States, of parochial extension, were they that shook the world of their own day, and that have instructed all posterity. But the Basileus, whom Greece had to keep at arm's length, had his seat afar; and, even for those within his habitual reach, was no grinding tyrant. Montenegro fought with a valor that rivalled, if it did not surpass, that of Thermopyla and Marathon; with numbers and resources far inferior, against a foe braver and far more terrible. A long series of about twenty prelates, like Moses, or Joshua, or Barak, or the son of Jesse, taught in the sanctuary, presided in the council, and fought in the front of the battle. There were among them many, who were admirable statesmen. These were especially of the Nicgush family, which came in the year 1687 to the permanent possession of power: a power so little begirt with the conveniences of life, and so well weighted with responsibility and care, that in the free air of these mountains it was never coveted, and never abused.

Under the fourteen Vladikas, who had ruled for 170 years before this epoch, the people of Montenegro not only lived sword in hand, for this they have since done and still do, but nourished in their bosom an enemy more deadly, say the historians, than the Pashas and their armies. Not only were they ever liable to the defection of such as had not the redundant manhood required in order to bear the strain of their hard and ever-threatened existence; but the renegades on the banks of the Rieka, whom they had generously taken back, maintained disloyally relations with the Porte, and were ever ready to bring its war-galleys by the river into the interior of the country. At last the measure of patience was exhausted. Danilo, the first Vladika of the Nicgush dynasty, had been invited, under an oath of safe conduct from the Pasha of Scutari, to descend into the plain of Zeta, among the homes of his ancestors, for the purpose of consecrating a church. While engaged on this work, he was seized, imprisoned, and cruelly tortured. At last he was released on a ransom of 3,000 ducats, a sum which the hillsmen were only enabled to make up by borrowing in Herzegovina. was felt that the time had arrived for a decisive issue; and we come now to a

It

deed of blood which shows that or those human beings with whom the Turk forced himself into contact, and who refused to betray their faith, there were no alternatives but two: if not savages they must be slaves, if not slaves they must come near to being savages.

It was determined to slay by night every one of the renegades, except such as were willing to return to the faith of their fathers. The year was 1702, and the night chosen was that which divided Christmas Eve from Christmas Day. The scale was not large, but the operation was terrible; and the narrative, contained in an old volkslied, shows that it was done under that high religious exaltation which recalls the fiery gloom of the Agamemnon, and the sanguinary episodes of the Old Testament.

The hallowed eve draws onwards. The brothers Martinovitch kindle their conse

crated torches. They pray fervently to the new-born God. Each drains a cup of wine; and seizing the sacred torches, they rush forth into the darkness. Wherever there was that would not be baptised were hewn down a Turk, there came the five avengers. They every one. They that embraced the Cross

were taken as brothers before the Vladika.

Gathered in Cettinjé, the people hailed with songs of joy the reddening dawn of the Christmas morning; all Tsernagora ncw was free!

The war had been a standing rather than an intermittent war, and each party to it was alternately aggressor and defender. The Turk sought to establish his supremacy by exacting the payment of the haradsch, the poll or military service tax, paid in kind, which sometimes, in the more open parts, as we may suppose, of the territory, he succeeded in obtaining. Once the collector complained that the measure used was too small. The tax-payer smashed his skull with it, and said: That is Tsernagora measure.' But the Montenegrins were aggressive as well as the Turks. Of the fair plains they had been compelled to deliver to the barbarian, they still held themselves the rightful owners; and in carrying on against him a predatory warfare they did no more than take back, as they deemed, a portion of their own. This predatory warfare, which had a far better justification than any of the Highland or Border raids that we have learned to judge so leniently, has been effectu

ally checked by the efforts of the admirable Vladikas and princes of the last hundred years; for, as long as it subsisted, the people could not discharge effectually the taint of savagery. even tended to generate habits of rapine. But the claim to the lands is another matter; there is no lapse of title by user here; the bloody suit has been prosecuted many times in the course of each of twelve generations of men. That claim to the lands they have never given up, and never will.

community, which held fast its oasis of Christianity and freedom amidst the dry and boundless desert of Ottoman domination? The fullest details I have seen on this subject are those given by Frilley and Wlahoviti. The present form of the territory exhibits the figure which would be produced if two roughly drawn equilateral triangles, with their apices slightly truncated, had these apices brought together, so that the two principal masses should by severed by a narrow neck or waist of territory. The extreme length of the principality from the border above Cattaro on the west to Mount Kom, the farthest point eastwards of Berda, is about seventy miles; the greatest breadth from north to south is a good deal less; but the line at the narrow point from Spuz on the south to Niksich on the north, both of them on ground still Turkish, does not exceed twenty miles. The reader will now easily understand the tenacity with which a controversy seemingly small has just been carried on at Constantinople between the delegates of Prince Nicholas and the Porte; with andirivieni almost as many as marked the abortive Conference of December and January, or the gestation of the recent Protocol. At these points, the plain makes dangerous incisions into the group of mountains; and from them the Turk has been wont to operate. The population of his empire is forty millions; and I believe his claims for military service extend over the whole, except the five millions (in round numbers) of free people, who inhabit the Serbian and Roumanian principalities. Let us now see what were the material means of resistance on the other side. About A.D. 1600, there are said to have been 3,500 houses and 8,000 fighting men in Montenegro. The military age is from twelve to fifty; and these numbers indicate a population not much, if at all, over 30,ooo. This population was liable to be thinned by renegadism and constant war; but, since the early siftings, the operation of the baser cause appears to have been slight. On the other hand, freedom attracts the free; and tribes, or handfuls, of Turkish subjects near Montenegro have had a tendency to join it. Until a few years back, it never had a defined frontier; it is only in recent times that its eastern triangle, that of Berda, has

From 1710 onwards, at intervals, the Sovereigns of Russia and Austria have used the Montenegrins for their own convenience when at war with Turkey, and during the war of the French Revolution the English did the like, and by their cooperation and that of the inhabitants, effected the conquest of the Bocche di Cattaro. To England they owe no gratitude; to Austria, on the whole, less than none, for, to satisfy her, the district she did not win was handed over to her with our concurrence. She has rigidly excluded the little State from access to the sea, and has at times even prevented it from receiving any supplies of arms. Russia, however, from the time of Peter the Great, though using them for her own purposes, has not always forgotten their interests, and has commonly aided the Vladikas with a small annual subvention, raised, through the liberality of the Czar now reigning, to some 3,000l. a year;* the salary of one of our Railway Commissioners. Nor should it be forgotten that Louis Napoleon, seemingly under a generous impulse, took an interest in their fortunes, and made a further addition to the revenues of the Prince, which raised them in all to an amount such as would equip a well-to-do English country gentleman, provided that he did not bet, or aspire to a deer-forest, or purchase Sèvres or even Chelsea porcelain.

The most romantic and stirring passages of other histories may be said to grow pale, if not by the side of the ordinary life of Tsernagora, at least when brought into comparison with that life at the critical emergencies, which were of very constant recurrence. What was the numerical strength of the bishop-led

*Stated by Goptchevitch as high as 4000%.

a year.

been added to Tsernagora proper. About 1800, the population had risen to 55,000. In 1825, to 75,000. In 1835, the official calendar of Cettinjé placed it at 100,000, and in 1865 at 196,000. This included the districts of Grabovo, Rudine, and Joupa, conquered under Prince Danilo. For the mere handful of mountaineers has been strong enough, on the whole, not only to hold but to increase its land. Yet, on the establishment of free Serbia, a tendency to emigrate from the sterile rocks into that well-conditioned country was naturally exhibited; and two battalions composed of the children of Montenegrins helped to make up that small portion of the army of General Tchernaieff, on which alone, in the operations of the recent war, he could confidently rely.

While the gross population of Montenegro, in men, women, and children, was slowly growing through three centuries from thirty to fifty thousand, we must inquire with curiosity what amount of Turkish force has been deemed by the Porte equal to the enterprise of attacking the mountain. And here, strange as it may seem, history proves it to have been the general rule not to attack Montenegro except with armies equalling or exceeding, sometimes doubling or more, in numbers, all the men, women, and children that it contained. In 1712, under the Vladika Danilo, 50,000 men crossed the Zeta between Podgoritza and Spuz. Some accounts raise this force beyond 100,000. Danilo assailed their camp before dawn on the 29th of July, with an army, in three divisions, which could hardly have reached 12,000 men. With a loss of 318 men, he slew, at the lowest estimate, 20,000. And in these alone, so far as I know, of all modern wars, it seems not uncommon to find the slain among the Turks exceed ing the gross number of the highland heroes arrayed against them. Great is the glory of the Swiss in their Burgundian wars for freedom; but can it be matched with the exploits of the bishops of Montenegro and their martial flocks? Once more the heart of the little nation relieves itself in song.

The Seraskier wrote to Danilo: Send me your paltry tribute, and three of your best warriors for hostages. Refuse, and I will lay NEW SERIES.-VOL. XXVI., No. 1

waste the land from the Morea to the salt-sea,* with fire and sword, and will seize you alive,t this letter the Vladika wept bitterly. and put you to death by torture.' As he read He summoned the heads of communities to Cettinjé. Some said, 'Give them the tax' but others, 'Give them our stones.'... They determined that they would fight to the last man. They swore with one accord that all they would give the Turk should be the bulletrain of their muskets. And thus continues the tale. Three Montenegrins went down to the Turkish encampment by night, and traversed the slumbering masses; just as, in the tenth Iliad, Odusseus and Diomed moved amid the sleeping allies of Troy. Vuko, one of the three, said to his comrades: 'Go you back; I abide here to serve the cause. They returned to Cettinjé, and said: 'So many are the Turks, that, had we three all been pounded into salt, we should not be enough to salt a supper for them.' How this recalls the oldest

census in the world, the census of Homer, who says: 'Were the Achaians divided into parties of ten, and every Trojan employed in serving them with wine, one for each party, many a ten would lack a wine-server.' But, not to terrify their friends, they added that this vast host was but a host of cripples. So the people heard mass, received the benediction of their Vladika, and then set out upon the errand of victory or death. Vuko had induced the enemy to rest by the Vladinia, on the plea that they would' not find water between that stream and Cettinjé. Here, before dawn, came down on them the bullet-rain. They were slaughtered through three days of flight; and the bard concludes: 'O my brothers, and all ye in whose breast beats the heart of liberty, be glad; for never will the ancient freedom perish, so long as we still hold our little Tsernagora!

Serbian

bled 120,000 of their best troops for the The very next year, the Turks assempurpose of crushing the mountaineers, whose numbers fell within the satirical description applied by Tigranes to the Romans: Too many for an embassy, too few for an army.' But even this was

not enough of precaution. Thirty-seven head men of Montenegro, who had proceeded to the Turkish camp to negotiate with the commander, were basely seized and put to death. The Turks now ventured to assail a force one-tenth of its own numbers and deprived of its leaders. They burned the monastery, they carried thousands of women and children into slavery, and then, without attempting to hold the country, they marched off to the Morea, while the men of Tsernagora descended from their rocky fastnesses and rebuilt their villages. They powerfully befriended Austria and Venice in the war they were then waging, and, as was too commonly the case, were left in the lurch by their allies at the peace of Passarowitz in 1719. The Turks accordingly made bold to attack them in 1722 with 20,000 men under Hussein Pasha. One thousand Montenegrins took this General prisoner, and utterly discomfited his army. In 1727, another Turkish invasion was similarly defeated. In 1732, Topal Osman Pasha marched against the Piperi, who had joined them, with 30,000 men, but had to fly with the loss of his camp and baggage. In 1735 the heroic Danilo passed into his rest, after half a century of toil and glory.

These may be taken as specimens of the military history of Montenegro. Time does not permit me to dwell on what is perhaps the most curious case of personation in all history, that of Stiepan Mali, who for many years together passed himself off upon the mountaineers as being Peter III. of Russia, the unfortunate husband of Catharine, and, in that character, partially obtained their obedinence. But the presence of a prince reputed to be Russian naturally stimulated the Porte. Again Montenegro was invaded in 1768 by an army variously estimated at 67,000, 100,000, and even 180,ooo men. Their force of 10,000 to 12,ooo was, as ever, ready for the fight; but the Venetians, timorously obeying the Porte, prohibited the entry of munitions of war. Utter ruin seemed now at length to overhang them. A cartridge was worth a ducat, such was their necessity; when 500 of their men attacked a Turkish division, and had for their invaluable reward a prize of powder. And now all

fear had vanished. They assailed before dawn the united forces of the Pashas of Roumelia from the south and Bosnia from the north. Again they effected the scarcely credible slaughter of 20,000 Turks with 3,000 horses, and won an incredible booty of colors, arms, munitions, and baggage. So it was that the flood of war gathered round this fortress of faith and freedom, and so it was that flood was beaten back. Afflavit Dominus, ac dissipanur.

In 1782 came Peter to the throne, justly recorded, by the fond veneration of his countrymen, as Peter the Saint. Marmont, all whose inducements and threats he alike repelled, has given this striking description of him: ‘Ce Vladika, homme superbe, de cinquante ans environ, d'un esprit remarquable, avait beaucoup de noblesse et de dignité dans ses manières. Son autorité positive et légale dans son pays était peu de chose, mais son influence était sans bornes.' As bishop, statesman, legislator, and warrior, he brought his country safely through eight-and-forty years of scarcely intermitted struggle. Down to, and perhaps after, his time, the government was carried on as in the Greece of the heroic age. The sovereign was Priest, Judge, and General; and was likewise the head of the Assembly, not representative, but composed of the body of the people, in which were taken the decisions that were to bind the people as laws. This was called the Sbor; it was held in the open air; and when it became unruly, the method of restoring order was to ring the bell of the neighboring church. Here was promulgated for the first time in the year 1796, by his authority, a code of laws for Montenegro, which had hitherto been governed, like the Homeric communities, by oral authority and tradition. In 1798 he appointed a body of judges, and in 1803 he added to the code a supplement. With the nineteenth century, in round numbers, commenced the humanising process, which could not but be needed among a race whose existence, for ten generations of men, had been a constant struggle of life and death with the ferocious Turk. From his time, the haradsch was no more heard of.

I quote from F. and W., p. 495.

Here is the touching and simple account of the calm evening that closed his stormy day :

On the 18th of October, 1830, Peter the First,

who was then in his eighty-first year, was sitting, after the manner of his country, by the fireside of his great kitchen, and was giving to his chiefs, assembled round him, instructions for the settlement of some local* differences which had arisen. The aged Vladika, feeling himself weak, announced that his last hour was come, and prayed them to conduct him to the humble cell which, without fire, he inhabited as a hermit would. Arriving there, he stretched himself on his bed; urged upon his chiefs to execute with fidelity the provisions set forth in the Will he had that day dictated to his secretary; and then, in conversation and in prayer, rendered up his soul to God. So died this illustrious man, whom a Slavonic writer has not scrupled to call the Louis XIV. of Tsernagora, but who in a number of respects was also its Saint Louis.

Thirty-five years after his death Miss Mackenzie and Miss Irby, in their remarkable tour, visited the country. They found still living some of those who had lived under St. Peter; and thus they give the report of him which they received :

There are still with us men who lived under

St. Peter's rule, heard his words, and saw his life. For fifty years he governed us; and fought and negotiated for us; and walked be. fore us in pureness and uprightness from day to day. He gave us good laws, and put an end to the disorderly state of the country. He enlarged our frontier, and drove away our enemies. Even on his deathbed he spoke words to our elders, which have kept peace among us since he has gone. While he yet lived, we swore by his name. We felt his smile a blessing, and his anger a curse. do so still.t

We

The voice of his people declared him a saint. Did the Vatican ever issue an award more likely to be ratified above? I have already indicated resemblances between the characteristic features of Montenegro and of Homeric or Achaian Greece. One of the most remarkable among them is the growth of men truly great in small theatres of action. Not Peter the First only, but his successors,

Among the Plemenas, which may be called Parishes: subdivisions of the eight Nahias, say Hundreds. All Montenegro is but a moderate county.

Travels of Miss Mackenzie and Miss Irby, p. 628 (ed. 1867). Also see Goptchevitch, p.

21.

will bear some comparison with those, whom the great Greek historians of the classic period have made so famous. Radatomovo, aged seventeen years. He To Peter the First succeeded his nephew was thereupon invested with the ecclesiastical habit and the sovereignty, and in 1833, when aged only twenty, he received at St. Petersburg episcopal consecration. Sir Gardner Wilkinson informs us that he was nearly six feet eight inches in height, and thoroughly well proportioned. His skill with the rifle was such that, when one of his attendants tossed a lemon into the air, he would readily put a bullet through it. At nineteen the cloud of Turkish war broke upon him from Scutari; for he had refused to accept a berat from the Porte, which would have sealed him as a vassal. The pasha's advanced guard of several thousand men was defeated by a body of 800 Montenegrins, at the head of whom the Pope Radoviti fell bravely fighting; and no this Vladika, following up St. Peter's work, set his face sternly against all such

more was heard of the invasion. But

lawless habits as remained in the country. In his modes of repression there are curious traits of manners. The manslayer was shot, but the thief was ignominiously hanged. In the matter of shooting there was a great difficulty; for the terrible usage of the vendettawhich had by no means been extirpated from the Ionian Islands twenty years ago -bound the kin or descendants of a man to avenge his death on the person who slew him. The expedient adopted was to shoot by a large platoon, so that the killer could not be identified. I read that, before brigandage and the vendetta could be thoroughly put down, some hundreds of lives were taken; more, probably, than were ever lost in the bloodiest battle with the Turk. Internal reform, which partook of a martial character, was the great task of this reign. But not exclusively. Under him was performed one of the feats incredible except in Montenegro. Ten men in 1835 seized by a coup de main the old castle of Zabliak, once the capital of Zeta, held it for four days against 3,000 Turks, and then surrendered it only by order of the Vladika, who was anxious to avoid a war. Nearly all his battles were victories.

This giant had received at St. Peters