BATTLE BETWEEN TURKS AND MONTENEGRINS—ADDRESS OF PRINCE MIRKO—HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER—THE PROJECTS OF PRINCE DANIELO—PRINCE NICHOLAS I.—SPORT IN MONTENEGRO—INTERVIEW WITH THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS—NATIONAL COSTUME—SPLENDID ILLUMINATION.

I REGRET more than I can express having lost some interesting notes of several conversations I had with the Commandant Pedro Pejovich on the subject of the campaign of 1864(?); all the more as they were most graphically told me by him, who had been in the thick of the fight, and carried in his body, in the shape of severe wounds, proofs 219 of the active part he had borne in that campaign. One only I partially remember still, sufficiently well to venture to retail.

The Turks, apparently, were attacking the Montenegrins from the Herzegovina in the north of Montenegro. They numbered about twelve thousand men, together with a good force of Artillery; while the Montenegrins collected to oppose them were not more than two thousand; but whilst the Turks were in the plain fully exposed in sight of the Montenegrins, these sturdy mountaineers, finding covert behind each rock and bramble bush, were able to pick off the Turks with considerable effect. Still the disparity of force was too great, and at the end of the second day's fighting, although the Turks had not been able to make any impression on the position held by the Montenegrins, still the number of those killed and wounded bore a very large proportion to their numbers. At sunset the fight being over for the time, and sentries having been posted by the mountaineers as far forward as practicable to watch the Ottoman camp, Prince Mirko, father of the present Prince 220 of Montenegro, then in command of the Montenegrins, summoned all the chiefs to a brief council of war, and spoke thus:

"Two days we have been fighting the infidels, and the only result has been the losses we have sustained in killed and wounded. Another day of such fighting will leave us so crippled that the accursed Turks will walk over us into our homes and villages. There is but one plan which offers any hope, but if you adopt it and place faith in me, I promise you a complete victory before to-morrow's sun shall gild the tops of yonder mountains. To-morrow morning, one hour before daylight, be all ready to follow me, leave behind your rifles and ammunition, and follow me softly and stealthily, making no noise; so we shall pass the Turkish advanced sentries without their noticing us, and when sufficiently near I will call my cry, and then let you all rush forward with me, trusting solely to your yataghans, and give no quarter."

This was carried out to the letter, and succeeded perfectly. The Turks, never imagining they would be attacked, kept a bad look-out. The Montenegrins, 221 led on by the intrepid Mirko, rushed on the Turkish batteries, cutting the gunners' heads off, and having spiked the cannons attacked the remainder of the army with such impetuosity that they fled from the field in the utmost disorder.

This was the last attack of the Turks against Montenegro, and I don't think they will ever try it again. Prince Mirko was dead before my visit to this country. I cannot therefore give any description of him personally, but from all I heard he must have been a very remarkable man in every way. Though small in stature and slight, contrary to the general build of the Montenegrins, who are mostly all very tall and powerful men, he had immense influence over the mountain-tribes; owing to his well known sagacity and his fierce courage, wherever Mirko would lead, the whole of Montenegro would follow. He had the eye of an eagle, and strength of will and determination are portrayed in every line of his face, as I have observed in his portrait which hangs in the Palace of Montenegro, as well as the photograph I have seen of him. But he was wise also; when Prince 222 Danielo (the predecessor of the present ruler) died by the hand of an assassin at Cattaro, his widow, the Princess Darinka, at once caused the present Prince, Nicholas I. (nephew of the murdered Danielo) to be proclaimed sovereign, passing over his father Mirko, who, owing to the great youth of his son, might have expected and claimed the succession; but as I said above, Mirko was wise as well as valorous. He knew that from his own warlike tendencies, how much soever he might be acceptable to his own mountaineers, his elevation to be ruler of Tchernagora would be displeasing to most of his neighbours in Austria, Servia, and Turkey. He therefore at once consented to his son's promotion, and generously was the first in Montenegro to do homage to the young Prince.

Up to the year 1850, when Prince Danielo succeeded to the throne of Montenegro, the country had always been ruled by a Prince-Bishop, styled the Vladika. This dignitary, generally, if not always, nominated his own successor in the person of a nephew or some other near relative, who, on the death of the Vladika at once took 223 holy orders and became in his turn Prince-Bishop.

Danielo, not wishing to give up the happiness of home and married life, and also perhaps with the hope of founding a dynasty of his own in Montenegro, which in the course of time might, by extension and the absorption of other principalities, become an important kingdom, repaired to St. Petersburgh on the death of the Vladika Peter II., his uncle, and there obtained the full consent of the Emperor Nicholas to his effecting a division between Church and State. On his return journey to Cettigne he married at Trieste the Princess Darinka, hoping to have founded a line of princes to succeed him. His hopes however were destined to be blighted. Darinka had no children, and after reigning eight years, he was murdered at Cattaro as I have related above.

The young Prince, (Nicholas I.) who had already been betrothed almost in infancy, as is the custom among the upper classes in that country to a relation of his own, daughter of one of the principal Voyvodes in Montenegro, followed his studies under special direction in the Palace 224 of his ancestors; till one day the late Emperor Napoleon III., for reasons of his own, proposed to have the young Prince sent to Paris, there to be educated under his own eye; and the offer having been accepted, a French man-of-war without loss of time steamed into the Gulf of Cattaro and carried away the young Prince, together with two companions of his own age, sons of two of the principal Voyvodes of the country. Whatever care was bestowed upon the Prince's education, he amply profited by it; he is an excellent French and Italian, as well as German and Russian scholar. He is exceptionally well informed, and on a great variety of subjects; and voracious to a degree for more information, especially concerning English laws, customs, and manners, in all of which he takes the greatest interest, and is most anxious that Englishmen should visit his country. He was good enough to have me repeatedly at his house and at his hospitable board, and he never omitted to repeat to me.

"I shall always be glad to see English gentlemen in my country; tell them, when you go back, that if they are fond of shooting, they shall have 225 their choice of game, from an eagle to a blackbird, and from a bear to a squirrel; if they prefer fishing, I promise them trout such as they have never dreamt of,[8] and they shall have every assistance that I can afford them in the way of tents to camp out, and men to guide and help them."

In appearance, the Prince is tall and remarkably handsome; his hair is black, he wears both beard and moustachios, contrary to the fashion of his country, where only the latter are worn, often of immense size and length. With a commanding appearance, he still has a most benevolent expression of countenance, due to the softness of a very fine pair of eyes, and his manners are most captivating. 226 He is very dignified, but at the same time most kind, without being in the least patronizing, and I was told by those who knew him best that he has a most equable temper, and that an angry word seldom was heard from him.

I had been careful before leaving the Palace to set my watch exactly to their time, so as to ensure my punctuality in the evening; and at eight p.m. to the minute, I found myself in the saloon of the Palace. The Russian Consul was there already; he was showing me the different portraits which hung roun............