of that quarter were looted and burned down. Contrary to the
expectations of the victors, the Turkish residents returned triumphant.
They took their revenge; they put the Christians to the sword, fired
the Christian houses, and filled up the Christian well with corpses.
The account was quite equally balanced, but it is certain that the
Bulgarians made the first move in the game. It was so everywhere, so
far as my experience went, wherever the citizen Turk was drawn into the
conflict Nothing viler than the conduct of the Government in letting
loose its vast hordes of irregular soldiery with license to slay and
pillage an unarmed population could possibly be conceived. But what I
was concerned to prove was that the Mahommedan villagers had no part or
lot in the cruelties of that time unless by way of stern reprisal.

Canon Liddon was anxious that I should lay my facts before Mr Gladstone.
He despatched a telegram to him and ascertained that he would be willing
to receive me at Hawarden on the morrow, and armed with a brief letter
of introduction, I set out next day, and found the great Liberal
statesman placidly dozing in an armchair in a little study on the ground
floor of the house. At first he hardly seemed to recognise why I was
there, but in less than a minute he became astonishingly alert, and
providing himself with hat and walking-stick took me out into the park.
He walked at an extraordinary pace and plied me with questions in those
ringing, rolling, parliamentary tones of his, with which I had been
familiar in the House of Commons two or three years before. He could not
for one instant lay aside his platform manner, and before I had been in
his society for two minutes I appreciated the statement attributed to
Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, that Mr Gladstone always addressed her
as if she were a public meeting. Every sentence was rounded, polished
and precise, every syllable had its particular rhythmic weight and
value, and with it all there was a certain suavity and courtesy which,
for my own part, I thought very gracious and charming. I had heard one
of his remarkable Budget speeches and knew already with what ease he
handled figures, but he surprised me more than once by his quickness in
calculation. He was questioning me as to Turkish methods of taxation:
population of a province so many--piastres per head of population so
many--what was the precise value of the piastre? Twopence and a fraction
of a farthing