f in our day they are questioned as
to their nationality, will often reply--and even to an enthusiastic,
armed person from one of the interested States--the worried Macedonian
Slavs, of whom a quarter or maybe a third do really not know what they
are, will reply that they are members of the Orthodox Church.

Du[vs]an perceived that an alliance with Venice would serve his ends;
he did not cease trying to persuade the Venetians that such an
arrangement was also in their interest. After having sent an army to
Croatia, in the hope of liberating that people from the Hungarians, he
conquered Albania, and in 1340 asked to be admitted as a citizen of
the Most Serene Republic. In 1345 he informed the Senate that it was
his intention to be crowned in _imperio Constantinopolitaneo_, and at
the same time suggested an alliance _pro acquisitione imperii
Constantinopolitani_. But Venice, while reiterating her protestations
of friendship, declined his offers; for she could not bring herself to
join her fortunes to those of an ally who might become a rival.

EVIL DAYS AND THE PEOPLE'S HERO

On the death of Du[vs]an his dominions fell apart, so that the
conquering Turk, who now appeared, was only met with isolated
resistance. At a battle on the river Maritza in 1371 the Christians
were utterly routed and, among other chieftains, King Vuka[vs]in was
slain. His territories had included Prizren in the north, Skoplje,
where Du[vs]an had been crowned, Ochrida and Prilep. It was Prilep,
amid the bare mountains, which passed into the hands of Marko, the
king's son, Marko Kraljevi['c], and thereabouts are the remains of his
churches and monasteries. But for the Serbs and the Bulgars Marko is
associated with deeds of valour; he has become the protagonist of a
grand cycle of heroic songs, wherein his wondrous exploits are
recalled. Although he was, by force of circumstances, a Turkish
vassal, and, fighting under them, he perished in Roumania in 1394, so
that historically he may not have played a very helpful part, yet it
is to him that numerous victories over the Turk are ascribed. He is
said to have been engaged in combat against the three-headed Arab, to
have waged solitary and triumphant warfare against battalions of
Turks, to have passed swiftly on his faithful charger [vS]arac from
one end of the country to another, to have defended the Cross against
the Crescent, to have succoured the poor and the weak, to have
conversed with the long-h