de Peter
Vissarion and the Voivodin Teuta had arrived with the "Gospodar Rupert,"
as the mountaineers call him (Mr. Rupert Sent Leger) on the armoured
yacht he calls _The Lady_. The National Council showed great pleasure
when the Voivode entered the hall in which the Council met. He seemed
much gratified by the reception given to him. Mr. Rupert Sent Leger, by
the express desire of the Council, was asked to be present at the
meeting. He took a seat at the bottom of the hall, and seemed to prefer
to remain there, though asked by the President of the Council to sit at
the top of the table with himself and the Voivode.

When the formalities of such Councils had been completed, the Voivode
handed to the President a memorandum of his report on his secret mission
to foreign Courts on behalf of the National Council. He then explained
at length, for the benefit of the various members of the Council, the
broad results of his mission. The result was, he said, absolutely
satisfactory. Everywhere he had been received with distinguished
courtesy, and given a sympathetic hearing. Several of the Powers
consulted had made delay in giving final answers, but this, he explained,
was necessarily due to new considerations arising from the international
complications which were universally dealt with throughout the world as
"the Balkan Crisis." In time, however (the Voivode went on), these
matters became so far declared as to allow the waiting Powers to form
definite judgment--which, of course, they did not declare to him--as to
their own ultimate action. The final result--if at this initial stage
such tentative setting forth of their own attitude in each case can be so
named--was that he returned full of hope (founded, he might say, upon a
justifiable personal belief) that the Great Powers throughout the
world--North, South, East, and West--were in thorough sympathy with the
Land of the Blue Mountains in its aspirations for the continuance of its
freedom. "I also am honoured," he continued, "to bring to you, the Great
Council of the nation, the assurance of protection against unworthy
aggression on the part of neighbouring nations of present greater
strength."

Whilst he was speaking, the Gospodar Rupert was writing a few words on a
strip of paper, which he sent up to the President. When the Voivode had
finished speaking, there was a prolonged silence. The President rose,
and in a hush said that the Council would like to hear