FOOT RACES—MONASTERY OF OSTROG—OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION—A COURSE à LA MONTAGNE—RACING WITHOUT BETTING—BEN TROVATO—A FLAT RACE—CONVERSATION ABOUT ENGLISH LAWS AND CUSTOMS—LAW OF HABEAS CORPUS.

IN the afternoon I went out into the plain to see the foot races, which the Prince had told me would be very amusing.

On my way to the plain, where the races were to take place, I rambled again through the fair, and a second time got into conversation with the fellow that spoke English so well. We chatted together on many subjects, all more or less connected with the country; he praised the Montenegrins to no 259 end, and told me he would trust them to any amount, they were so thoroughly honest and scrupulous in their dealings. He wanted me to go with him, in a couple of days after the fair was over, to the monastery of Ostrog, but my time was not my own, and I could not give myself that additional pleasure.

It was a great disappointment, however, as Ostrog is a wonderful place, cut out of the rock, not perched on one as some of the monasteries of Mount Athos are, but partly excavated at a great height out of the face of the rock, and partly built on a ledge which the upper part of the rock overhangs. It is approached by a narrow path cut into steps, where no more than two could walk abreast, and therefore easily defended by a handful of men against any number of assailants. There is an ample supply of water in it at all times, and it is always stored with a good supply of rations, and an immense quantity of ammunition. Except by starving out the garrison, it never could be taken.

My companion wanted me then to go with him 260 into the interior of Northern Albania, where he was well known, and where under his protection and guidance I should have been perfectly safe; while his knowledge of the languages, both Oriental and English, would have enabled me to make many interesting inquiries. When I asked him about the administration of those countries by the Ottoman Government, and the opening up of the country by the projected railway from Adrianople to Novi-Bazar which has already been surveyed, he shrugged his shoulders, and then, with a toss of his head, said:—

"Railways are all very good, but they are almost useless here. What we want is a good Government, and that we never shall have as long as this Christian country is ruled by the Turks. You talk of the progress of civilization among them; but you simply know nothing about them. I can speak, for I have lived with them and among them from childhood; and as to their civilization, it is simply a farce. Even at Stamboul, among the better educated, among those who have been to Paris and London, their civilization is nothing more than the gilding of Brummagem jewelry—the 261 slightest rubbing will cause the copper to blush out from beneath. Civilization indeed! See what a powerful navy they possess; but let Hobart Pasha go home and take with him all his European officers, men and engineers, leaving nothing behind but pure full-blooded Turks to man it, and the entire Ottoman navy would not be a match for the smallest British ironclad. In making this disparaging statement as to the so-called civilization of Turkey, I have selected the navy as an example because in old times the Turks were able to hold their own at sea, and showed a great aptitude in naval matters; but naval science has progressed and they have remained stationary. But so it is—their civilization is a dream; their finances a colossal sham; and their final exodus from Europe, I trust, is in the very nearest distance. In fact, if all the Christians in Ottoman employ—English, French, Armenian or Greek—were to abandon their several posts, Turkey would simply collapse in six months."

I don't say that these are my opinions, but simply the clearly expressed convictions of a 262 sharp trader who had long been intimate with European Turkey.

It wanted not much more than an hour of sunset; the western crags threw long purple shadows along the plain of Cettigne, while the rocks which bound it on the east were steeped in the richest tints of gold, and russet, and purple. Up, near to the old Palace of the Vladikas, was a splendid group of native magnates with the Prince in the midst, while ranged in a row before them were about a hundred and fifty of the most athletic men in Montenegro—competitors all in a coming foot race for a splendid pair of silver-mounted pistols, offered by His Highness to him who should first lay his hands on them. The pistols were placed on a conspicuous rock a considerable way up the cliffs on the south-west side of the plain.

The competitors may have been placed at a distance of three hundred yards from the base of those cliffs; it was, therefore, partly a flat race and partly a "course à la montagne:" as the Prince said, "En Angleterre vous avez les courses au clocher, (steeple-chases) ici nous avons les courses à la montagne." 263 The men had divested themselves of their white coats, and their belts and armour. For an instant there was profound silence, and then, at ............