, in 1835, of the first Bulgarian school at Gabrovo.
Within ten years at least 53 Bulgarian schools came into existence, and
five Bulgarian printing-presses were at work. The literary movement led the
w