A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
A 
 
 ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 BEING 
 
 THE STORY OF THE ASSASSINATION 
 
 OF KING ALEXANDER AND QUEEN 
 
 DRAGA OF SERVIA 
 
 BY 
 
 CHEDOMILLE MIJATOVICH 
 
 FORMERLY SERVIAN MINISTER AT THE COURT OF 
 ST. JAMES'S 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DODD, MEAD & CO. 
 1907 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE murderers of King Alexander and Queen 
 Draga, who on that gruesome dawn of the nth 
 June 1903 made themselves masters of Belgrade, 
 and consequently of Servia, have taken care that 
 many of the details of their terrible deed should 
 not be made public. But those few details which 
 could not be hidden were of such a revolting and 
 horrible nature that the whole civilised world stood 
 aghast; indeed, the conscience of the civilised nations 
 has not yet recovered from the shock that it then 
 received. 
 
 But the assassination of King Alexander and 
 Queen Draga was more terrible, and the drama of 
 King Alexander's destiny more tragical, than is 
 generally known. It has seemed to me, in the 
 interests of history and justice, that the world should 
 learn the whole truth. 
 
 In presenting an historical sketch of the last 
 years and sad end of the Obrenovich Dynasty I 
 have no political object in view. An inscrutable 
 Providence has enacted on the volcanic platform 
 of a small Balkan State a tragedy, of which the 
 extraordinary sadness must always arouse in the 
 
 240719 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 hearts of noble and generous men and women the 
 deepest pity and sympathy. I intend to describe 
 that tragedy. I wish impartially to relate all that 
 can be justly and truthfully said for and against 
 King Alexander and Queen Draga, that can 
 explain that horrible deed, and all that can be said 
 in justification or at least in extenuation of that 
 crime. My desire is to tell the whole truth, and by 
 truth to move my readers to pity the victims as well 
 as the principal actors of this, the greatest tragedy 
 of the last hundred years. 
 
 Before proceeding with the history of the last 
 days of the dynasty Obrenovich I will introduce 
 here the 
 
 DRAMATIS 
 
 KING ALEXANDER OF SERVIA. A young man 
 in his twenty-seventh year, intelligent, patriotic in 
 his own way, self-willed, with exaggerated ideas of 
 his Kingship, somewhat blind towards the light 
 of morality. Born under exciting circumstances, 
 in the critical years of tender childhood he saw his 
 parents hate each other and create a world scandal 
 by fighting over the possession of his person, all the 
 time professing love for him, but practically killing 
 his love for them. In his thirteenth year he was 
 made King of one of the most difficult countries in 
 the world, abandoned by both his parents, delivered 
 into the hands of cynical men, without proper 
 moral education, taught to distrust everyone, or 
 rather to hate everyone. Later he fell in love with 
 and came under the influence of a handsome widow, 
 some nine years older than himself, made her his 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 Queen in the face of every opposition, and remained 
 faithful to her to his death. This, the only love his 
 heart deeply felt, gave the pretext to the old and 
 permanent enemies of his dynasty to organise a 
 conspiracy and to assassinate him. 
 
 QUEEN DRAGA OF SERVIA. A fascinating widow 
 of a small Servian official. By her loveliness, beauty, 
 and talents backed by descent from Nikola Lun- 
 yevitza, an intimate friend of the founder of the 
 dynasty Obrenovich she moved the pity of Queen 
 Nathalie to complete her education and to take her 
 as one of her Court ladies (Dame cTkonneur). 
 At the villa of the Queen in Biarritz she became 
 the object of King Alexander's love proposals, 
 which she resisted for some time, but ultimately 
 became his mistress, and, having obtained an 
 absolute control over his will, made him marry 
 her and make her his Queen. She loved him with 
 an entire devotion, and hoped by good deeds to 
 reconcile the people to her. 
 
 KING MILAN. Father of King Alexander, who 
 voluntarily abdicated in favour of his son (1889), 
 whom he loved and adored ; he worked to obtain 
 the hand of a German Princess for him, and 
 had every prospect of succeeding, when his son 
 unexpectedly married the widow Draga Mashin, 
 closed the frontier of Servia against him, and 
 behaved towards him with cruelty. King Milan 
 shortly afterwards died of a broken heart in 
 Vienna. 
 
 QUEEN NATHALIE. Mother of King Alexander, 
 a beautiful, intelligent, self-willed and imperious 
 woman, with a strange mixture of the Roumanian, 
 Russian, Levantine blood in her veins, from the 
 middle class of the Bessarabian nobility raised by 
 King Milan to the station of a Queen, for which 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 station she lacked proper qualities. She made, not 
 without provocation, her husband's and her own life 
 bitter and unhappy, and finished by hating every- 
 one and everything she once loved : her husband, 
 her son, Russia, Servia, the very Church in which 
 she had been born. To paralyse King Milan's 
 influence with his son she allowed her Court lady, 
 Draga Mashin, to flirt with the young King ; but, 
 once awakened to the real facts, tried bravely to 
 save him from his mistress when, unfortunately, it 
 was too late. 
 
 RUSSIA. The great Orthodox and Slavonic 
 Power exercised an overwhelming influence over 
 the simple and naive Slavonic and Orthodox people 
 of Servia, hating with implacable hatred King 
 Milan for his refusal to continue to be a tool in 
 her hands, and for his seeking for his own and 
 his country's interests protection with Austria. To 
 separate King Alexander from his father, and to 
 close the doors of Servia for ever to the latter, 
 Russia facilitated (if not invented) the programme 
 of the marriage of King Alexander with the widow 
 Draga Mashin, and helped very materially its 
 execution. 
 
 PARTISANS OF THE DYNASTY KARAGEORGEVICH 
 spread and deepened the dissatisfaction with 
 Alexander, the childless and only representative 
 of the dynasty Obrenovich, and organised con- 
 spiracies for his overthrow and for placing the 
 Pretender, Prince Peter Karageorgevich, on the 
 throne of Servia. 
 
 A GROUP OF SERVIAN OFFICERS some as 
 partisans of Karageorgevich, others as single- 
 minded patriots, others again from sordid motives 
 decided to assassinate King Alexander and the 
 more important of his Ministers and courtiers, as 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 well as Queen Draga and her two brothers. At 
 the head of the conspiracy was the brother-in-law 
 of Draga, Colonel Alexander Mashin. 
 
 THE FINAL SCENE. Darkness at the Palace. 
 Shortly before the dawn of the nth June 1903, 
 murderers search after the hiding King and Queen ; 
 merciless assassination and most cruel mutilation of 
 their bodies, ultimately thrown from a window of 
 the first floor of the Palace, naked and with horrible 
 wounds, down into the front garden in the sight of 
 soldiers who surrounded the Palace. 
 
 I may be permitted to say something about 
 my own qualification to write this history. 
 
 I have been connected with the Obrenovich 
 Dynasty during more than thirty years. I have 
 been for a short time private secretary to King 
 Milan, many times Cabinet Minister in several of 
 his Governments, and once the Minister in one of 
 King Alexander's Cabinets (1894), and have had 
 the honour of representing them at several Courts, 
 including four times at the Court of St. James's. 
 For my political career I have to thank principally 
 King Milan, in much smaller measure King 
 Alexander. King Milan was not only my King, but 
 my friend, and I was to him not only a loyal subject, 
 but a devoted friend. To King Alexander I was 
 a loyal subject, but I never was in full sympathy 
 with him, nor he with me, although I liked him very 
 much while he was a delightful little boy, and I 
 can say that little Sasha had so much liking for 
 me that King Milan contemplated for some time 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 entrusting me with the education of the young 
 Prince. 
 
 But my devotion to King Milan and my loyalty 
 to King Alexander never made me blind to their 
 shortcomings, mistakes, and insecurity of moral 
 balance. It was, perhaps, my outspokenness and 
 my readiness to tell them always the truth, which 
 secured for me their confidence. My intimate 
 connection with them, coupled with my predilections 
 as an historian that is to say, my insistence to 
 discover the truth and without fear to proclaim it, 
 and my permanent desire to be impartial and fair to 
 everyone have encouraged me to undertake to 
 write this true story of a great tragedy. 
 
 CREDO MIJATOVICH. 
 LONDON, June n, 1906. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. A STRANGE PROPHECY i 
 
 II. THE BIRTH OF KING ALEXANDER . . 9 
 
 III. SASHA'S CHILDHOOD . .20 
 
 IV. THE SILENT BOY KING . . . 32 
 V. How THE SILENT SASHA BECAME " ALEXANDER 
 
 THE GREAT " . . . -39 
 
 VI. KING ALEXANDER'S SECOND COUP D'TAT . 4^' 
 
 VII. RUSSIA AND SERVIA . . . . 56 r 
 
 VIII. RUSSIA'S R6LE IN THE RUIN OF ALEXANDER . 70 
 
 IX. MADAME DRAGA MASHIN . . . .81 
 
 X. THE REGIME OF " WORK AND ORDER " . . 92%^ 
 
 XI. ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF KING MILAN . . 109 
 
 XII. ON THE EVE OF THE FATAL DEED . . I2O 
 
 XIII. ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE WITH DRAGA MASHIN . 131 
 
 XIV. KING ALEXANDER AND THE SERVIAN ARMY . 150^ 
 XV. THE LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAGA . 157 
 
 XVI. THE CONSPIRACY . . . . . 171 
 
 XVII. THE ASSASSINATION . . . .184 
 
 APPENDIX . . . . .217 
 
A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A STRANGE PROPHECY 
 
 I WISH to write a truthful and impartial history of 
 a young King who was born under extraordinary 
 circumstances, whose childhood was filled with 
 sad events, whose early youth was prematurely 
 darkened by a crown, and who, still a young and 
 inexperienced, although self-willed man, was most 
 cruelly murdered by the very men in whom he 
 placed his trust, and who by a solemn oath were 
 pledged before God and men to serve him faithfully, 
 and die in defence of his life and his honour. 
 
 I daresay some readers who have had the 
 patience to read this history attentively to the end 
 will be struck by the similarity of some of its 
 features with Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. 
 
 I have no wish to increase that similarity, but I 
 
 cannot resist the temptation to begin my history of 
 
 a great tragedy in real life with a strange, yet 
 
 absolutely true, story. It is a contribution to the 
 
 i 
 
2 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 collection of materials for the solution of the 
 problem: Are human acts and events fore- 
 ordained ? and, if so, can they really be foreseen 
 and foretold ? 
 
 In the spring of the year 1875 the Cabinet 
 Danilo Stefanovich, after repeated fruitless efforts 
 to work with the Skupshtina, decided to dissolve it 
 and have a general election. I was a member of 
 that Cabinet, and it fell to my lot to read in the full 
 House the decree of dissolution. 
 
 Although the Constitution clearly reserved the 
 right to the Crown to dissolve the Skupshtina, until 
 that day the dissolution never took place. It was 
 no wonder that the reading of so unexpected a 
 decree made a very deep impression on the 
 members of the Skupshtina. Many of the 
 supporters of the Government came to shake hands 
 with me. The last of them was my friend Mr. 
 Alexa Popovich, a solicitor by profession, and 
 Member for the town of Ujitza, the principal town 
 of the south-western, the most mountainous part of 
 Servia. 
 
 "Do you see," he asked me, "how every 
 year brings fresh confirmation of the prophecy of 
 Mata of Kremna? He clearly said that we will 
 have dissolutions of Skupshtinas ! " 
 
 I told my friend that I did not understand his 
 statement at all. He on his part was surprised that 
 a politician of my position should never have heard 
 anything of the famous political prophecies of the 
 clairvoyant peasant Mata of Kremna. He asked 
 
A STRANGE PROPHECY 3 
 
 me if Prince Milan knew anything about them, 
 adding, that if the Prince did not, he ought to, as 
 they contained many statements which concerned 
 him personally and his dynasty. Altogether, my 
 friend was not so much impressed by the dissolu- 
 tion of the Skupshtina as by the strange fact that 
 a poor and ignorant peasant should have been 
 able to foretell it some seven years before. 
 
 That evening I dined in the Palace with Prince 
 Milan, and after dinner I took an opportunity to tell 
 him what I had heard from Mr. Popovich. As the 
 Prince was very curious, eager, and energetic, he at 
 once called the equerry on duty and ordered him to 
 despatch a letter to Mr. Popovich informing him 
 that he was expected at the Palace early next 
 morning. The Prince told me to come to-morrow 
 at 10 a.m., as he intended receiving the late deputy 
 for Ujitza in my presence. 
 
 Next morning before ten o'clock we both were 
 at the Palace. Mr. Popovich, one of the most 
 eloquent men in Servia, told the Prince the story of 
 the clairvoyant peasant in a most graphic, almost 
 picturesque, manner. The story made a deep 
 impression on the young Prince ; nor was I less 
 moved. I will give here only the most essential 
 features of the story. 
 
 On the 29th May (O.S=ioth of June N.S.) 
 1868, about noon, a well-known peasant, by 
 name Mata (Mathews), came in great haste from 
 the neighbouring village of Kremna to the town of 
 Ujitza, and running through the streets cried out 
 
4 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 loudly and in great alarm : " Oh, brethren ! Rise 
 up to help ! Save him, save him ! They are 
 murdering our Prince ! They are cruelly murdering 
 him! Help! Help!" 
 
 The police knew Mata as somewhat strange in 
 his manner, but as he talked on that occasion of 
 the murder of the Prince, and as the spreading of 
 false, alarming news was punishable, they, after 
 fruitless endeavours to prevent him shouting, put 
 him under arrest. 
 
 Late in the evening of the same day an official 
 telegram from Belgrade announced that Prince 
 Michael Obrenovich in., while walking with his 
 cousin Mme. Anka Constantinovich and her 
 daughter Mile. Katharina in the woods of 
 Koshootnyak (Deer Park), was assassinated. The 
 Prefect of Ujitza, who suspected that Mata of 
 Kremna must have known something about the 
 conspiracy, commenced immediately an interrog- 
 atory examination of the poor man. The result of 
 this was that there was no possible connection 
 between the peasant of Kremna and conspirators 
 in Belgrade, but that Mata from time to time had 
 visions of events which are happening at a great 
 distance, or which will happen some day in the nearer 
 or more distant future. That once established, 
 the Prefect invited Mata of Kremna to say what he 
 saw concerning the future, and ordered one of the 
 secretaries to put in writing Mata's statements. 
 According to those " Minutes," or " Proces- Verbal," 
 the clairvoyant of Kremna said: 
 
A STRANGE PROPHECY 5 
 
 " Servia will now have a boy for her Prince, but 
 practically the country will be governed by a com- 
 mission of three persons. 
 
 " A few years hence the young boy will be ruler 
 in reality. He is intelligent, but very restless, and 
 will have all sorts of difficulties. The country 
 during his reign will never have rest and repose. 
 He will marry unhappily, will have only one son, 
 will have much trouble with his wife, and at last will 
 divorce her. He will lead several wars, will enlarge 
 the country, will advance in his own station and 
 become a king ; but after several years of trouble he 
 will abdicate, go abroad, and die there comparatively 
 young. His son will succeed him, have a still more 
 turbulent and restless reign, will marry a woman 
 from the people, and in his twenty-seventh or 
 twenty-eighth year will cease to be king, his dynasty 
 perishing with him. He will be replaced on the 
 throne by Peter Karageorgevich, who will reign 
 about three years and then also disappear. A 
 foreign army will enter the country, and the people 
 will suffer very much. At last a man will arise 
 from the midst of the people, will drive away 
 the foreigners, unite all the Servian people under 
 his reign, and inaugurate a happy era of national 
 history." 
 
 I have not myself read those Minutes, and 
 mention here the essential points such as I heard 
 them for the first time in the Palace of Belgrade in 
 the presence of Prince Milan, from a man who has 
 seen and read the prophecies of Mata of Kremna, 
 
6 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 written by a secretary in the presence of the Prefect 
 of Ujitza. 
 
 On the i Qth of February(O.S. = 3rd March N.S.) 
 1889, King Milan communicated to the President of 
 his Cabinet, Mr. Nicholas Christich, that he had 
 firmly resolved to abdicate on the 22nd of February, 
 the Servian national festival. All the Ministers 
 went together to the Palace to try to persuade 
 the King to abandon such an unworthy and fatal 
 intention. We spent nearly two hours in trying to 
 open his eyes to the inevitable and the mischievous 
 consequences of such a step. At last King Milan 
 said to us : " Gentlemen, you certainly have done 
 your duty, you have brought before me all the 
 possible arguments against my abdication, most of 
 which arguments I cannot dispute. You are right, 
 but in spite of all that and everything else, I cannot 
 do otherwise ! Nothing can shake me in my 
 determination ! Let me add, that I do not 
 wonder at your insistence, but I do wonder that 
 Mijatovich excites himself into a rage against my 
 abdication, when he knows well that it must take 
 place." 
 
 The moment we left Queen Nathalie's boudoir 
 (where our interview with King Milan took place) 
 our President begged us all to come to his office to 
 a sort of informal Cabinet meeting. Hardly had 
 we taken our chairs around him, when the old 
 gentleman in his earnest, quiet, and dignified manner 
 addressed us 
 
A STRANGE PROPHECY 7 
 
 " Gentlemen, you all heard the King say that our 
 colleague, Mr. Mijatovich, knew well that the 
 abdication must take place ! As none of us knew 
 anything about it, I think we have the right to ask 
 our colleague for an explanation : why, knowing 
 that the abdication would take place, he never 
 told us ? " 
 
 I assured the President and my colleagues that 
 I was absolutely ignorant of the King's intention of 
 abdicating now ; that I had only a few days ago, in 
 answer to a confidential question put to me by the 
 British Minister, assured His Excellency that his 
 German colleague, Count Bray, was quite wrong 
 when he told him that the King was going to 
 abdicate in a few days, for the King had certainly 
 no intention to abdicate now, although that might 
 be the case in four years, when his son comes of age. 
 
 This assurance was well received by my 
 colleagues, but the President did not let me escape. 
 " But, then, how do you explain His Majesty's 
 words ? " he asked me again. 
 
 " Very simply," I answered. " Many years ago 
 the King and I heard at the same time, and for the 
 first time, the details of the prophecy of Mata of 
 Kremna, where it was mentioned that he would 
 abdicate and leave the country." And I told them 
 then all I knew about Mata's prophecy. 
 
 Some of my colleagues protested that I was 
 joking in such a crisis, others laughed at the 
 stupidity of an explanation apparently invented at 
 random. 
 
8 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 But the old " Uncle Nicholas" (Chicha Nikola, 
 as we lovingly called our highly respected President), 
 came most unexpectedly to my assistance. 
 
 " Gentlemen," he began, "our colleague's ex- 
 planation may seem to you strange, but I for 
 my part have not the slightest doubt that it is 
 perfectly true. You remember that I had the 
 misfortune to be the Home Minister at the time of 
 Prince Michael's assassination. I recollect that the 
 Prefect of Ujitza reported to me on the remarkable 
 statements of the clairvoyant peasant. I gave 
 orders that the original document, on which his 
 statements were written, should be sent to me. I 
 have read it myself, and I think it could be found 
 now, among the secret papers of the year 1868, in 
 this very building." 
 
 I might give to my readers yet a few interesting 
 details from that very remarkable political prophecy 
 of a poor and ignorant Servian peasant ; but I 
 refrain, because in a later chapter I will, at Queen 
 Draga's interview with a loyal friend only a few 
 days before her assassination, report their conversa- 
 tion on that very prophecy. I will say here only 
 that all the principal events of Servian history 
 during the last thirty years (since I knew something 
 about Mata's prognostication) have remarkably 
 agreed with what he told the Prefect of Ujitza and 
 his secretary in the year 1868. 
 
QUEEN NATHALIE OF SERVIA 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE BIRTH OF KING ALEXANDER 
 
 IN the month of May 1874, Prince Milan 
 Obrenovich iv. of Servia surprised his Government 
 and his people by announcing to them in an open 
 telegram from Vienna that he had become engaged 
 to Mademoiselle Nathalie Kechko. This came as 
 an unwelcome surprise to the Ministers, who had 
 been planning to obtain for him the hand of one 
 of several young Russian Princesses ; in fact the 
 President of his Cabinet, Yovan Marinovich, at that 
 time one of the favourites of the Russian Govern- 
 ment, already had made confidential advances in 
 that direction in St. Petersburg. At the same time, 
 however, unknown to the Government, Milan's 
 mother, Princess Helene Obrenovich, nte Catargi, 
 had selected a bride for her son. By her arrange- 
 ment Princess Mourousi, the aunt and the guardian 
 of the young children of her deceased sister Mme. 
 Kechko, brought her niece Nathalie to Vienna. 
 Milan was invited to Vienna to see the young lady. 
 The moment he saw her he fell passionately in love 
 with her. She was then hardly eighteen, and very 
 pretty. Her large, dark, and very expressive eyes, 
 
10 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 together with her brilliant complexion and somewhat 
 Armenian, if not Georgian, cast of countenance, gave 
 her the stamp of an Oriental beauty. No one 
 could come into her presence without feeling that 
 she was the type of a superior woman. Struck from 
 the first moment by her beauty, Prince Milan was 
 soon fascinated by her spiritual qualities. In his 
 first conversation with her he found that this 
 Oriental beauty had the culture of an Occidental 
 lady, and more especially that she had the brilliant 
 dsprit of a Frenchwoman. 
 
 I saw King Milan on his return from the inter- 
 view with his bride in Vienna. I also saw him 
 frequently during the first and second year of his 
 wedded life, and I do not hesitate to say that he 
 was deeply, sincerely, and honestly in love with his 
 wife. 
 
 The Servians at that time were devoted to their 
 young sovereign, and, because of that devotion, 
 they were bitterly disappointed that he did not 
 marry a Russian Princess. Besides, everyone 
 asked, " Who are the Kechkos?" All that could' 
 be said in reply was that Nathalie's parents 
 belonged to the old Moldavian nobility, that they 
 had large estates in Bessarabia, and that her father 
 died Colonel of one of the Russian Cavalry regiments. 
 Rumours were soon current that people who knew 
 well the Kechko family rather doubted that King 
 Milan had made a happy choice. The disappoint- 
 ment spread and deepened, nor could it be lessened 
 by the exaggerated stories of the Kechkos' great 
 
THE BIRTH OF KING ALEXANDER 11 
 
 wealth. But when, at the request of Prince Milan, 
 Prince and Princess Mourousi and their niece 
 Nathalie, on their return from Vienna to Moldavia, 
 travelling by steamer down the Danube, stopped 
 at Belgrade, and the affianced young couple drove 
 in an open carriage through the thronged streets 
 of the capital of Servia, Nathalie at once won the 
 hearts of all by her beauty, modesty, and childlike 
 simplicity. I myself was present at that first recep- 
 tion of the future Queen in Belgrade, and I never 
 before heard or saw the Servians so spontaneously 
 and so genuinely enthusiastic as on that occasion. 
 The young Prince Milan was radiant with happiness 
 at the reception his capital gave his engaged bride. 
 Probably that was the happiest day in the lives 
 of both Milan and Nathalie. Even those who 
 knew something of the prophecy of the Kremna 
 clairvoyant, as I did, did not believe that it could 
 ever be possible that these two young people, so 
 handsome, so intelligent, so in love with each other, 
 and so enthusiastically greeted by a gifted and 
 affectionate people, could ever persecute each other 
 with a relentless and cruel hatred. 
 
 The wedding took place in Belgrade Cathedral, 
 on Qth October, under somewhat difficult circum- 
 stances. Just before the arrival of the bride in 
 Belgrade for the ceremony, a Cabinet crisis took 
 place, and Prince Milan had great difficulty in 
 forming a new one. Indeed, the wedding had to 
 be postponed for a few days until the Prince 
 succeeded in doing so. It then took place amidst 
 
12 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 great rejoicings, and the genuine enthusiasm of the 
 people. The joyfulness of the occasion was in- 
 creased by the Tzar having consented to act, through 
 a special envoy, as the "Koom" to the young 
 couple. The " Koom " at a Servian wedding is 
 the principal witness, the best man and something 
 more than that ; he is in a sense the protector of 
 the couple, their trustee, their best and most 
 respected friend through life. The Servians, who 
 are almost all Russophil, and worshippers of the 
 Tzar, felt very much flattered that the ruler of the 
 mighty and " invincible" Russia should become 
 the " Koom " of their young Prince and Princess. 
 
 Curiously, a few insignificant incidents were 
 regarded by the superstitious people of Belgrade 
 as bad omens. 
 
 After the ceremony in the Cathedral, and when 
 the newly-wedded, young princely couple had taken 
 their places in the open carriage to return to the 
 Palace, the horses at first refused to move from 
 the spot. Urged on by the grooms and watchmen, 
 they began to rear, and for a few moments there 
 was a danger that the carriage with the bride and 
 bridegroom would be overturned ! 
 
 Another incident, which the people considered 
 of evil portent, was that hardly had the young 
 Prince and his bride, with their suite, reached the 
 Palace, when a brief but violent storm burst over 
 the town. I remember distinctly that in the great 
 Hall of the Palace, where the State dignitaries and 
 their wives were assembled to congratulate the 
 
THE BIRTH OF KING ALEXANDER 13 
 
 bride and bridegroom, and just when the young 
 couple entered the Hall, the thick clouds of the 
 storm caused such a darkness that we could hardly 
 see each other, as at that time there was neither 
 gas nor electric light in the Palace. A high 
 dignitary, a friend of mine and a devoted friend 
 of the dynasty, who was standing near me, after 
 a suppressed involuntary exclamation whispered 
 to me, " Dost thou not notice the remarkable 
 resemblance between the head of the Princess and 
 the head of a tigress ? " It was then for me to 
 utter a suppressed exclamation of painful surprise. 
 
 In later years, or rather, in the sad and dark 
 years of the divorce, King Milan on several occa- 
 sions said to me, "You all, who know Nathalie 
 from a distance, have nothing but adoration for her, 
 but / know how cruel she can be ! " 
 
 The newly-married couple had no " honeymoon." 
 The Prince could not absent himself for even a day 
 or two. The excitement in the country was growing 
 more dangerous every day. The Liberal press of 
 Servia, abetted and inspired by the Slavophils of 
 Russia, clamoured for war against Turkey. Prince 
 Milan knew well that Servia was not prepared for 
 a war, either with regard to armament or financially. 
 The rumours that he was personally opposed to it 
 made him lose his popularity in certain military and 
 political circles. The friends of Peter Karageorge- 
 vich began at once to exploit the situation. The 
 stories of the military genius of Kara-George were 
 
14 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 revived and spread, especially among the officers 
 and young politicians already heated by the daily 
 clamour of the Liberal press (practically the Slavo- 
 phil press): "War with Turkey! now or never!" 
 Also, the news of the personal bravery of Prince 
 Peter, who under the name of a famous national 
 hero of old time, Mrkonich, had joined the 
 Servian insurgents of Bosnia, was widely circulated 
 among the people, with comments that if Milan 
 Obrenovich had not the courage or capacity to 
 lead the Servians against the Turks, Peter Kara- 
 georgevich would have both. The Russian Slavo- 
 phils, whose aim was to force the peace-loving Tzar 
 Alexander n. into war with Turkey, hoped to succeed 
 by pushing forward Servia and Montenegro as a sort 
 of Russian advance-guard ; on this account they 
 attempted to utilise the anti-dynastic elements of 
 Servia to intimidate Prince Milan into placing 
 himself at their service. As I was well known as 
 a personal friend of the Prince, several officers 
 asked me to inform him that the only chance to 
 prevent an anti- dynastic revolution was that 
 Obrenovich iv. should at once lead the Servian 
 Army against the Turks, and not leave that truly 
 national and noble task to Peter Karageorge- 
 vich. But young Milan met all such reports 
 by an answer which for some time at least was 
 stereotyped : 
 
 " Do you expect me to try to save the dynasty 
 by leading the nation into a war which must 
 inevitably end by our defeat on the battlefield ? 
 
THE BIRTH OF KING ALEXANDER 15 
 
 Neither could our artillery cope with the Turkish 
 artillery, nor could our National Army (the militia) 
 successfully fight with the Turkish regular troops. 
 By a war with Turkey in our present state we 
 would simply march deliberately towards a catas- 
 trophe ! " 
 
 The uncertainty of the situation, and the young 
 Prince's and Princess's resulting anxiety and per- 
 plexity, were materially increased by the equivocal 
 conduct of Russia. Prince Gortchakoff repeatedly 
 and officially advised Prince Milan and his Govern- 
 ment that they ought by all means preserve the 
 peace, and carefully avoid everything that could 
 provoke a Turkish attack on Servia ; and that the 
 Prince would incur the personal displeasure of the 
 Tzar if he should disregard His Imperial Majesty's 
 advice in this respect, given in the interest of 
 Servia as well as that of the general peace. At 
 the same time confidential but urgent advices came 
 from the Russian Ambassador in Constantinople, 
 General Ignyatieff, that in the interest of Servia, 
 and of the whole Slavonic world, Servia should not 
 hesitate longer, but should declare war on Turkey 
 at once ! 
 
 Prince Milan, although not exactly a Slavophil, 
 was a sincere Russophil, and his Premier, Mr. 
 Yovan Ristich, was not only a Russophil, but 
 very largely, although not entirely, a Slavophil. 
 Mr. Ristich, who was an experienced statesman, 
 and knew well the methods of the Russian policy, 
 persuaded the Prince that the real mind of Russia 
 
16 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 and the Tzar was that expressed in Ignyatieff's 
 confidential communications, and that Gortchakoff 's 
 telegrams were only practically addressed to the 
 gallery of " Dame Europe," and were not expected 
 to be taken literally by Servia. I believe the 
 Prince must have received assurances from Russia, 
 that even if his fears of Servian defeat should be 
 unfortunately realised, neither Servia nor the 
 Obrenovich Dynasty would experience unfavour- 
 able consequences by such a defeat. At any- 
 rate Prince Milan declared war on Turkey on the 
 1 8th June 1876. 
 
 I am reviewing, as briefly as possible, the 
 political situation of Servia during the time 
 intervening between the marriage of Milan and 
 Nathalie and the declaration of war against 
 Turkey, simply as an indication of the exciting 
 and anxious circumstances in which the young 
 Princess Nathalie was expecting her first confine- 
 ment. Would it be extraordinary if the great and 
 almost permanent tension of nerves under which 
 the young mother lived all those months had 
 affected the nervous constitution of her first boy? 
 
 At the end of the first six weeks of the war, 
 no important action had as yet taken place. In 
 truth the war was not popular with the Servian 
 peasantry. I have seen thousands of militia pass 
 the barracks of Kralyevo (where I had installed 
 my offices and stores as Intendant of the I bar 
 corps), all looking earnest and gloomy. I hardly 
 
THE BIRTH OF KING ALEXANDER 17 
 
 ever heard anyone sing a patriotic song, or cheer. 
 The individual bravery of the Turks and the 
 greatness of the Turkish Empire caused the 
 majority of the militia to feel that we had no 
 chance against the Sultan. The gloom was 
 spreading to the intelligent class too, because we 
 all expected that, immediately after our declaration 
 of war, the Christians in general, and the Servians 
 more particularly, would enthusiastically rise in a 
 general insurrection against Turkey in Old Servia 
 and in Macedonia. But to our great astonish- 
 ment, and utter disgust, not a man rose in those 
 provinces ! 
 
 Each day our depression was increased by our 
 anxiety as to what the next day would bring, as 
 a general attack by the Turkish army was now 
 daily expected. Early in the morning of the 
 1 4th August (the 2nd August according to the 
 O.S.) a telegram from Krushevatz announced to 
 our office that from the east great cannonading 
 was heard, and that the peasants just arrived 
 from Moravia were stating that from early dawn 
 the firing of cannon had been heard in the distance 
 all along the fortification line from Gyunis to 
 Deligrad. A quarter of an hour later the cannon 
 of a battery, which was temporarily in Kralyevo, 
 began to fire, and the Prefect of the Canton came 
 to show me the telegram from the Prefect of 
 Chachak announcing the happy confinement of 
 the Princess of a healthy boy ! This was 
 announced to the citizens of the small, but pretty 
 
18 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 and clean town of Kralyevo by a drummer (a 
 sort of town-crier), and they immediately decorated 
 their houses with national flags, shut their shops 
 for the day, and brought out barrels of wine and 
 beer to the central square, for free distribution 
 to the soldiers and militiamen and every man 
 willing to drink to the health and happiness of 
 the new-born heir to the throne of Servia. On 
 that day Servia had nearly a hundred thousand 
 men under arms at different strategic points, and 
 they all abandoned their depression and gloom, 
 and heartily cheered the news that the Prince 
 and Princess had a son, and the country an heir 
 to the throne. The officers in all the camps 
 drank heartily to the health of the boy, whom 
 they declared to have been born on a battlefield, 
 and whom they hoped would prove to be a 
 grand soldier and a great leader of men, a new 
 Dooshan, 1 predestined to unite all the Servian 
 provinces into one kingdom. Even the super- 
 stitious Servian peasant was pleased, because he 
 considered the birth of an heir to their sovereign 
 just then as a good omen of Servian victory over 
 the Turks. I do not exaggerate when I say that, 
 excepting a handful of Prince Karageorgevich's 
 partisans, the vast majority of the Servians greeted 
 with a sincere joy and with their best wishes the 
 birth of Obrenovich the Fifth, to whom his 
 god-father, Tzar Alexander n., gave, through his 
 
 1 Dooshan is the name of the greatest Servian ruler in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
THE BIRTH OF KING ALEXANDER 19 
 
 representative at baptism, his own name 
 Alexander. Is it not a strange fact, that 
 Alexander the god - father and Alexander the 
 god - son, both died by a violent and terrible 
 death ? 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SASHA'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 QUEEN NATHALIE loved Servia and the Servian 
 people with all the enthusiasm of a young, highly 
 intelligent, and warm-hearted woman. She very 
 quickly developed into a true Servian patriot. 
 But, as she herself used always to say, " in her 
 innermost heart she never ceased to be a Russian, 
 and loved Russia probably, and at least, as well as 
 she loved Servia." 
 
 It was quite natural that she should call her 
 boy "Sasha," which is the Russian endearing and 
 caressing diminutive for Alexander. The future 
 King Alexander was always to his mother and 
 father, their relatives, to the intimate friends of 
 the dynasty, as well as, later on, to his own 
 sweetheart and wife Draga, nothing but Sasha. 
 Queen Nathalie's beautiful villa in Biarritz bears 
 to this day the name "Sashino," which means 
 "Sasha's Villa." 
 
 King Alexander was not quite twenty-seven 
 years old when he was murdered. Of these 
 twenty-seven years of his life the first nine years 
 only of his childhood were something like happy 
 
 20 
 
SASHA'S CHILDHOOD 21 
 
 years. Even his early youth was not quite 
 normal ; he was practically a lonely boy, his 
 parents having no other children, and there being 
 no aristocracy and no really superior class of 
 society in Servia, the young boy had no 
 companions and playmates, but was always 
 surrounded by grown-up people. Yet the poor 
 little boy, from amongst more or less polished 
 officers of the Court and grey-bearded, serious- 
 looking statesmen and politicians, who filled the 
 ante-chamber of the Konak, looked quite happy 
 with his fresh complexion and dark eyes like 
 those of his mother. And more especially he 
 looked happy if he was able to commit some 
 practical joke on his grown-up entourage. He 
 was very intelligent, but a most restless and 
 mischievous boy, and exceedingly wilful. Queen 
 Nathalie and his first governess, Mademoiselle 
 Pellingre (a Swiss lady of Geneva), had hard 
 work with his education. He learned very easily 
 and quickly, had a wonderful memory, astounded 
 everybody with his logical reasoning and his 
 arithmetical and mathematical proclivities, but he 
 rebelled against discipline and all regulations. 
 His restlessness and mischievousness, as well as 
 his bad teeth, made Queen Nathalie sometimes 
 despair. 
 
 I will illustrate with one or two examples 
 what a young rogue the little Sasha was. 
 
 On one occasion King Milan with the Queen 
 and the little Sasha were travelling by steamer 
 
22 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 up the river Sava to visit the prosperous town 
 of Shabatz. The well-to-do citizens hired three 
 steamers and came to meet the Royal party at 
 some distance from the town. The steamers were 
 slowly and very closely passing the Royal steamer, 
 the citizens cheering enthusiastically the little Sasha, 
 whom I was holding on a chair in front of me. 
 " Why do they shout so much ? " the boy asked, 
 who never before heard a cheering crowd. 
 "Because they love you ! " I told him. Then, to 
 my astonishment, he raised his voice and shouted to 
 the citizens crowding the steamers : " Mijatovich 
 says you love me! If it is true that you love me, 
 throw, all of you, your hats into the water ! " And 
 the loyal and good citizens of Shabatz threw their 
 hats into the river, cheering most enthusiastically. 
 King Milan was amused, and laughed, but Queen 
 Nathalie was greatly annoyed, and reprimanded 
 the mischievous Sasha very sharply before all his 
 cheering friends. 
 
 On the same occasion he took my right glove 
 and threw it into the river, saying to me, " You 
 know some fish may also want to have gloves ! " 
 Queen Nathalie told him in a very severe tone that 
 he would have to be punished for mischief-making. 
 A quarter of an hour later he managed to get my 
 left glove too, and threw it into the river. The 
 Queen, quite flushed with annoyance, angrily 
 said, " Sasha, for this new misdeed your first 
 punishment will be to-night trebled." " But, 
 mamma," said the little boy very quickly, "that 
 
SASHA'S CHILDHOOD 23 
 
 would not be right ! You were right to punish me 
 for my throwing Mr. Mijatovich's right glove to 
 the fishes, but why punish me when I throw his 
 left glove, which is no value to him without the 
 right one ? " 
 
 Once when Sasha was in his tenth year he rushed 
 into the great Hall of the Palace, not knowing 
 that the King and Queen were receiving there a 
 great deputation of the National Assembly. The 
 Queen beckoned to him to come to her, and he did 
 so, standing in front of her. He listened quietly 
 for some time, but as King Milan's eloquence 
 flowed on continually without stopping, the boy 
 became restless and looked how he could escape. 
 The Queen bent over him and whispered to him 
 somewhat audibly, " Sasha, keep quiet, or another 
 time we shall not let you be with us when we 
 receive deputations ! " Whereupon the little boy, 
 in the hearing of all, replied, " Do you think, 
 mamma, I shall be such a fool as to come again to 
 listen to the long speeches of papa ? Not I ! " 
 King Milan was the first to laugh heartily, finishing 
 in that way his speech to the deputies, who cheered 
 lustily, probably more for the spirited boy than 
 his eloquent papa. I was present on the 
 occasion. 
 
 To be absolutely impartial I must tell another 
 incident which seemed to me at the time it happened 
 very characteristic, and which affected me sadly. 
 On the return of King Milan from a foreign voyage 
 in 1882, when he was entering the Belgrade 
 
24 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Cathedral a woman fired two shots at him from a 
 revolver. Although the King was not wounded 
 there was great excitement in the town and at the 
 Palace. The little Sasha, far more curious and 
 inquisitive than the average boy of six years 
 generally is, tried to find out what was really the 
 cause for so much commotion in the Palace as well 
 as in the streets. At last he rushed to his particular 
 friend, General Tesha Nicolich, the War Minister. 
 That giant among the Servian officers, always a 
 jolly and jovial fellow, took the little boy on his 
 knee and laughingly told him how a foolish woman 
 tried to kill his papa. The poor little Sasha wept 
 bitter tears because anyone wanted to kill his good 
 papa. I approached him, and helped the General 
 to quiet the grief of the boy. Then suddenly the 
 boy's face was transfigured. He stopped crying, 
 looked pale and trembling, jumped down from the 
 General's knee, and in a great anger said to him, 
 " Tesha, go at once with your soldiers and catch 
 that wicked woman, and with your own sword cut 
 her into pieces, and throw them into that deep well 
 in our garden ! " General Tesha laughed heartily, 
 but I was dumbfounded, and wondered at such an 
 explosion of cruelty in a little boy. In after years 
 whenever I heard King Alexander use a cruel 
 word I invariably remembered this incident of 
 1882. 
 
 But on the whole, during the first nine years of 
 his life Sasha was a charming and most affectionate 
 boy. 
 
SASHA'S CHILDHOOD 26 
 
 With the very beginning of the second period of 
 nine years of the short and sad life of Alexander 
 Obrenovich, dark clouds began to overshadow his 
 young heart. Affectionately loving both his father 
 and his mother, he suddenly found himself between 
 them the kicking ball of their mutual hatred. How 
 it came about that Milan and Nathalie, who married 
 from love at first sight, transformed their mutual 
 love into the most uncompromising hatred I do not 
 intend to tell here. It would complicate the great 
 tragedy by another, not so terrible, but sad, very sad, 
 in which neither of his parents played consistently 
 a noble part. Perhaps the most dramatic element 
 in the Milan- Nathalie tragedy was the assertion of 
 each party that they loved their boy. Because of 
 his devoted love for his boy King Milan moved 
 heaven and earth to take him away from the arms 
 of his mother ; while Queen Nathalie professed that 
 because she was an intensely loving mother she 
 could not bear the separation from her most beloved 
 and only boy Sasha. They preferred to fight a 
 most ignominious fight before the eyes of the world, 
 and before the eyes of their utterly distracted and 
 despairing little boy. Queen Nathalie refused to 
 return the boy to his father, the heir to the throne 
 of Servia. King Milan did not hesitate to appeal 
 to the German policy, and the German policemen 
 had to enter the apartments of Queen Nathalie and 
 take by force from her arms the poor, bitterly 
 weeping boy. This scandal, created by Milan and 
 Nathalie in Wiesbaden, resounded from one end 
 
26 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 of the world to the other. It was painful and 
 humiliating enough, and it would be no wonder if 
 it had then and there eradicated every affec- 
 tion for his parents from the young heart of the 
 boy. 
 
 Then came the second and somewhat protracted 
 scandal. King Milan demanded from the Servian 
 Church to be divorced from Queen Nathalie. 
 Everybody in Servia knew well that Queen 
 Nathalie was an absolutely virtuous woman, and 
 Milan neither did nor could reproach her for 
 incontinence. The incompatibility of temper which 
 he practically invoked was not a valid reason for 
 divorce in the Greek Orthodox Church. His action 
 for divorce was first started before the ordinary 
 ecclesiastic Church. But when it was seen that the 
 regular procedure might last a whole year, keeping 
 all that time the scandal before the people of Servia, 
 who began to show some signs of impatience, 
 then it was necessary to hunt for some precedents 
 in the old Byzantine Empire and in Russia. In 
 the last country it was found that the Tzars had 
 been sometimes divorced by the simple edict 
 (Grammota)of the Metropolitan, and, following such 
 precedents in the " Holy Orthodox Russia," the 
 Archbishop Theodosius, the Primate of Servia, 
 declared the marriage bond between King Milan 
 and Queen Nathalie dissolved. 
 
 These proceedings, lasting from June to the 
 middle of September 1888, had paralysed the 
 political life of Servia and disorganised the great 
 
SASHA'S CHILDHOOD 27 
 
 party of Obrenovich, strengthening at the same 
 time and encouraging the partisans of the Pretender 
 Karageorgevich. Russia, hating King Milan as a 
 sort of deserter and traitor of the " Slavonic Cause," 
 utilised the general dissatisfaction of thq people 
 with the King's divorce, and organised in Europe, 
 and more especially in Servia, a regular campaign 
 of the most unscrupulous calumnies against King 
 Milan. At the same time the mistress of the King, 
 Mme. Arthemise Christich, always suspected to 
 have been a secret agent of Russia, began to suggest 
 to King Milan to abdicate. 
 
 The idea of abdication was cleverly counselled 
 him by his mistress immediately after the first 
 difficulties encountered with the regular ecclesiastical 
 court of divorces. Passing through Vienna on his 
 way to Gleichenberg (the famous watering-place for 
 lung diseases near Gratz in Styria) in the beginning 
 of July 1888, he communicated his intention to some 
 intimate friends in the Austrian capital. As 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs in Mr. Nicholas 
 Christich's Cabinet, I received confidential informa- 
 tion, and wrote at once a very outspoken letter to 
 King Milan, showing him plainly the cowardliness 
 of such an act, and the great sin which he would 
 commit against his son if he were to pass the 
 crown to the boy, as his education had been hardly 
 begun. The King invited me to come at once to 
 Gleichenberg. There for five days I argued against 
 his fatal idea of abdication. My appeal to him on 
 behalf of his son did not produce much effect. To 
 
28 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 one of such arguments he said : " You know my 
 Sasha is to me by far the dearest creature in the 
 world, yet from time to time he seems to me a sort 
 of disguised personification of his mother. He 
 has sometimes her cold, cruel laugh." I made on 
 him more impression by showing him that to 
 descend from the throne at that particular time, 
 when his own actions gave to his wife and to 
 Russia the opportunity to represent him in the 
 European press as the meanest of men, would be 
 his moral suicide for all time. I suggested to him 
 to postpone his abdication until his son came of 
 age, in five years, and use that time to give his son 
 a solid preparation for his position, educate him as 
 the future King of Servia ought to be educated, 
 and at the same time doing good to his people, 
 so that he would regain his somewhat tarnished 
 popularity in Servia, and re-establish his own good 
 reputation in Europe, which certain newspapers 
 in Austria, Germany, and France, paid by Russia, 
 had seriously compromised. I drew up for him a 
 programme of what he could and ought to do, the 
 first article being that now, when nobody in Servia 
 hopes to get a better and more liberal Constitution, 
 he should by his own personal initiative grant the 
 nation a truly liberal and well-considered Constitu- 
 tion. He seemed to be much impressed, and lecT\ 
 me to believe that he accepted it entirely and in all 
 its details. In reality he executed only the first 
 article, and instead of abdicating in 1897 he 
 abdicated on the 22nd February 1889. 
 
SASHA'S CHILDHOOD 29 
 
 Sasha was in the middle of his thirteenth year 
 when he was proclaimed King of Servia (12 years 
 6 months and 20 days). We Servians are 
 rather superstitious people, and I know many 
 friends of the dynasty Obrenovich who considered 
 it an evil omen that King Alexander ascended the 
 throne of Servia in his thirteenth year. The ex- 
 traordinary calmness, self-possession, and dignity 
 with which the boy conducted himself on that 
 memorable day on which he was by his own father 
 proclaimed, in the White Hall of the New Palace, 
 King of Servia, was very much appreciated. No 
 one admired him more than his own father. No 
 one less than I personally. It seemed to me so 
 unnatural that this boy of twelve and a half years, 
 surrounded by the civil State dignitaries and higher 
 officers all deeply moved, most of them in tears 
 and loudly sobbing, his own father kneeling 
 before him pronouncing the oath of fidelity as 
 subject to his new King, should not betray 
 the slightest emotion! Has he a heart? Has he 
 nerves? No, this was evidently not an ordinary 
 boy. 
 
 I left the Palace deeply saddened. I felt 
 strongly that my adored King Milan had committed 
 a terrible and fatal mistake. And I was puzzled 
 about that cold face of the boy King. I tried to 
 explain it. The public, acrimonious, and most 
 unscrupulous struggle of his parents, and the 
 scandal of their divorce, how could they but fill 
 the young heart of this boy with shame and bitter- 
 
30 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 ness? They certainly could not plant, and much 
 less develop, noble sentiments in his heart. The 
 permanence and the growth of the anti-dynastic 
 movement, the incessant precautions under which 
 the Royal Court had to live, the intrigues of the 
 foreign Powers, what influence could they exercise 
 on the young boy's character, whose sharp and 
 intelligent eyes they did not escape ? Nothing but 
 the most pernicious influence. Nor did I forget 
 that Dr. Dokich, to whose educational care Sasha 
 since his seventh year was entrusted, although an 
 able physician and scientist, and a man of high 
 morality, practically was an atheist, whose principal 
 and almost exclusive anxiety was to keep the boy 
 in good physical health and to give him a certain 
 amount of scientific information. No one took care 
 for his religious and moral education. The Court 
 Chaplain, Prota Yacov (who will later on, as Arch- 
 bishop Inokentiye, bless the murderers of King 
 Alexander), succeeded only in making religion an 
 object for witty observations and awkward questions 
 on the part of his Royal pupil. And his own 
 parents, would they have persecuted each other 
 with such a persistent and unscrupulous hatred as 
 they did, if they had cared better for his moral 
 education, for the development of all that was noble 
 and good, and for the suppression of all that was 
 mean and bad ? The unfortunate boy, who became 
 King in his thirteenth year, passed the last three 
 years of his childhood under most demoralising and 
 sad circumstances. There could be no wonder 
 
SASHA'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 31 
 
 that on the first, the most solemn and most 
 emotional, occasion he appeared as King, he 
 looked as if he had been made of cold marble 
 and not of ftesh and blood, a boy in his thirteenth 
 year ! 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE SILENT BOY KING 
 
 THE circumstances in which the so-called " educa- 
 tion " of the young King Alexander was pursued, 
 were most depressing. 
 
 Having decided to leave his son and his country, 
 King Milan's great study was how to prevent 
 Queen Nathalie exercising any influence on his 
 son and his country. It seems that before he 
 appointed Mr. Yovan Ristich, General Yotza 
 Belimarkovich, and General Kosta Protich the 
 Regents of the Kingdom during King Alexander's 
 minority, King Milan exacted from them a promise 
 that on no account would they allow Queen 
 Nathalie to have the slightest influence on the 
 education of her son, the young King. He 
 delivered his son to them on the condition that 
 they should become a safe and solid barrier, closing 
 every approach by which Queen Nathalie could 
 reach her son. On that understanding he was 
 ready to separate himself from his son and go into 
 voluntary exile. He loved his son and loved his 
 country, but was willing to put himself under the 
 permanent torture of living away from them if he 
 
THE SILENT BOY KING 33 
 
 could prevent Nathalie being cvvith her son ! King 
 Milan was not a cruel man, but to his divorced 
 wife he behaved often with cruelty. Queen 
 Nathalie, on her part, would gladly undergo any 
 torture if she only could thereby inflict suffering 
 and humiliation on King Milan. These two other- 
 wise highly intelligent people continued their cruel 
 struggle against each other under the eyes of their 
 young boy, without giving a moment's consideration 
 to the fact that to him their behaviour was most 
 cruel. 
 
 It is, of course, charitable to suppose that Queen 
 Nathalie's motives for her action were in the first 
 place her motherly love for her son, and the 
 sentiment of her maternal duty towards him. But 
 this sentiment of duty was made the more impera- 
 tive by the sweet consideration that the fulfilment 
 of her duty towards her son would cause annoyance 
 and humiliation to her hated husband, Milan. 
 
 She decided to come to Belgrade and take her 
 position in the Palace as the mother of the King. 
 She came to Belgrade, but only to find that, at the 
 order of the Regents, all the gates of the Palace 
 had been closed to her. The young boy King could 
 see from one of the windows of the Palace how his 
 mother had to turn away from its closed gates, 
 scrutinising eagerly every window of the old 
 Konak in the hope of seeing the face of her boy. 
 It was indeed cruel. 
 
 The Regents informed the mother of their King 
 that she would not be allowed to enter the Palace, 
 3 
 
34 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 nor speak to her son, nor keep up a correspondence 
 with him. The same cruel programme was en- 
 joined on the young King, and all his teachers, 
 professors, equerries, and servants were ordered to 
 co-operate in its strict execution. The Queen was 
 advised, and -politely requested by the Regents and 
 their Government, to leave Belgrade. She refused 
 to do so. She hired a house in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the Palace, a house past which 
 the young King, surrounded by guards, drove 
 every day, so that his unfortunate mother could 
 from time to time catch a glimpse of his face. 
 
 If the imagination of a sensational novelist had 
 created such a tragic situation, his readers would 
 say that such a situation was impossible in real life. 
 Yet here was a woman, and a queen too, young, 
 beautiful, high-spirited, loving passionately and 
 hating passionately, watching eagerly every day 
 from the window of a one-storeyed and incon- 
 venient house (once belonging to Princess Persida 
 Karageorgevich, the mother of King Peter!) to 
 catch a glimpse of her only boy ! And there was 
 that poor boy, surrounded by more or less rough 
 horsemen, throwing silently his sad glance towards 
 the windows, that he might get, perchance, a glimpse 
 of his mother ! The Regents thought they were 
 behaving like gentlemen by keeping their promise 
 to King Milan. In reality they were daily putting 
 under agony the heart of a mother, perhaps also 
 the heart of a boy ! The young boy King was sad 
 and silent. No one knew what was passing in his 
 
THE SILENT BOY KING 35 
 
 young soul. But every student of human nature 
 must feel that that extraordinary situation could 
 not, from an educational point of view, otherwise 
 but disastrously influence the formation of character 
 of the young boy King. 
 
 This condition of affairs could not go on 
 indefinitely for those principally concerned in 
 it. The Regents were first to find the tragedy 
 unbearable. They considered how to end it 
 as speedily as possible. They hit upon an extra- 
 ordinary plan. Who was the originator I do not 
 know. Some believe it was the fertile brain of 
 King Milan, who was ready to humiliate himself if 
 he could only revenge himself on his divorced wife. 
 Others, again, believe the plan originated with the 
 Russian Government, which would not hesitate to 
 sacrifice Queen Nathalie, so faithful and devoted to 
 Russia, if only the gates of Servia were shut and 
 securely bolted against Russia's b&te noire, King 
 Milan. Anyhow, a Bill was brought into the 
 National Assembly proposing that neither King 
 Milan, the father of His Majesty King Alexander, 
 nor Queen Nathalie, the mother of His Majesty, 
 should be allowed to reside even temporarily in 
 Servia, and once out of the country they should 
 never be permitted to re-enter it again. The Radical 
 majority of the National Assembly, permeated as 
 it was by friends and agents of the Pretender, 
 voted with enthusiasm the expulsion of King Milan 
 and Queen Nathalie for ever from Servia ! 
 
 It was the second great blow to the foundations 
 
36 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 of the Obrenovich Dynasty. Who would have 
 respect for the helpless boy on the throne when his 
 gifted father, who made Servia an independent 
 kingdom with largely increased territory, and his 
 once so highly and justly popular mother, are 
 expelled and forbidden to enter the country to 
 which they both were sincerely and fervently 
 devoted ? The law was a monument of the 
 ingratitude of the people. It was unjust and cruel 
 to King Milan and to Queen Nathalie, and still 
 more unjust and cruel to the boy King Alexander. 
 Was that the lesson of generosity and of largeness 
 of heart which Servia was giving to her young 
 King? Did not the Regents, their Government, 
 and the Skupshtina act as if they expected that the 
 poor boy, who had the misfortune to be their King, 
 should mortify all his love for his father and 
 mother? Did they not teach him to behave like 
 an unnatural boy? Did no one consider what a 
 dangerous education they were giving to their 
 young King? 
 
 Immediately after the resolution was passed by 
 the National Assembly, the Government requested 
 Queen Nathalie to leave Belgrade. On her refusal 
 to do so, a police commissioner, with several armed 
 policemen, were ordered to take her by force to one 
 of the steamers plying every half-hour between 
 Belgrade and the Hungarian frontier-town, Zimony. 
 As the great and heavy gate of the house in which 
 Queen Nathalie lived was closed and barred, the 
 police commissioner and his men had to climb 
 
THE SILENT BOY KING 37 
 
 from the neighbouring yards over the walls into the 
 yard of the Queen's temporary home. When the 
 police force reached her private sitting-room, 
 Queen Nathalie protested against the violent and 
 illegal action of the Government, but at the same 
 time declared she was ready to yield to their 
 violence. A common and dirty cab was called, and 
 the proud Queen Nathalie had to take her seat in 
 it at the side of the personally most distressed 
 police commissioner, and with a fully-armed 
 gendarme on the seat near the coachman. 
 
 The cab passed the Palace. Did poor Sasha 
 witness the humiliation of his queenly mother ? I 
 do not know ; but he certainly was at that time in 
 the Palace. 
 
 Crowds of the people gathered in the principal 
 streets leading to the steamer's pier. Their natural 
 and general sentiment was that their headstrong 
 and imperious Queen had been harshly and un- 
 deservedly treated. Suddenly a group of young 
 men stopped the cab, drove away the police 
 commissioner and the police, as well as the cabman, 
 took out the horses, turned the carriage, and dragged 
 it, with Queen Nathalie in tears from deep emotion, 
 back to her house, through the principal streets of 
 Belgrade, and past the Palace of her boy. Dense 
 crowds of men and women followed her, enthusias- 
 tically cheering. If poor Sasha did not see half 
 an hour earlier the humiliation of his mother, he 
 must have seen, attracted by the incessant cheers 
 of the crowds, her triumph. 
 
38 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 A few moments after she reached her house, 
 several companies of soldiers and gendarmes 
 summoned the dense crowd in front of the house to 
 disperse. When the people refused to do so the 
 soldiers fired, killing a few young men and wounding 
 many. Queen Nathalie then induced the people 
 to disperse, telling them that to prevent further 
 bloodshed she would of her own will leave 
 Belgrade. This she did the same evening. 
 
 What a day for the poor mother of the boy 
 King ! What a day for Servia, and especially what 
 a day for the boy King himself! Is it possible that 
 such a day has not exercised a deep impression on 
 the mind and heart of the young boy, filling it with 
 contempt, bitterness, and hatred ? All the action 
 of the Regents, their Government, their National 
 Assembly, and the police, was fundamentally wrong, 
 and indeed immoral. How can it be expected that 
 such action should favourably influence the moral 
 education of the boy King ? 
 
 In my opinion, he was at that time decidedly 
 more sinned against than sinning. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 HOW THE SILENT SASHA BECAME " ALEXANDER 
 THE GREAT " 
 
 IN the preceding chapter I mentioned those dramatic 
 and tragic events, the resolution of the National 
 Assembly forbidding the parents of King Alexander 
 to sojourn in Servia, and the terrible expulsion of 
 Queen Nathalie from Belgrade, which demoralised 
 the Obrenovich Party and weakened the position 
 of the dynasty in Servia. I allowed readers them- 
 selves to conjecture the pernicious influence those 
 sad events must have exercised on the character 
 of the young boy King Alexander. 
 
 Further political developments worked fatally 
 in the same direction. The Regency was com- 
 posed of at least two very strong Liberals (Ristich 
 and Belimarkovich), even if we admit that General 
 Protich, the third Regent, did not formally belong 
 to the Liberal Party, although practically he shared 
 their opinion and their programme. The Liberals 
 have since the restoration of the dynasty of 
 Obrenovich in 1859 always boasted that they 
 were the true dynastic party. The Radicals 
 followed blindly the leaders, who were always 
 
40 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 bitter opponents of the Obrenovich, and who 
 were more than suspected of working for the 
 restoration of the Karageorgevich Dynasty. The 
 Liberal Regency and the Radical Government were 
 obliged to carry on the legislation and the ad- 
 ministration of the country ; but they were watching 
 each other with great misgivings and suspicion. 
 I know as a positive fact that the Regents feared 
 that their own Radical Government, having so 
 successfully " buried alive King Milan and Queen 
 Nathalie," might one night by a coup de main arrest 
 the Regents, kill or carry out of the country the 
 young King Alexander, and proclaim King Peter 
 Karageorgevich King of Servia. The Radicals, 
 although they had an enormous majority in the 
 Assembly, and practically had the administration of 
 the country in their hands, felt keenly that so long 
 as the Liberals, through the Regents, exercised 
 practically the Royal power, they were not the 
 masters of the situation as they ought and wished 
 to be, and from the very beginning of the Regency 
 the struggle for supremacy between the Radicals 
 and Liberals went on, although both sides were 
 anxious for the time being to save appearances. 
 
 But something unexpected then happened which 
 forced upon the country a real political crisis. The 
 third Regent, General Kosta Protich died suddenly 
 in June 1891. Immediately the Radicals declared 
 that his place in the Regency must be taken 
 by their leader, Mr. Nichola Pashich. The two 
 Regents, Ristich and Belimarkovich, considered 
 
SASH A NAMED "ALEXANDER THE GREAT" 41 
 
 it their duty to prevent the election of a Radical 
 as the third Regent. The Radical Government 
 insisted that the National Assembly should be con- 
 voked at once, to elect the third Regent. The 
 Regents thought differently. To exercise pressure 
 on the Regency the Radical Government placed it 
 in the dilemma, either of summoning at once the 
 Assembly for the purpose of electing the third 
 Regent, or accepting their resignation. The 
 Regents, to the utter astonishment of the Radicals, 
 accepted their resignation, and requested Mr. 
 Avakumovich to form a Liberal Cabinet. 
 
 Then began a violent and passionate struggle 
 between the Liberals and the Radicals. The latter 
 had undoubtedly a great majority in the country, 
 especially among the peasants ; but the Liberals had 
 the administration of the country in their hands. 
 They dissolved the Radical Skupshtina, replaced 
 the Radical Prefects, and other influential employe's 
 of the State, by experienced and energetic Liberals, 
 who exercised all sorts of influences to secure the 
 election of Liberals as Presidents of village com- 
 munities, and after this preparatory work of several 
 months undertook the general election for the new 
 Skupshtina. The Radicals were better organised. 
 They were fortunate enough to have the majority 
 of the village priests and village teachers for their 
 partisans, and these proved most active and energetic 
 agents. Both parties did not hesitate in the choice of 
 means to secure victory at the election. The Radicals 
 described the Liberal Regents and the Liberal 
 
42 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Ministers as old enemies of the national liberties, 
 who desired to place the people under the heel of 
 the Chinovniks, that these might oppress them, and 
 increase taxation to fill their own pockets. The 
 Liberals described the Radicals as the sworn enemies 
 of the Obrenovich Dynasty, which had done such 
 signal service to the country, and hinted that all 
 those who voted for the Radicals would be named 
 in the police registers as men suspected of the anti- 
 dynastic sentiment, and treated by the State author- 
 ities as such. There is no doubt that in their 
 anxiety to secure a majority, the police authorities 
 exercised in some places brutal pressure on the 
 electors. One place in the Canton of Dragachevo 
 (notorious for its opposition to the rulers of the 
 Obrenovich Dynasty) came to an open riot, to 
 suppress which the police called soldiers to their 
 aid, and caused some bloodshed. 
 
 But in spite of the reckless energy of the Liberal 
 Government, the number of the Liberal members 
 hardly balanced the number of the Radical members. 
 In normal circumstances the Government ought to 
 have resigned. But the Liberals persuaded them- 
 selves that the interest of the dynasty, as well as 
 the interest of the State, demanded more than ever 
 that they should hold office. They decided to annul 
 several Radical elections, and put the Liberals in 
 their places, regardless of the illegality of such an act. 
 Of course, such a policy increased the bitterness of 
 the Radical opposition and the excitement in the 
 country. The Liberal Government committed so 
 
SASHA NAMED "ALEXANDER THE GREAT r 43 
 
 many illegalities during the electoral campaign that 
 they did not mind committing a few more. They 
 succeeded in creating for themselves an artificial 
 although a small and unreliable majority in the 
 Assembly, and determined to continue their policy 
 of intimidation and almost of terrorisation. 
 
 The political situation was undoubtedly very 
 strained, and nobody knew how matters would end. 
 
 Then something happened that nobody could 
 have foreseen. The silent, pale, and cold-looking 
 boy King invited the Regents and the principal 
 Members of the Cabinet to dine with him in the 
 Palace on the night of the I2th April. They came, 
 and seemingly enjoyed the typically Servian dishes, 
 for the Regency thought it their patriotic duty to 
 accustom the young Kjng to be patriotic even in 
 his culinary tastes, and they consequently banished 
 from the Palace the French chef of King Milan's 
 celebrated French cuisine. Mr. Ristich was, as 
 usual, grave and reserved, but his colleague the 
 second Regent, General Belimarkovich, was more 
 than usually gay and talkative. The Home Minister, 
 Mr. Ribaratz, was very confident that he would be 
 able to lead the Skupshtina successfully through its 
 indispensable legislative work, and then adjourn it. 
 Some witticisms were cracked at the expense of the 
 Radical Party. The company laughed heartily. 
 The young boy King did not join in the laugh, 
 but he hardly ever did laugh. 
 
 The dinner was not yet ended for some reason 
 or other the service seemed very slow, and the 
 
44 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 young King looked at his watch. He, generally so 
 remarkably self-possessed for a boy, seemed to be 
 somewhat distracted and restless, to such an extent 
 as to be noticed by the members of the Government. 
 
 Then Lieutenant-Colonel Tyirich, the King's 
 first Aide-de-Camp, entered the Banqueting Hall, 
 walked straight up to the young King, and with a 
 deep bow whispered something to him. 
 
 The young King rose. The company looked 
 at him with some surprise, as it was too late to 
 propose toasts. 
 
 " Gentlemen ! " began Alexander Obrenovich, 
 who at that very moment ceased to be a boy, 
 and became a King, his voice not betraying the 
 slightest nervousness or emotion. 
 
 " Gentlemen ! It is announced to all the 
 garrisons in Servia, to all the authorities, and to the 
 people, and I announce it here to you, that I declare 
 myself of full age, and that I now take the govern- 
 ment of the country into my own hands. I thank 
 you, my Regents, for your services, of which I now 
 relieve you. I thank you also, gentlemen of the 
 Cabinet, for your services, of which you are relieved 
 too. You will not be allowed to leave this Palace 
 to-night ; you can remain here as my guests, but 
 if not, then as my prisoners ! " 
 
 For a few moments there was a dead silence. 
 The Regents and the Ministers were dumbfounded. 
 The first Regent, trembling, and with a white face, 
 in a low and sorrowful voice said, " If it is not 
 your Majesty's wish to allow us to exercise our 
 
SASH A NAMED "ALEXANDER THE GREAT" 45 
 
 mission for the legal and constitutional term, which 
 means hardly more than a year longer, you might 
 have appealed to our well-known loyalty to the 
 dynasty." 
 
 General Belimarkovich reproached the King 
 in words not so well chosen, declared his action 
 illegal, and protested violently against it ; rushed 
 from the Banqueting Hall as if to leave the Palace. 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Tyirich stopped him with his 
 sword drawn, and, opening the doors, showed him 
 in the adjoining room a company of soldiers with 
 glittering bayonets on their rifles. 
 
 "I leave you in charge of Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Tyirich, whose orders you will have implicitly to 
 obey, while I go to take the oath of fidelity from 
 the Army," said the King, and left the Hall. 
 
 Next morning (the ist of April according to 
 the Old Calendar, i3th of the New) the citizens 
 were early awakened by military music playing 
 through the streets, and the cannons firing from 
 the fortress. They saw the walls of their town 
 placarded with the Royal Proclamation, that King 
 Alexander, watching with alarm the illegal actions 
 of the Liberal Government, and fearing that if the 
 present struggle was allowed to continue the 
 country would drift into civil war, thought it his 
 duty to proclaim himself of age, and had taken 
 the reins of the Government into his own hands. 
 Half an hour later every house unfurled the 
 national flags, and thousands of citizens flocked 
 in front of the Palace to cheer the young King 
 
46 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 most enthusiastically. The official Gazette 
 published his first decree, forming a Radical 
 Cabinet, under the Premiership of his principal 
 tutor and physician, Dr. Lazar Dokich. 
 
 The majority of the Servian people were 
 delighted by the action of the young King. The 
 Regency was not popular, and the high-handed 
 policy of the Liberal Cabinet during the elections 
 and since the meeting of the Skupshtina was 
 condemned by every impartial man in the country. 
 The public opinion of Europe was struck by the 
 originality of the idea and its successful execution. 
 
 The Radicals, unexpectedly receiving the 
 government of the country into their hands, 
 were naturally most enthusiastic about the young 
 King. He was to them, there and then, nothing 
 less than " Alexander the Great," according to 
 their newspapers. Inasmuch as he stopped the 
 somewhat fierce persecution of the Radicals by 
 the Liberal Government, Alexander was to them 
 " the God-sent Saviour of the country." By their 
 exaggerated adulation and flatteries, the Radicals 
 were the first men in Servia who encouraged 
 the natural inclination of the King to form an 
 exaggerated idea of his own importance, as well 
 as to lean towards autocracy. On the very day 
 of his taking the Government in his hands, the 
 Radicals, probably unintentionally, and in the in- 
 toxication of their unexpected triumph secured by 
 him for them, began to work at his demoralisation 
 and ruin. 
 
SASHA NAMED "ALEXANDER THE GREAT" 47 
 
 I was sincerely devoted to the dynasty, and 
 was deeply saddened and alarmed by this first 
 public and political act of my young King. It 
 was no doubt cleverly and energetically executed ; 
 it showed a remarkable astuteness and impatience 
 to reign, and, as it seemed to me, an immoderate 
 ambition. I thought it not only illegal, but 
 immoral. If King Alexander, in his seventeenth 
 year, is capable of transforming his hospitable 
 table into a trap, and make his guests his 
 prisoners; if as a young man he is not guided 
 by highest motives and principles, what can we 
 expect of him in later years, when the struggle 
 of life had destroyed the idealism of youth ? I 
 did not write to King Alexander, but I did write 
 to his father, King Milan, and to some intimate 
 friends, telling them that such an act does not 
 foreshadow any good either for Servia or for the 
 young King. One of those letters was published 
 in 1894 by an enemy of mine, who wished to 
 compromise me in the eyes of King Alexander. 
 The King only expressed to me his astonishment 
 that I should take such a view of his action, 
 which he said " was even by my enemies the 
 Radicals highly approved." " Exactly," I re- 
 marked ; "just because your enemies approved of 
 it, I cannot as your friend." 
 
 Many people suspected King Milan to be 
 the originator of this first coup d'ttat of King 
 Alexander. I am sure that King Milan was 
 totally ignorant of the plan. It is evident that 
 
48 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 by the success of the intrigue, the Regents, King 
 Milan's devoted friends, and the Liberals, the 
 dynastic party par excellence, were defeated, and 
 his own son and the government of the country 
 were placed in the hands of well-known old 
 enemies of King Milan. The plan was hatched 
 in the head of King Alexander's tutor, Dr. 
 Dokich, accepted eagerly by his pupil, and 
 executed promptly by him and his first Aide-de- 
 Camp, Tyirich, supported ably by another Aide-de- 
 camp Major Alexander Mashin. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 KING ALEXANDER'S SECOND COUP L>TAT 
 
 I AM not writing a detailed history of political 
 events in the Kingdom of Servia. It is my desire 
 to give my readers insight into those great lines 
 of political movement in that unhappy country, 
 by which historical destiny prepared the tragical 
 end of King Alexander and the Obrenovich 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Servia had a young King, who had just given 
 a startling proof of great initiative and energy, 
 who seemed to possess considerable personal 
 gifts of intelligence, and remarkable self-control. 
 He was educated by a Radical politician, and was 
 believed and expected to act as a Radical. When 
 he appeared on the scene in the first act of his 
 tragedy, he certainly behaved as a Radical, and 
 showed no consideration for the artificial system 
 created with great efforts by the Liberal Party. 
 He placed the government of the country in the 
 hands of his Radical tutor and his political friends. 
 I may say that he did that not only because he 
 had full confidence in Dr. Dokich, but more 
 especially because he was aware of the fact that 
 4 
 
50 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 the Radical Party had the greatest majority in the 
 country. 
 
 The leaders of the Radicals Nichola Pashich, 
 Taushanovich, Stoyan Protich, Zivkovich were 
 excellent political organisers. They succeeded 
 first in drawing towards them many village priests 
 and village teachers ; made them their agents, and 
 instructed them to try to persuade as many peasants 
 as they could to inscribe their names in the Radical 
 Register. The village priests and teachers suc- 
 ceeded rapidly in that task, especially as they did 
 not hesitate to promise the peasants the reduction 
 of the State taxes, abolition of the standing army, 
 abolition of the bureaucratic system, the independ- 
 ence and the self-government of the communes, 
 and many other things far in advance and above 
 the democratic, but not demagogic, programme of 
 the Radical Party. It is no exaggeration to say 
 that between 60 and 70 per cent, of the entire 
 number of the peasant voters were inscribed in the 
 Radical Register. 
 
 Most of the leaders of the Radicals were clever 
 politicians, but not real statesmen. Those among 
 them who were something like statesmen could 
 not and did not exercise a decisive influence in 
 the central Council of the Party, nor on the conduct 
 of State affairs. Among the leaders of the Radicals 
 were several well-known agents of the Pretender to 
 the throne, Prince Peter Karageorgevich, as for 
 instance Ranko Tayssich, Costa Taushanovich, 
 Atza Stanoyevich, and Lyuba Zivkovich. 
 
KING ALEXANDER'S SECOND COUP &&TAT 51 
 
 Called to the Government, under the young 
 King, with confidence in them, the Radicals might 
 have opened an era of true liberty and progress 
 for Servia, and of contentment and peace. But 
 they abused their numerical power in the country 
 and their Government majority, to oppress and 
 persecute the two remaining political parties the 
 Liberals and the Progressives. They inaugurated 
 their government by impeaching the Members of 
 the last Liberal Cabinet, and by sweeping from 
 public office all Liberals and Progressives, replacing 
 them by their own partisans, although these lacked 
 the necessary qualifications for employment in the 
 public service. This naturally provoked bitter- 
 ness and resentment on the part of the two now 
 more or less persecuted political parties. In this 
 very first year of King Alexander's reign, political 
 passion was in full blaze all over the country. 
 
 The Liberals and the Progressives always 
 considered as men sincerely devoted to the dynasty 
 of Obrenovich appealed to the King for protec- 
 tion against the persecution which they suffered at 
 the hands of the Radicals, who, to say the least, 
 were never devoted friends of Obrenovich, and 
 of whom several leaders were more than suspected 
 of anti-dynastic proclivities. The young King 
 counselled his Radical Government to exercise more 
 moderation and greater justice. He himself gave 
 a fine example of consideration for the suscepti- 
 bilities of others. In his first progress through 
 the country he visited the grave of Kara-George 
 
52 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 in the village of Topola, and laid on it a wreath 
 with an inscription in which he gave expression 
 to his great respect for the leader of the first 
 Servian insurrection against the Turks. But this 
 generous deed flattered only the partisans of Kara- 
 georgevich and encouraged their hopes, while it 
 correspondingly weakened the partisans of the 
 reigning dynasty. 
 
 Having made new elections, and obtained a 
 Skupshtina without any opposition, and having 
 appointed its own partisans to all the places of the 
 Civil Service, dismissing even the servants and 
 attendants of public offices suspected to belong to 
 the Liberal or Progressive Party, and replacing them 
 with men inscribed in the Radical Register, the 
 Government began to show little respect even to 
 their "Alexander the Great " of yesterday. They 
 resented his remonstrances with them, they took 
 every day less and less account of his wishes and 
 of his opinions, and even told him that he could 
 attend the Cabinet Council only when they 
 requested him to do so. King Alexander was 
 deeply and personally offended by what he con- 
 sidered the ungrateful conduct of the Radicals. 
 The energetic young man who ventured a dangerous 
 coup d'Stat to wrest the power from friends of the 
 dynasty, the Liberals, to give it to his dynasty's 
 opponents, the Radicals, was not likely to accept 
 meekly the insignificant role assigned to him by the 
 men to whom he had handed the government of 
 the country. 
 
KING ALEXANDER'S SECOND COUP &&TAT 53 
 
 Taking as his justification the political chaos, 
 the bitter dissensions, and the political, passionate 
 struggle provoked by the narrow, selfish, and 
 grasping policy of the Radical Government under 
 the Radical Constitution, King Alexander dismissed 
 the Radical Cabinet and replaced it by what he called 
 a Neutral Cabinet, composed of moderate men of 
 the Progressive and the Liberal Party. This was 
 not constitutional, of course. Once engaged on 
 the path of unconstitutional proceedings, he very 
 soon found himself in such a dilemma that he felt 
 obliged either to abolish the Radical Constitution, or 
 capitulate to the Radicals, who certainly never were 
 capable of generosity, but rather of vindictiveness, 
 and who, now indifferent in their devotion to the 
 reigning dynasty, did not hide their ill-will towards 
 King Alexander. As long as the " King Milan's " 
 Constitution remained, the Radicals with their 
 admirable organisation, would always be able to 
 secure a majority in the Skupshtina, and impose 
 their leaders as the King's Ministers. He had 
 reason to fear being again in the hands of the 
 Radicals. He thought it would be less risky for 
 himself personally to suspend the Constitution of 
 1888 and replace it by the old Constitution of 
 1869, which, although called Liberal, was in truth 
 very Conservative. It was not difficult for him to 
 find the Ministers who could dare to suspend the 
 Radical Constitution. The political men of Servia, 
 all equally ambitious to get the power in their own 
 hands, competed for the Royal favours, and hated 
 
54 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 each other so passionately that they could not 
 combine among themselves to force the King to 
 reign constitutionally. When in the opposition, 
 they generally tried to intimidate the young King 
 by anti-dynastic menaces, or to win his goodwill 
 by promising to serve him faithfully when in 
 power. Such conduct had two consequences 
 in the development of the young man's character : 
 he became convinced that there was no true 
 loyalty among the Servians, and began to believe 
 that with sugar in one hand and a whip in the 
 other he could best succeed in subduing to his 
 own will the wild horse of the Servian politics. In 
 fact, Servian politicians were corrupting their own 
 young King, and King Alexander was corrupting 
 the Servian political parties. Politicians sinned far 
 more against their young King than the King sinned 
 against them. If they had been incorruptible, or if 
 he at his first trials had found them incorruptible, 
 he could not have succeeded. And if they wished 
 to make of him a good constitutional King they might 
 have succeeded, as his youth and intelligence, with a 
 keen political sense, gave them a very good chance. 
 As I have mentioned, when King Alexander 
 made his first coup d'dtat the Radicals applauded 
 him enthusiastically. When he made his second 
 coup d'dtat, viz. the suspension of the Constitu- 
 tion of 1888, and its replacement by the old 
 Constitution of 1869, he received congratulations 
 from all parts of the country, and numerous deputa- 
 tions from the towns and villages arrived in Belgrade 
 
KING ALEXANDER'S SECOND COUP D'ETAT 55 
 
 to thank him " that he had saved the country from 
 further anarchy." Naturally, the Liberals were 
 now the foremost in extolling the King's wise 
 initiative, and praising his political genius, as the 
 Radicals did on the occasion of his first coup d^tat. 
 
 By such conduct of the politicians of Servia, was 
 not the young Alexander encouraged to venture 
 eventually on a third, or even on a fourth, coup dttat ? 
 Had they not given him enough cause to think 
 contemptuously of them all, and to consider that 
 the only politically gifted and strong man in Servia 
 was he himself, King Alexander Obrenovich ? 
 
 As a child he lived in extremely sad and 
 demoralising circumstances, not by his own fault but 
 by the fault of his parents. 
 
 As a boy he was, so to speak, abandoned by his 
 mother and father, surrounded by strangers, probably 
 quite honest, but somewhat rough, and certainly not 
 highly cultured men, and was given an education 
 which had no moral foundations. 
 
 And now, as the reigning King, between his 
 seventeenth and twentieth year, from the practical 
 political life of Servia he received daily the injunction 
 that the principles of a Machiavellian policy were 
 the only safe rules of conduct among the politicians 
 whose dynastic loyalty, personal devotion, and even 
 general patriotism, was unreliable. 
 
 Poor King Alexander! Long before his 
 murderers plotted to destroy him, all the circum- 
 stances of his childhood and of his youth conspired 
 against him ! 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 RUSSIA AND SERVIA 
 
 IN this painful history of the saddest tragedy in 
 contemporary times, the chapter which I now write 
 is the most painful to me. 
 
 I frankly accuse Russia of having planned 
 deliberately, and accomplished mercilessly, the ruin 
 of the Obrenovich Dynasty. And I will show 
 that to accomplish that object the Russian official 
 and unofficial diplomacy did not hesitate to apply 
 methods of such intensely Asiatic Machiavellism, 
 that the mind and morality of Western Europe can 
 hardly realise that such actions would have been 
 possible at the end of the nineteenth and the 
 beginning of the twentieth century. 
 
 I regret to have to proffer such an accusation 
 against the Slavonic, Holy Orthodox Russia. I 
 regret it the more as I believe it is now inevitable 
 that the Servian nation as well as the Bulgarian 
 nation will sooner or later be merged into, and 
 absorbed by, the great Empire of the Tzar. The 
 majority of the Servian people, represented as they 
 are by the Radical Party of all shades, is already 
 now almost more Russian than Servian. 
 
 50 
 

 I 
 
 KING MILAN OF SERVIA 
 
RUSSIA AND SERVIA 57 
 
 There are altogether between five and six 
 millions of Servians in the Balkan Peninsula, two 
 and a half millions forming the population of the 
 independent Kingdom of Servia. The Servians 
 belong to the great family of Slavonic nations. 
 Ethnographically they are first cousins to the 
 Russians, Bulgarians, Poles, Czeks, Slovaks, and 
 Slovenians, and they are brothers to the Croats. 
 Their language is very similar to the Russian, 
 only it is softer, clearer, and more musical. The 
 letters of their alphabet are mostly identical with 
 the Russian. With the exception of about 
 250,000 Catholic Servians and about 350,000 
 Mohammedans of Bosnia, all other Servians 
 belong to the Orthodox Eastern Church (the so- 
 called Greek Church). In their churches they use 
 the Old Slavonic language, which is identical with 
 the language used in the Russian churches. There 
 are, therefore, undoubtedly very important and 
 mighty links which bind the Servian people to the 
 Russians. To the ethnographic, linguistic, and 
 religious bonds we must add the political bonds 
 by which Russia, not unsuccessfully, tried to bind 
 the Servian nation to herself. 
 
 The Servians rose in 1804, by their own free 
 impulse and by their own initiative, against the 
 Turks. After a few prominent men had refused 
 to be their leader they elected The Black George 
 Petrovich (commonly known as Kara-George) for 
 their Supreme Leader (Verhovni Vozd). Under 
 his leadership they fought successfully, and the 
 
58 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 largest part of the present kingdom was practically 
 free already in 1805. ^ n 1807 tne Porte, on the eve 
 of a war with Russia, offered to grant the Servians 
 independence and recognise Kara-George as their 
 Prince, Vassal to the Sultan. But Russian agents 
 came to Servia and determined Kara-George to 
 reject the Porte's offer and join the Servian forces 
 with the Russian in the military operations against 
 the Turks. The Servians fought as the Russian 
 allies for nearly five years ; but when the Russians, 
 in 1812, were forced on the eve of the French 
 invasion to conclude hurriedly peace with Turkey 
 in Bucharest, they sacrificed their Servian allies, 
 stipulating only an amnesty to be granted by the 
 Sultan. 
 
 The Turkish forces invaded Servia in 1813, 
 and Kara- George, after nine years hard fighting 
 to secure his country's independence, was obliged 
 to abandon the struggle, and left Servia, taking 
 refuge at Kishenyeff, on Russian soil. 
 
 Milosh Obrenovich, one of the subordinate 
 Voyvodes (Generals) of Kara-George, would not 
 leave the country. Recognised by the Turks as 
 the Chief of the Servian Rayah, he started a new 
 and general insurrection of the Servians against 
 them, on the Palm Sunday of 1815, at the small 
 church of Takovo, in the centre of Servia. With- 
 out any aid from Russia he, after several victories, 
 entered into negotiations with the Turks, and 
 secured for Servia its autonomy, and for himself 
 acknowledgment as the Prince of Servia. After 
 
RUSSIA AND SERVIA 59 
 
 this important success was achieved by the Servians 
 themselves, the Russians began again to take in- 
 terest in Servian affairs. The Russian Ambassador 
 in Constantinople, Baron Stroganoff, was un- 
 doubtedly of very great help to Prince Milosh in 
 his endeavours to fortify, and if possible extend 
 the privileges already obtained from the Sultan, and 
 Russia rendered far more important service to 
 Servia when, dictating the peace to Turkey at 
 Adrianople, A.D. 1829, she introduced into the 
 Treaty articles placing the autonomy of Servia 
 under the Protectorate of the Tzar. Servian rights 
 and privileges were thus placed on the basis of an 
 international treaty. 
 
 At the same time, the further progress of Servia, 
 in a political sense, was rather handicapped by the 
 treaty of Adrianople. The Prince of Servia was 
 watched, not only by his Suzerain, the Sultan, but 
 still more jealously by his Protector, the Tzar of 
 Russia. The Russian policy concerning Servia, 
 as well as all other Balkan countries, was to free 
 them from the Turkish yoke, prevent the develop- 
 ment of a spirit of independence and self-determina- 
 tion, and exclude every foreign influence, more 
 especially that of the neighbouring Austria, and 
 practically transform the Prince of Servia into a 
 Russian Governor-General of that country. The 
 moment the Prince of Servia showed a disposition 
 to serve the special interests of his own country, 
 rather than those of Russia, he was to be deprived 
 of power, or got rid of in some other way. 
 
60 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Prince Milosh, the founder of the dynasty 
 Obrenovich, offended Russia by his great and 
 independent initiative in serving his country. He 
 gave the Servian people the first Constitution, with- 
 out asking the approval of Russia, and the Tzar's 
 Government at once moved the Porte to protest 
 against the Servians having a Constitution. The 
 Sultan and Tzar ordered Milosh to withdraw that 
 Constitution and accept one made by the Russians 
 and the Turks. Prince Milosh obtained from the 
 Porte, without any assistance from and even without 
 consulting Russia, the recognition of the hereditary 
 right of his family to the throne of Servia. This 
 attempt to create a Servian dynasty aroused the 
 rage of the Russians against Milosh, and principally 
 through their action Milosh was forced to abdicate 
 in 1839 and go into exile. 
 
 When the Servians elected Alexander, the 
 younger son of Kara-George, to be Prince, in 1842, 
 Russia would not acknowledge the election, because 
 it was made without the consultation and approval 
 of the Tzar. The election was annulled, and the 
 Servians had to make a new election, in the 
 presence of the Tzar's special representative, 
 choosing, however, again the same Alexander Kara- 
 georgevich. 
 
 When Prince Alexander accepted the resolution 
 of his Senate that Servia should remain neutral and 
 at peace during the Crimean War, and when he 
 showed decidedly an inclination to listen to advices 
 from Vienna, the Russians organised conspiracies 
 
RUSSIA AND SERVIA 61 
 
 for the dethronement, afterwards against the life, 
 of Prince Alexander. I have had in my hands 
 the Memoirs of one of the Senators, one of the 
 principal conspirators against Alexander's life, who 
 tells in detail how they have been led by the 
 Russian Consul - General, Colonel Miloshevich, 
 to conspire against Alexander. And when, in 1858, 
 the National Assembly pronounced the dethrone- 
 ment of Prince Alexander Karageorgevich, and 
 the recall of old Milosh Obrenovich to the 
 throne, it was by the intrigues and assistance of 
 Russia, which cleverly utilised the dissatisfaction 
 among the people with Prince Alexander's weak 
 rule. 
 
 When the noblest man on the throne of Servia 
 during the nineteenth century, Prince Michael 
 Obrenovich in., achieved great political success 
 in 1867 in the evacuation of the Servian fortresses 
 by the Turkish garrisons, and when he was prepar- 
 ing the insurrection of Bosnia and Bulgaria, and 
 the proclamation of their union with Servia under 
 himself, he was suddenly, treacherously, and cruelly 
 murdered by the partisans of the Karageorgevich 
 Dynasty, who hoped to seize the government and 
 proclaim Alexander Karageorgevich or his son, 
 Peter, Prince of Servia. Everyone felt that the 
 partisans of Karageorgevich had been encouraged 
 to do their bloody deed by one or other great 
 Power. There are to this day many people who 
 suspect Russia. I have seen no proofs either for 
 one or for the other theory. It is, however, very 
 
62 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 comprehensible that neither Austria nor Russia 
 would have liked to see Bosnia, Servia, and 
 Bulgaria united under one and the same crown, 
 and especially under such a patriotic, independ- 
 ent, and self-respecting man as Prince Michael 
 Obrenovich in. 
 
 Prince Milan Obrenovich iv. was politically 
 educated by the Regent Yovan Ristich, who on 
 the whole was himself a Slavophil. Prince Milan, 
 from the very beginning of his reign to the time of 
 San Stefano Treaty (1871-1878), was so sincerely 
 devoted to Russia that he at the instigation and 
 insistence of General Ignyatieff, the Russian 
 Ambassador in Constantinople, declared war against 
 Turkey, although he knew well that the Servian 
 army, insufficiently organised and badly equipped, 
 must lose the campaign. But when he saw that at 
 San Stefano Russia created a great Bulgaria, giving 
 her even the provinces inhabited by the Servians, 
 whereas for Servia she stipulated only a rectification 
 of the frontier ; when he saw that at the Congress 
 of Berlin Russia allowed Austria to get two great 
 Servian provinces, Bosnia and Hertzegovina, and 
 fought strenuously against Servia getting Pirot 
 and Wranya; when the Servian representative, 
 Yovan Ristich, was by Prince Gortchakoff himself 
 advised to go to Count Andrassy, and try to 
 come to agreement with Austria- Hungary then 
 Prince Milan, indignant at such conduct of Russia 
 towards Servia and towards himself, turned his 
 back on her, refused to follow any longer her 
 
RUSSIA AND SERVIA 63 
 
 guidance, and, in 1882, concluded a secret conven- 
 tion with Austria- Hungary. 
 
 That a Servian ruler should dare turn his back 
 on Russia, refuse to follow her guidance, and even 
 make a secret arrangement with the supposed 
 enemy of the Slavs concerning old Servia and 
 Macedonia, such a diabolical phenomenon could 
 not be for a moment tolerated by Panslavonic 
 Russia. The honest but narrow-minded Tzar 
 Alexander in. was indignant, and gave without 
 hesitation his approval to the Panslavonic deter- 
 mination to ruin and destroy Milan Obrenovich iv. 
 From that time to his very death, 1882-1902, 
 King Milan was in the eyes of the Panslavonic 
 Russia an outlaw, a wild beast whom to destroy 
 was a meritorious Christian deed ! 
 
 There was an eccentric woman in Belgrade, 
 Helene Markovich, the widow of Colonel Yephrem 
 Markovich, a well-known partisan of the dynasty 
 Karageorgevich and enemy of the Obrenovich, 
 who was condemned and executed for attempting 
 to raise a revolt in the army at the moment when 
 it started on the second campaign against the 
 Turks. This woman swore to revenge the death 
 of her husband. She went to Russia, and immedi- 
 ately on her return tried to kill King Milan in the 
 very Cathedral of Belgrade, by firing on him with 
 a Russian revolver. He escaped unhurt. It is 
 difficult to prove that the Russians had really 
 instigated this woman to kill King Milan ; but 
 King Milan and his Government of that time had 
 
64 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 reason to believe that she was the tool of the 
 Russian Panslavonists. 
 
 When the attempt against the life of King 
 Milan failed, the Radicals, the faithful friends of 
 Russia, tried in 1883 to start a revolution against 
 the King. Shortly before, an unusually large 
 number of the Russian sellers of Holy Pictures 
 (Eikons) were noticed moving from town to town, 
 and from village to village in the districts in 
 which the revolution was attempted. But this 
 also failed. 
 
 Then it seems that the Chief of the Russian 
 campaign against Milan remembered, or was told, 
 that the only fatal weapon by which an Obrenovich 
 could be destroyed was a woman ! Very soon 
 after we had a strange spectacle. Queen Nathalie, 
 who boasted openly that one part of her heart was 
 always Russian, began to force King Milan to risk 
 a public scandal in his hatred of her, and she did 
 everything possible, openly or secretly, to com- 
 promise her own husband, the father of her only 
 son, in the eyes of his own people, and in the eyes 
 of the civilised world. Queen Nathalie probably 
 was not conscious that she acted as the tool and 
 most virulent agent of Russia's hatred of Milan ; 
 but practically she did so. At the same time the 
 Russians organised a campaign in the Press of all 
 European countries against the political and private 
 conduct of Milan. 
 
 But this was not enough. While on one side 
 encouraging the bitter and merciless struggle of 
 
RUSSIA AND SERVIA 65 
 
 Queen Nathalie against King Milan, the Russians 
 had at the same time gained a devoted agent in 
 the mistress of King Milan, the Levantine lady, 
 Mme. Arthemise, the wife of his private secretary, 
 Mr. Milan F. Christich. Many people believe that 
 King Milan was hypnotised by her. The fact is 
 that, while he was under the spell of her influence 
 he hated his wife, Queen Nathalie, and that 
 inasmuch as, later on, that influence subsided, his 
 animosity against Queen Nathalie diminished too. 
 
 It was Mme. Arthemise who inspired Milan to 
 divorce his wife. And it was she who suggested 
 to him the abdication of the crown and throne. It 
 was King Milan who told me this, praising at the 
 same time " the admirable wisdom " of the woman, 
 who made the suggestion of the abdication, and 
 who brought in support of it the most convincing 
 arguments. Of course, it is quite possible that 
 she made that suggestion from her own initiative, 
 hoping that King Milan, once an ex-King, would 
 more readily marry her, and thereby legalise the 
 position of the boy whom she had borne to him. But 
 it was not impossible that her Russian patrons, who 
 worked so persistently to dethrone Milan, advised 
 her to suggest to him the abdication, easily proving 
 to her how much it might be in her own interest. 
 
 When, in 1897, ex-King Milan returned to 
 Servia, settled in the Palace of Belgrade to live in 
 the company of his son, and assumed the post 
 of Commander-in-Chief of the Servian Army, the 
 official as well as the unofficial Russia were 
 5 
 
66 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 exasperated against him. The Russian Press and 
 the European newspapers, inspired by the official 
 press-bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. 
 Petersburg, were simply in a fury, attributing to 
 him all sorts of sinister and monstrous intentions, 
 amongst which the conversion of King Alexander 
 from a Slavophil into an Austrophil was the most 
 trivial. They simply called upon the Servians to 
 rise as one man in revolt, to drive away the father 
 of their young King. To encourage such a revolt, 
 the Russian Minister, Jeadovsky, openly fraternised 
 with the Radical enemies of King Milan, and 
 ostentatiously would not greet him when they met 
 in the streets of Belgrade, or in the circle of the 
 European diplomatists there. 
 
 When it became clear that the attacks in the 
 Press, Servian and foreign, did not affect in the 
 least the determination of King Milan to remain at 
 the side of his son, when the services which he was 
 rendering to the Servian Army as its Commander- 
 in-Chief only increased the fascination which his 
 brilliant intelligence, kindliness, and generosity 
 exercised over the Servians, then someone in 
 Russia came to the conclusion that the only safe 
 method to remove King Milan for ever from 
 Servia was to kill him. My friend Dr. Vladan, 
 the Servian Premier from October 1897 to July 
 1900, published a despatch of Mr. Jeadovsky (dated 
 in the year 1898) to his Government, in which the 
 following phrase appears: "To save Servia and 
 to safeguard our own [Russian] interests, it is 
 
RUSSIA AND SERVIA 67 
 
 absolutely necessary to cut through this coil [personi- 
 fied King Milan] as soon as possible." 
 
 On the 27th of June (O.S.) 1899, a Bosnian 
 desperado fired from a revolver on King Milan 
 while he was driving in an open carriage from the 
 fortress to the Palace. Both King Milan and his 
 Aide-de-Camp were slightly wounded. The would- 
 be assassin was arrested. In his depositions he 
 confessed that he had been hired by a Russian in 
 Bucharest to kill King Milan, and that he received 
 from him 20,000 francs to do it. When the photo 
 of the house in which lives and works Colonel N. 
 N., the Chief of the Russian Secret Police in 
 Bucharest, was shown to the man, he recognised 
 it as the one in which he was received by the 
 Russian who hired him to execute the attempt on 
 Milan. 
 
 The attempt did not succeed, and, from the 
 Russian point of view, it was more than a failure, 
 because King Milan not only was not removed from 
 Servia, but the attempt aroused genuine sympathy 
 with him in the whole nation. Even the most 
 Russophil Radicals, always the enemies of King 
 Milan, condemned it. The methods of unofficial 
 Russia were not only the hiring of a murderer, 
 who very nearly succeeded in killing King Milan, 
 but also the Russian publicistic agencies all over 
 Europe stated that this attempt on King Milan 
 was deliberately arranged by King Milan himself! 
 Unfortunately, King Milan, King Alexander, and 
 his Government, made at this juncture a fatal 
 
68 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 political mistake of which I will have to say 
 something later on. 
 
 " Unofficial Russia " was still faced by the 
 unsolved problem how to remove King Milan, the 
 friend of Austria and the enemy of Russia, from his 
 strong position at the Court of his son, at the head 
 of the Servian Army as its Commander-in-Chief, 
 and it may be said, without exaggeration, from the 
 hearts of a large number of Servians. Revela- 
 tions in the Court of Justice in Belgrade connecting 
 Russia with the attempt on Milan's life were too 
 fresh and too glaring for another attempt to be 
 tried. A revolution was less than ever possible. 
 The task seemed to be hopeless. At the Tzar's 
 Court, and in the Russian " official " Government, 
 some honest and sensible people had suggested 
 that probably the best plan would be to try and 
 make peace with Milan, and by fair means detach 
 him from Austria, and win him for Russia. 
 And really, a certain detente was observed in the 
 " hatred" of King Milan at the Court and in the 
 Government of official Russia after the failure of 
 the attempt on his life. 
 
 But unofficial Russia, remarkably astute, terribly 
 unscrupulous, with unlimited means, and absolutely 
 irresponsible, would not accept defeat. One or 
 other of her agents remembered that in the history 
 of the Obrenovich Dynasty woman had always 
 been fatal to them. The position was clear enough 
 King Alexander was madly in love with his 
 mistress, Draga Mashin ; Mme. Mashin was un- 
 
RUSSIA AND SERVIA 69 
 
 doubtedly in love with her young and Royal lover, 
 and she was known to be an ambitious woman ; 
 King Milan hated her. Could this woman not be 
 used as a wedge between the son and father, to 
 separate them for ever ? 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RUSSIA'S R6LE IN THE RUIN OF ALEXANDER 
 
 I DO not pretend to have read the secret instructions 
 of the Russian Government to their agents in Servia, 
 but certain facts have been seen and noticed 
 even by " the man in the street " of Belgrade. 
 Their true meaning was not at once correctly 
 understood, but subsequent events have explained 
 them. 
 
 Russian diplomacy made the acquaintance of 
 Draga Mashin comparatively early enough, when 
 King Alexander spent part of the winter of 1897 
 at Meran (Tyrol), and was accompanied by his 
 mistress. The Russian Minister to Bavaria, Mr. 
 Isvolsky, came specially from Munich to Meran on 
 some secret mission to King Alexander, and spent 
 there several days in company of the young King 
 and his mistress. I daresay, although I have no 
 undoubted proof, that on that occasion Draga 
 placed herself unreservedly at the disposal of the 
 Russian Government, to achieve the special objects 
 of the Russian policy in Servia. 
 
 I have already mentioned that the members of 
 the Diplomatic Corps in Belgrade did not hesitate to 
 
RUSSIA AND THE RUIN OF ALEXANDER 71 
 
 attend the weekly receptions of Mme. Draga, and 
 to invite her to their own receptions and parties. 
 There was, therefore, nothing extraordinary that 
 the Russian diplomats also went to see her. Yet it 
 was certainly remarked that the Russian Military 
 Attache*, Colonel Taube, and his wife, were on most 
 intimate terms with Draga, and while staying in 
 Belgrade (they had to spend some time every year 
 in Bucharest too) were almost daily visitors at the 
 pretty cottage of Mme. Mashin, in Crown Street, 
 near the Palace. Mr. Neklyudoff, Secretary of the 
 Russian Legation, doing duty as Charge d' Affaires, 
 was also an assiduous visitor at Mme. Mashin's, 
 not only on her reception days, but also on other 
 days. It was noticed that Neklyudoff often met 
 King Alexander at the house of his mistress, and 
 remained with them for some time. King Milan 
 and his faithful Dr. Vladan knew this well, but 
 thought it nothing extraordinary that Colonel Taube 
 and Mr. Neklyudoff paid some attention to Draga 
 Mashin, who loved rather to parade her Russophil 
 sentiments. The cordiality of King Alexander 
 with them both was so great that they could not 
 for a moment suspect that perhaps a great intrigue 
 against them was slowly preparing at his meetings 
 with Mr. Neklyudoff in the perfumed boudoir of his 
 mistress. 
 
 Mr. Pera Todorovich in his Memoirs (Ogledalo 
 iv. and v. pp. 58-63), writes as follows : 
 
 "On the iQth October 1897, the day on which 
 King Alexander arrived in Belgrade from Paris, ac- 
 
72 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 companied by his father Milan, I had at the house 
 of a prominent Radical politician a meeting with 
 the distinguished Russian diplomatist Mr. Z. I., 
 and had with him a conversation which lasted fully 
 four hours. According to the Russian diplomatist 
 the return of King Milan to Servia meant the in- 
 auguration of great and dangerous changes in the 
 home as well as foreign policy of Servia. In the 
 internal policy the Liberal regime will be replaced 
 again by the regime of ' Order and Work,' which 
 practically means 'the Court to give orders and 
 the people to execute them.' The promised 
 change of the Constitution will be again adjourned 
 at least by three or four years. In the foreign 
 policy the inaugurated agreement with Russia will 
 be abandoned, and Servia and Austro- Hungary 
 are again politically to embrace each other. With 
 Austrian millions King Milan will transform Nish 
 into a great fortified camp, into which Austro- 
 Hungary could in the case of necessity throw 
 200,000 men, command the Belgrade - Salonica 
 road, and become the master of the South- Western 
 part of the Balkan Peninsula. This the Servians 
 ought never to permit to be done. They must 
 prevent the accomplishment of Milan's plans by 
 every means, and force him to leave Servia for 
 good. Russia would help them to do that, but in 
 a certain form, and under certain precautions, as it 
 is not advisable that Russia should openly meddle 
 with the internal questions of Servia. Russia 
 interests herself for Servia only because your 
 
RUSSIA AND THE RUIN OF ALEXANDER 73 
 
 country is a Slavonic and orthodox country. She 
 wants to save you from being transformed into 
 Germans and Catholics. That is the only reason 
 why Russia would be prepared to help you to 
 get rid of King Milan. Some means must be 
 found to force him to leave the country, and never 
 to return. In politics the women play often very 
 important parts. Frenchmen have good reason 
 when they say, ' Cherchez la femme ' ! Such means 
 you ought to adopt here. King Alexander being 
 young as he is, you will easily succeed by such 
 methods. To separate definitely the son from 
 his father, and to force King Milan to leave Servia 
 for ever at the bidding of his own son, such a 
 result a woman could only achieve. You ought 
 to find such a woman." 
 
 " Probably you have in view a proper marriage 
 of the King ? " I asked him. 
 
 "By marriage or not, all the same! King 
 Milan thinks to obtain for his son the hand of a 
 German Princess, and thereby to secure for him 
 the protectorship of Emperor William. But by 
 such a marriage the King and Servia would be 
 drawn into the German waters and be lost for 
 the Slavonic idea! You Servians must prevent 
 that by all means. And the best tool for such 
 an object is a proper woman. This is my own 
 idea, which I have communicated already some 
 time ago to some of my Russian and Servian 
 friends. Indeed it may be that by this time 
 something in that direction has been accomplished." 
 
74 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Mr. Todorovich draws the attention to the 
 fact that on that very day a communication was 
 sent from the Court to his own paper, the Male 
 Novine, announcing that the Court lady of Queen 
 Nathalie, Mme. Draga Mashin, had been at her 
 own request relieved of her duties on account 
 of her bad health. Mr. Todorovich goes on to 
 argue that after all the report may be true, that 
 Queen Nathalie acted on the advice of her Russian 
 friends, when she placed her pretty ''Court Lady" 
 in the path of her young son. 
 
 If such reports could be verified they would 
 enormously intensify the tragedy of the poor 
 young man, the last of the Obrenovichs. Would 
 it not be intensely tragic if a woman, to harm her 
 hated husband, caused in the end the ruin of her 
 own beloved son ? 
 
 However, not only is it impossible to verify those 
 reports, but other facts prove that, the moment 
 Queen Nathalie discovered the relations of her Court 
 lady with her son, she dismissed Mme. Mashin. 
 
 But what Queen Nathalie did not do, fate 
 did. It would have been better if the Queen 
 had retained Draga at Biarritz, but evidently she 
 could not. Draga was predestined to fill one of 
 the principal parts in the great tragedy, and she 
 had to go to Belgrade to enjoy the love of the 
 young King Alexander, in the shadow of the Old 
 Palace, dreaming of the throne and the crown, 
 without a thought of what awaited her and her 
 beloved Sasha, a few years later on, in the same 
 
RUSSIA AND THE RUIN OF ALEXANDER 75 
 
 Old Palace of Belgrade! And was the poor 
 woman, consciously or unconsciously, nothing but 
 a fascinating servant, a beautiful but helpless tool 
 in the hands of Russia ? 
 
 I again quote from Mr. Todorovich's 
 Memoirs : 
 
 One day in March 1900 the Prefect of the 
 Police, Mr. Rista Bademlich, called Mr. 
 Todorovich to his office in the Prefecture. Both 
 men were old friends, both sincerely devoted to 
 King Milan and to his son. 
 
 "I want you," said the Prefect to Mr. 
 Todorovich, " to help me, with your better 
 knowledge of the Russian language, to find out 
 what is the true object of a Russian who arrived 
 in our town a few days ago, and who insists on 
 having a private audience with King Milan. You 
 take the place at that table, and I will introduce 
 you to him as my private secretary." 
 
 He sent for the Russian, who in less than a 
 quarter of an hour arrived, as he was staying at 
 the Hotel Imperial, not far from the Prefecture. 
 The Russian was a tall and handsome man, of 
 middle age, with a well-groomed, greyish beard, 
 large blue and smiling eyes, well dressed, and 
 very distinguished - looking. When the Prefect 
 Bademlich introduced him to Mr. Todorovich as 
 to his private secretary, the Russian looked steadily 
 into the face of Mr. Todorovich, and then, turning 
 to the Prefect, said in a tone which betrayed great 
 surprise 
 
76 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 "What is that? Why is that? Why this 
 mystification? Sir, this gentleman is not your 
 secretary, he is a journalist ! " And then, turning 
 to Mr Todorovich, he said, " Peter Todorovich, 
 do you not remember me, Stakevich-Matushkin ? " 
 
 Then Mr. Todorovitch recognised an old 
 Russian friend, whom he knew some twenty years 
 ago in Paris, in the circle of the Russian emigrants, 
 and whom he met lately at the celebration of 
 Pushkin's centenary, in Petersburg. He ex- 
 plained to him satisfactorily the ''mystification" 
 of his acting as pseudo-secretary of the Prefect. 
 Then they both, Mr. Bademlich and Mr. Todoro- 
 vich, tried for some time unsuccessfully to find out 
 the nature of the communication which he wished, 
 "under four eyes," to communicate to King Milan. 
 But he persisted in refusing it, only assuring them 
 that King Milan would not repent if he received 
 him, and he left them, saying that he intended to 
 leave Belgrade at once. Mr. Todorovich followed 
 him, and had all sorts of interesting talk with him. 
 At the moment of taking leave of each other, 
 Matushkin looked for some moments straight into 
 the eyes of his Servian friend, and then said with 
 evident emotion, and great emphasis 
 
 "Peter Todorovich, listen! Not six months 
 will pass from this day, and you will have here in 
 Servia a great crisis and a fatal political change. 
 All the plans of King Milan will be destroyed. 
 He himself will be brutally removed from Servia. 
 King Alexander will fall into Russian slavery, he 
 
RUSSIA AND THE RUIN OF ALEXANDER 77 
 
 will be married to a common woman who is in no 
 respects a proper party for him, he will remain 
 without children, and will be entirely ruined. 
 Servia may be in such a position that she 
 may, indeed, disappear as an independent State. 
 And all this will be done by perfidious Russian 
 policy, using as a tool a common woman, and 
 what astonishes me as still more extraordinary a 
 Servian woman ! Peter Todorovich, remember 
 what I have told you this day ! Good-bye ! " 
 
 This is the faithful abstract of the detailed 
 statement published by Mr. Todorovich in his 
 Memoirs, Ogledalo v. pp. 63-70. 
 
 As I did not approve of King Alexander's 
 marriage with Mme. Draga Mashin, I was, shortly 
 after their wedding, informed that I was to be 
 replaced in Constantinople as Servian Minister by 
 General Sava Grooich, a Panslavist and therefore 
 a persona gratissima at the Russian Court. I wish 
 to take this opportunity to say with grateful 
 acknowledgment that, although I was well known 
 not to belong to the Panslavists, I was always most 
 generously treated and supported, during the few 
 months of my activity in Constantinople, by the 
 Russian Ambassador, Mr. Zinovieff. 
 
 On my way from Constantinople to Abazzia I 
 stopped for a few days in Belgrade to pay my 
 respects to the King, and to see the new Queen of 
 Servia. 1 had visited many gentlemen and lady 
 friends in the highest Belgrade society, and found 
 the general impression prevalent that the marriage 
 
78 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 of Alexander with Draga was the work of the 
 Russian policy. Everybody assured me that the 
 general consternation was dispelled or rather re- 
 placed by another consternation, and the opposi- 
 tion of the Church, the army, and of the people at 
 large, weakened the moment it was announced, 
 that the Tzar was to be the "Koom" at the 
 marriage, and that he had congratulated Alexander 
 on his engagement with Draga. 
 
 One of the ladies belonging to the upper ten of 
 Belgrade society, the wife of a General, who was 
 rather an intimate friend of Draga Mashin before 
 she became the Queen of King Alexander, told me 
 what in her own circle of lady friends was believed 
 to be the true story of how this fatal marriage came 
 about. 
 
 "Of course," began Madame N. N., "we all 
 knew that King Alexander was much in love with 
 Draga, and that she simply adored him. How 
 often have I not said to her : * Look here, Draga, 
 thou beautifiest thyself too much, and there is no 
 wonder that the King is so much in love with thee. 
 But surely thou willst not turn his head to that 
 degree that he might make thee the Queen of 
 Servia?' Draga would always jump up in rage 
 and indignation : ' What thinkest thou I am ? 
 I hate thee for talking such nonsense. Thou 
 knowest I adore Sasha, and just because I adore 
 him I shall never stand for a moment between 
 him and his duty. He must marry a foreign 
 Princess, who would bring him valuable political 
 
RUSSIA AND THE RUIN OF ALEXANDER 79 
 
 connections, wealth, perhaps even true happiness, 
 and I will gladly sacrifice my own happiness to 
 his ! ' We knew also that she really spoke in 
 the same way to King Alexander. 
 
 " Then the Russian General N. N. arrived in 
 Belgrade. You know him ? Well you must know 
 whom he married ? " 
 
 " No," I said. " I knew him as a bachelor, who 
 had a Roumanian girl for his mistress." 
 
 4 'Very well," continued my friend, " the very 
 same girl became his wife. During their pro- 
 longed stay here they went often to Draga, and 
 she became soon very fond of the General's 
 wife. The little Roumanian told her one day 
 that, although the General was very fond of her, 
 he never meant to marry her, until she heard of 
 an old Roumanian witch, somewhere in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Plojesti, went to see her, and for a 
 few napoleons obtained from her the assurance 
 that she would make him marry her, and a charm 
 which she gave her General to drink in a cup of 
 coffee. 
 
 11 Not quite two weeks after this assurance, and 
 not a week after that coffee, the General one 
 morning rose up, seemingly absorbed in deep and 
 melancholy thoughts. * What is the matter ? ' 
 his little Roumanian sweetheart asked. ' A great 
 deal is the matter ! ' answered the General, always 
 lost in thought. ' My conscience tells me that our 
 present relations ought not to be continued, and 
 that, if I am an honest and honourable man, I ought 
 
80 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 to make you, before God and before men, my lawful 
 wife.' She laughed at him, and refused him. He 
 repeated his offer, and she repeated her refusal, 
 every morning through a whole week, until at last 
 the General said that he had no alternative but to 
 marry her, and face bravely the reproaches of his 
 relatives and friends, or to kill himself! The 
 Roumanian sweetheart of the old General then 
 gave her consent. Telling that story with all the 
 details, she asked Draga to give her some of her 
 own hair, and some of King Alexander's, and she 
 would, on her own responsibility, see the Plojesti 
 witch again. We, of course, do not know if Draga 
 did really send her and the King's hair to the 
 Plojesti witch, but we all conclude that she must 
 have done so, seeing that King Alexander behaved 
 exactly as the Russian General." 
 
 I reproduce this story here, not because I think 
 it may be perfectly true in all its details, but 
 because it was largely believed amongst the ladies 
 of Belgrade, and because it is a picturesque illustra- 
 tion of the general belief that the marriage of King 
 Alexander with Draga Mashin was prearranged 
 by Russia. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 MADAME DRAGA MASHIN 
 
 IT is remarkable what a fatal influence woman 
 exercised on the life and political career of the 
 Princes of the Obrenovich Dynasty. 
 
 Prince Milosh Obrenovich i. was an exceedingly 
 gifted and energetic man, a true-born leader of men, 
 not only the founder of a dynasty, but the founder and 
 the creator of the autonomous Servian Principality. 
 A strong man in the struggle with men and 
 political difficulties, he had a great weakness for the 
 female sex. His infidelities gave just cause for 
 resentment to his once very beautiful wife, Princess 
 Lubitza, and that resentment gave a powerful 
 assistance to the opponents of Prince Milosh. 
 Without the domestic trouble caused by the jealousy 
 (perfectly justified) of his wife, Prince Milosh 
 probably would not have been sent into exile in 
 
 1839- 
 
 Prince Michael Obrenovich iv. was altogether 
 a noble man, a great patriot, and an able statesman, 
 the finest individuality in the history of Servia 
 during the nineteenth century. By his diplomacy 
 he obtained without war or other sacrifice 
 6 
 
82 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 the evacuation of the Turkish fortresses on the 
 Servian territory. Yet his separation from his 
 beautiful but childless wife, Princess Julia (ne'e 
 Countess Hunyady), and his intention to marry 
 Katharina, the daughter of his cousin, Mme. Anka 
 Constantinovich, gave to the partisans of Kara- 
 georgevich one of the pivots by which they raised up 
 dissatisfaction amongst the people against even such 
 a generous man and successful ruler. While he was 
 walking with his cousin (Mme. Anka) and her 
 daughter, accompanied only by an aide-de-camp, 
 on a lonely path in the forest of Koshootnyak, he 
 was, on the fatal 29th May (Old Style) 1868, 
 attacked by conspirators and cruelly murdered. 
 
 What bitterness and humiliation, what dissatis- 
 faction in the country and in Europe at large, was 
 created by the unseemly and undignified quarrel 
 between King Milan and Queen Nathalie is well 
 known. And I have not the slightest doubt 
 that the fatal resolve, the abdication, was instilled 
 into his mind by his mistress, Mme. Arthemise 
 Christich. 
 
 The terrible end of King Alexander Obrenovich 
 v. was mainly brought about, and the tragedy of 
 his life deepened, by his love for Draga Mashin. 
 
 One of the more prominent and influential 
 Servians who supported Milosh Obrenovich, when 
 he invited the people to rise again against the Turks 
 (Palm Sunday, 1815, at Takovo Church), was 
 Nikola Lunyevitza. It is not clear if ever he 
 commanded a body of armed Servians in the in- 
 
MADAME DRAG A MASHIN 83 
 
 surrection against the Turks, or if he ever had been 
 called a Voyvode ; but there is no doubt that he 
 was a man of good common sense, calm and wise 
 judgment, and as a successful exporter of cattle and 
 pigs from Serviahad made lots of money. He was 
 patriotic enough to lend Milosh Obrenovich money 
 whenever he wanted to buy arms. Milosh liked 
 him, and esteemed him so much that he made 
 him his "pobratim" " adopted brother." Milosh 
 Obrenovich and Nikola Lunyevitza never addressed 
 each other otherwise than as " Pobratime," namely, 
 " Thou who art as a brother to me." 
 
 The son of this Nikola Lunyevitza, Panta, was 
 Prefect of Shabatz during the earlier years of 
 King Milan's reign. Towards the end of his life 
 he became unhinged in his mind, and died in an 
 asylum. He had several daughters, of whom the 
 second bore the very popular name " Draga," which, 
 in the Servian language, means " The dear one." 
 
 This " dear one " was a very pretty girl, with 
 elegant figure, pale, yet peculiarly warm complexion, 
 finely cut features, and with wonderfully beautiful, 
 velvety-brown, large and very expressive eyes. 
 When quite a schoolgirl she married Svetozar, 
 the youngest son of Dr. Mashin, a Czek (Bohemian) 
 by birth, but a naturalised Servian citizen, a 
 successful and skilful doctor, but rather unpopular 
 on account of his bad temper and unscrupulous 
 principles. 
 
 Svetozar Mashin was a mining engineer by 
 profession, in the employment of the Ministry of 
 
84 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Finance. He died after hardly a year of his wedded 
 life, somewhat suddenly, but not mysteriously. The 
 enemies of Queen Draga liked to spread the report 
 that she had poisoned her first husband. But at 
 the time of his death I was Minister of Finance, 
 and he one of my secretaries of the Mining Depart- 
 ment, and as such was ordered to manage for a 
 short time one of the Government's mining estab- 
 lishments. I remember at the time I was told that 
 my secretary died of delirium tremens, and I was 
 not surprised, as I knew him to be a hard drinker. 
 
 A young and pretty widow, with a very 
 small fortune, and still smaller pension (which, I 
 think, was not more than $ per month, which she 
 drew from the Government as the widow of a State 
 employe*), she was surrounded by many admirers, 
 dangers, and temptations. Queen Nathalie, who 
 delighted in doing good and charitable actions, 
 was told that this pretty and bright young woman 
 was a granddaughter of Prince Milosh's " Pobratim," 
 and she took at once very deep interest in her. I 
 am sure the Queen would not have done that if she 
 knew that the rumours already set in motion about 
 her love intrigues with gentlemen had any real 
 foundation. Noticing that her education was only 
 that which a daughter of the middle- class people 
 could enjoy in Servia, the Queen paid teachers of 
 foreign languages for her, and inspired in her the 
 taste for reading French and German books. She 
 made remarkable progress, and her Royal bene- 
 factress was quite proud to introduce such a pretty, 
 
MADAME DRAG A MASHIN 85 
 
 witty, and apparently cultured young Servian lady 
 to the families of the foreign diplomatists accredited 
 to the Servian Court. 
 
 She moved in the very best society in the 
 Servian capital, and was received everywhere with 
 much pleasure. Of course, in a small town like 
 Belgrade, tongues are sharper than in a great town, 
 and imagination tries always to supply the Chronique 
 Scandaleuse with invented stories, for want of real 
 facts. Many an envious Belgrade beauty had only 
 one explanation for the pretty young widow's 
 frequent visits to the Palace, namely, that she was 
 the mistress of King Milan ! The intimate friends of 
 King Milan knew well who his mistress was, or, to 
 be more precise, who his mistresses were, since 1880, 
 at different periods. I can safely say that Draga 
 Mashin never was the mistress of King Milan. A 
 great " psychic " as he was, he had from the very 
 beginning of her connection with the Court a sort 
 of aversion for her. At the time I used to explain 
 that aversion by the fact that Draga Mashin was 
 one of the favourites of Queen Nathalie, and King 
 Milan could not bear the favourites of his wife. 
 
 When Queen Nathalie in 1890 decided to settle 
 in France, and built for herself a pretty villa, 
 "Sashino," at Biarritz, she took Draga Mashin as 
 her Dame dhonneur. To be permanently in the 
 company of such a woman as Queen Nathalie was 
 really a liberal education in itself. As the Queen's 
 company was constantly sought by the best and 
 highest French, Spanish, and Russian nobility, and 
 
86 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 as during the Biarritz season many distinguished 
 English and American families visited the Queen 
 at " Sashino," Madame Draga Mashin had extra- 
 ordinary opportunities of making acquaintance with 
 the very best society in Europe. She was much 
 admired, and made many friends. After she 
 became Queen of Servia I have on one occasion 
 seen in her boudoir at the Old Palace in Belgrade, 
 hundreds of photographs of most distinguished 
 ladies and gentlemen, whom she made her friends 
 at Biarritz as Queen Nathalie's Dame dhonneur. 
 
 It is only fair to say that the accusations, 
 which, after her marriage with King Alexander, 
 her personal enemies, and the enemies of the 
 Obrenovich Dynasty, threw out against her, as if 
 she had been a woman of loose character, seem to 
 me to be without foundation. I, personally, do not 
 know a single fact which could be construed in that 
 sense against her, except the fact that she became 
 the mistress of King Alexander. I admit that my 
 testimony is not worth much, as I did not watch 
 her career. But I am sure that a woman so 
 absolutely virtuous as Queen Nathalie, and at the 
 same time a woman so wide-awake, so sharp, so 
 decisive and uncompromising, and one who had 
 extraordinary means to know and to hear, would 
 not have taken Draga Mashin as her Dame 
 dhonneur if she had the slightest cause of suspicion 
 as to her character. The very fact that Queen 
 Nathalie took Draga to her Court in 1890 speaks 
 in favour of Draga's character up to that time. 
 
MADAME DRAGA MASHIN 87 
 
 Nor is it likely that while she was living in Sashino, 
 permanently under the eyes of Queen Nathalie, she 
 could have indulged in love intrigues with anyone. 
 The moment Queen Nathalie possessed one of her 
 letters, proving that she had a love intrigue with 
 King Alexander, she dismissed her at once. As a 
 young, pretty, and spirited woman, surrounded by 
 flattering and admiring, perhaps even adoring, men, 
 young and old, she might have indulged in some 
 flirtation, but in my opinion, and to my best 
 knowledge, she was the mistress of only one man- 
 King Alexander. 
 
 There is a curious incident belonging to the time 
 Draga Mashin was Queen Nathalie's Court lady. 
 The story was told confidentially to some intimate 
 friends by Mademoiselle Tzana Gyorgyevich, 
 who acted for some time at Biarritz as Queen 
 Nathalie's Maid of Honour (Demoiselle d'honneur), 
 while Draga functioned as Lady of Honour. One 
 day (I do not know exactly what year, between 
 1890 and 1897) the Queen went to Paris to visit 
 her sister, Princess Ghica, and took both her ladies 
 with her. Before returning from Paris she went, 
 accompanied by Madame Draga and Mademoiselle 
 Tzana, to see and consult the famous Parisian 
 clairvoyante, Madame Thebes. What she told the 
 Queen is not reported, except that she said : 
 " Your Majesty is cherishing in your bosom a 
 poisonous snake, which one day will give you a 
 mortal wound." To Mademoiselle Tzana she said 
 that she would never marry (and she is still un- 
 
88 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 married when I write this !). To Madame Draga 
 Mashin she said: "You have great ambition, you 
 will have an extraordinary career, you will marry 
 the highest personage in the country ; but you will 
 bring only ruin to your husband, and you will 
 perish with him." 
 
 After the marriage of King Alexander with 
 Draga Mashin, this extraordinary story appeared 
 in one of the Servian newspapers, and naturally 
 created a great sensation. Both Queen Draga and 
 King Alexander were exceedingly annoyed, and as 
 Draga suspected Mademoiselle Tzana of having 
 communicated it to the Press, poor Mademoiselle 
 Tzana was summoned before the Prefect of the 
 Police, to show why she should not be punished 
 for an indiscretion, which was disturbing the peace 
 of the Royal couple, as well as of the loyal citizens. 
 Mademoiselle Tzana requested and obtained per- 
 mission to see the Queen, and proved to her that 
 she was innocent. 
 
 King Alexander seems to have been in certain 
 respects abnormally constituted. The question is 
 rather a physiological one, and of a delicate nature. 
 On one occasion a doctor, who knew the young 
 King very well, told me that he doubted if King 
 Alexander would ever have an heir to the throne. 
 In 1895 King Milan told me in Paris that, although 
 his Sasha was quite a brilliant garfon, in one point 
 he astonished him ; not only that in the society of 
 ladies he is absolutely gauche, but that he seemed 
 to be absolutely impervious to the influence of the 
 
MADAME DRAG A MASHIN 89 
 
 most charming women in the world ! Poor King 
 Milan did not know at that time that there was 
 someone in the world, and not very far from Paris, 
 a woman to whose charms his brilliant, but other- 
 wise cold, son had already succumbed. 
 
 King Alexander informed me on one occasion 
 (after his marriage) that he fell in love with Draga 
 whilst visiting his mother, Queen Nathalie, at 
 Biarritz, in 1897. He said the same thing to Mr. 
 Vukashin Petrovich, the temporary President of his 
 Government in 1900. For a month or six weeks 
 he was constantly in the company of the fascinating 
 young widow, not always under the vigilant eyes of 
 his mother. He and Draga went almost daily for 
 a ride on their bicycles, and often quite alone. 
 They used to swim in the sea together, or rather 
 to take lessons in swimming together. Many 
 people blame Queen Nathalie for allowing her son 
 to be so much, and in such risky circumstances, 
 with her attractive Dante d'honneur, and some even 
 suspected that she intentionally led him to fall in 
 love with her " Court Lady," in order to displace 
 altogether King Milan's influence with his son. 
 Certainly neither Milan nor Nathalie, in their hatred 
 of each other, were over scrupulous in selecting 
 their weapons ; but whoever knew Queen Nathalie's 
 character, would also know that she was incapable 
 of such a mean and dangerous intrigue. She 
 wanted, naturally, to see her " Sasha " pleased and 
 happy, and she had full confidence in her Dame 
 dhonneur. 
 
90 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 King Alexander told the Minister, Vukashin 
 Petrovich, that Draga, when he fell in love with 
 her, was an absolutely virtuous woman, that she 
 rejected with indignation his advances, that on one 
 occasion, when in blind passion he entered her 
 room in the Villa Sashino, she peremptorily asked 
 him to leave at once, and when he hesitated she 
 took him by the shoulders, pushed him out, and 
 turned the key in the door. Of course, such 
 conduct added fresh fuel to the fire of his love. 
 But was the conduct of the young widow the 
 conduct of an honourable woman, or was it but the 
 clever acting of a schemer? If the poor boy took 
 it as the honourable conduct of an honest woman, 
 and his virtuous and experienced mother thought 
 her Court lady perfectly honest and reliable, what 
 right have we to declare that Draga Mashin acted 
 only as a clever but unscrupulous, designing 
 woman ? 
 
 King Alexander told the same Minister, 
 Vukashin Petrovich, that Draga resisted his 
 advances for more than three years. But they seem 
 to have been writing to each other endearing love- 
 letters. One of these fell into the hands of Queen 
 Nathalie. She was dumbfounded by the discovery. 
 In a great rage she ordered her Court lady, and 
 for years her favourite, to leave Sashino for ever. 
 Not satisfied with this, Queen Nathalie wrote to 
 some of her lady friends that Draga Mashin had 
 betrayed 'her confidence, and behaved as a "bad 
 
 woman." 
 
MADAME DRAG A MASHIN 91 
 
 Draga Mashin left Sashino, and came to 
 Belgrade, to become the mistress of King 
 Alexander. 
 
 A small, but pretty and comfortable, house was 
 engaged in the neighbourhood of the Old Palace, 
 sumptuously furnished, and Draga Mashin installed 
 as its mistress. 
 
 King Milan hated the woman, but thought 
 himself not justified in interfering in the love-affair 
 of " his King and master " as he loved to call his 
 son. Dr. Vladan Georgevich, the Premier, as he 
 tells us himself in his remarkable Memoirs, tried 
 even once in the discussion with the Prefect of the 
 Belgrade Police to justify his King and master for 
 having this one and only mistress. The Arch- 
 bishop Inokentiye knew of it, and never opened 
 his lips to say a word on the immorality of such 
 relations. All the officers, all the citizens, knew 
 about it ; all the diplomatists, and even the most 
 distinguished among them went to the weekly 
 receptions of Madame Draga, and invited her to 
 their dinners and entertainments. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE REGIME OF " WORK AND ORDER " 
 
 IN September 1897 I asked and at once obtained 
 permission to come for a day or two from London 
 to Paris, to pay my respects to King Alexander, 
 who had arrived there on his return to Servia from 
 Biarritz, where he had been staying for some time, 
 and for the last time, with his mother, Queen 
 Nathalie. 
 
 Both King Alexander and his father, King 
 Milan, received me most graciously, and retained me 
 as their guest ten days, until their own departure 
 for Servia. 
 
 The King confided to me that he was going to 
 take his father with him to Servia, and keep him 
 there at his side permanently, in spite of the 
 " shameful " law which the Radicals, " the enemies 
 of the dynasty," passed during his minority, forbid- 
 ding the return of King Milan to Servia. Further, 
 he| told me that his intention was, immediately on 
 his return to Belgrade, to dismiss the Radical 
 Cabinet of George Simich, and replace it by a non- 
 partisan Cabinet under Dr. Vladan Georgevich. 
 He hoped Dr. Vladan, whom he had ordered to 
 
THE RfiGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 93 
 
 meet him in Vienna, would accept the mission ; 
 but if he should not do so, then, the King said, 
 " With all my knowledge of the weaknesses of 
 your Puritanic heart, and of your intolerable 
 Quakerism, I shall have no other choice but to 
 appeal to you ! " Both King Milan and King 
 Alexander thought that many of my notions were 
 those of a Puritan, or even of a Quaker, and often 
 called me the latter as a nickname. 
 
 Now I thought that policy altogether a mistaken 
 one. I knew to what a waste of national energy led 
 the political struggle between King Milan and the 
 Radicals, numerically the most powerful party in 
 Servia. I thought, further, that in the interests of 
 the dynasty, as well as of the country, it was 
 advisable to let the Radicals govern the country, to 
 learn to be a party capable of governing, which means 
 a party of moderation. Office, in my opinion, was 
 the only school in which the better elements among 
 the Radical politicians would learn to be true states- 
 men. The holding of office would make many bond 
 fide Radicals friends of the dynasty, would weaken 
 and divide those who are her enemies. Besides, I 
 knew personally several members of the Radical 
 Cabinet of that time, as, for instance, Mr. George 
 S. Simich, and Mr. Michael Vouich, to be highly 
 cultured and honourable men. Of course, I knew 
 well also that Dr. Vladan, my schoolfellow and 
 friend from our earliest schooldays, was one of the 
 ablest and the most energetic statesmen whom we 
 had, a first-rate orator and organiser ; but in spite 
 
94 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 of all I advised the King strongly not to separate 
 himself from his Radical Cabinet, and to continue 
 to try and conciliate all the moderate elements of 
 the Radical Party. 
 
 King Alexander explained to me that he had 
 special dynastic reasons, besides general political 
 reasons, why he had decided to form a non-partisan 
 Cabinet, composed of men in whom he could 
 absolutely trust. 
 
 " You know," said King Alexander to me, 
 "that by political education I am a Radical, as 
 much as my father, by his personal way of thinking, 
 was a Progressive. You know that I have twice 
 delivered myself into the hands of the Radicals, and 
 each time they themselves gave me unmistakable 
 proofs that I ought not to trust them. You are 
 right when you say that George Simich and 
 Michael Vouich are highly cultured men, and the 
 most moderate politicians among the Radicals. 
 But even these best of Radicals, into whose hands 
 I have placed the country, how do they behave 
 towards me and the dynasty ? Their political chief 
 and their Minister in Russia, Mr. Pashich, entered 
 into negotiations with Russia to replace me on the 
 throne of Servia by a Russian Grand Duke ! 
 
 " You are astonished ? . . . But there is no 
 doubt about it. My father and myself have had 
 proofs in our hands. But hear this story 
 
 " Simich and Vouich take me to Cettinje, 
 under the pretext of returning the visit Prince 
 Nicholas made me last year. Once there, they 
 
THE REGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 95 
 
 startle me by saying I cannot decently leave Cettinje 
 without being engaged to the Prince's daughter 
 Xenia ! I told them in the first place they ought to 
 have told me that before we started on our journey. 
 Besides, I informed them on several occasions since 
 they became my Ministers that I would marry only 
 the woman whom I found attractive, with whom I 
 was in love, and Princess Xenia, notwithstanding 
 her many charms, had not made me fall in love with 
 her. Then, how did they behave in another matter ? 
 I authorised them to negotiate with Prince Nicholas 
 for a secret treaty of alliance concerning our common 
 interests in Old Servia and Macedonia. They 
 agreed, without asking me, and without hesitation, 
 that the most important towns in Old Servia, among 
 others Prizren, the old capital of the Servian Empire, 
 should belong not to the King of Servia but to the 
 Prince of Montenegro. Of course, I refused to give 
 my sanction to such a stipulation, but this refusal 
 put me in an awkward position with the Prince. 
 Now, how can you expect me to trust them any 
 longer ? Yes, let me show you by another example 
 how my Radical Ministers behave towards me. On 
 my arrival from Biarritz I was received at the 
 station by the staff of our Paris Legation, many 
 Servian students, and Colonel Vlaich. ' What has 
 brought you here, Colonel ? ' I asked, thinking that 
 he was there perhaps on some private business. * I 
 am, Sire, here on a special official mission, to 
 negotiate with the French Government for the 
 purchase of rifles for our army,' answered Vlaich. 
 
96 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 * Indeed ! ' I said ; ' and I never heard a word about 
 it ! ' 'I am astonished to learn that your Majesty 
 has not been asked to approve of this mission,' 
 added the Colonel, evidently disconcerted. * So am 
 /astonished,' I answered. And now, what do you 
 say to that, my dear defender of the Radicals ? " 
 
 In King Alexander's suite were Colonel Laza 
 Petrovich, Lieutenant - Colonel Milivoy Nico- 
 layevich, and Dr. Milichevich, the King's private 
 secretary. Both officers did not hesitate to tell the 
 King, on several occasions, when we discussed the 
 impending change, that they were of my opinion. 
 Dr. Milichevich, the most discreet of men, did not 
 express his opinion in the presence of the King; 
 but I knew that he, too, shared my views and my 
 arguments. 
 
 King Milan confirmed what King Alexander 
 told me about Mr. Pashich's secret negotiations 
 with Russia, for placing a Russian Grand Duke on 
 the throne of Servia. He added that unmistakable 
 proofs had been obtained and placed before him and 
 his son, by the intervention of a friendly Power. 
 "The Russian intrigue to get Servia into her power 
 is so persistent, great, and dangerous, that I consider 
 it my duty to return to Belgrade, to be at the post 
 of danger, and to help this poor and friendless young 
 man to preserve his throne." 
 
 I think this is the first time the true motives for 
 the return of King Milan to Servia, and for King 
 Alexander's change of home and foreign policy, 
 have been published. I have no other proof, 
 
THE REGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 97 
 
 except my own word of honour, that both Kings 
 Alexander and Milan informed me of those motives, 
 as I have shown. The bitter and persistently 
 inimical attitude of Russia against the new regime 
 in Servia, proves indirectly the truth. 
 
 King Alexander explained to me that there 
 were some other reasons why he was convinced that 
 it was his patriotic duty to change the home policy. 
 He did not wish to abolish the constitutional regime, 
 but he had now enough experience with that regime 
 to be justified in saying that Party Government, in 
 a country with such a passionate, insufficiently 
 educated, intolerant, and economically poor people, 
 is far from being a blessing ; it was rather a curse 
 than a blessing. He adopted his father's idea that 
 an immense majority of the Servians of our time 
 had only municipal and provincial horizons, and 
 that their political education had not as yet risen so 
 high as to be able to take a larger view of State 
 interests. That was the reason why, in the political 
 life of Servia, since we had something like a 
 parliamentary regime, State interests very often 
 were sacrificed to petty municipal or provincial 
 considerations. He wanted to try a new political 
 experiment, form and keep a Liberal Government, 
 which would be equally just to all parties and to 
 all interests, preserve order, stimulate discipline, and 
 encourage productive work in all spheres of public 
 activity, cultural as well as economical. 
 
 In Vienna, he met Dr. Vladan, and, together 
 with his father, insisted on his acceptance of the 
 7 
 
98 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Premiership in the new Cabinet. As the programme 
 which Dr. Vladan developed agreed in all its 
 essential points with the ideas of the King, the 
 matter was satisfactorily settled. On October 
 nth (23rd), 1897, the official Gazette published the 
 Royal decrees appointing Dr. Vladan Georgevich 
 President of the Council of Ministers, and Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs. But on that very day a sign 
 of Dr. Vladan's weakness, and of King Alexander's 
 unconstitutionalism, was given. Dr. Vladan wrote 
 the programme of his Government. But instead of 
 being published as such, namely, as the programme 
 of Government, King Alexander took it as his own 
 programme, the execution of which he expected 
 from Dr. Vladan's Cabinet. Putting, however, aside 
 that formal discrepancy with the constitutional 
 theory, the autograph letter, addressed by King 
 Alexander to Dr. Vladan, is one of the best proofs 
 that the young King was gifted with great political 
 ability and true statesmanship. 
 I give its full text here 
 
 " MY DEAR MR. VLADAN GEORGEVICH, The 
 events which have happened lately in the East, and 
 the unmistakable determination of Europe to keep 
 the general peace, have created for Servia the 
 possibility and the duty to strengthen herself 
 financially, economically, as well as her military 
 position. This period of assured peace in Europe 
 ought to be utilised by Servia to end the fruitless 
 
 Clitical struggle among parties, in which our country 
 s lost so much precious time, which otherwise 
 could have been used for political and national 
 
THE REGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 99 
 
 progress. We ought to take advantage of this 
 period of peace to secure for our country order 
 and lawfulness, by a conscientious, and, for all 
 and everyone, impartial administration. By an 
 irreproachable justice, we must prove that the law 
 is always the most exalted power in Servia. To 
 that we ought to add the most scrupulous per- 
 formance of all the engagements of our Government, 
 a new law concerning the State Service, and such 
 a reform of our national education that young men 
 who finish the schools must not look exclusively 
 to the State Service to gain a livelihood. 
 
 " Through earnest work in the consolidation of 
 Servia, we will be able to make of our country 
 a healthy, progressive State, a safe and strong 
 support for the order and peace in the Balkan 
 Peninsula, a State on which Europe, in her pursuit 
 of high objects of civilisation, could rely. Acting 
 in this way, we will gain for Servia the friendship 
 of all the European Powers, and strengthen further 
 the friendships which we have already won. At 
 the same time we would then prove to the world 
 that without Servia's consent nothing could be 
 decided affecting her interests. 
 
 " Such work will contribute materially to quiet 
 down political passions. To attain this object is 
 absolutely necessary, because otherwise the question 
 of a new Constitution could not be solved naturally, 
 but only partially, which would be dangerous for 
 the vital interests of the people. 
 
 " 'Servia above everything else.' A strong, and 
 by the world a well-respected Servia was the ideal 
 of my predecessors ; it is also one to which I will 
 consecrate my life. 
 
 " To be able to work more successfully at this, 
 my life -task, I address myself to your proven 
 
100 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 patriotism, and your fidelity to the throne, and 
 confide to you the difficult but honourable mission 
 to form a new Government, which shares my above- 
 explained convictions. The object which my new 
 Government will have to accomplish is so difficult, 
 that no human power could attain it, without the 
 necessary time, and without the assurance of the 
 stability in the work of the State. I assure my 
 new Government of that stability, and of the period 
 necessary for the desired success." 
 
 Dr. Vladan himself, as I have said, a man of 
 high culture, great abilities, and the most remark- 
 able energy had in his Cabinet many members 
 of experience and acknowledged abilities. Without 
 delay they began to work at the reorganisation of 
 the national finances, production, and education. 
 And although they had to contend with immense 
 difficulties, thrown in their path by Russia, they 
 obtained very considerable success. 
 
 King Milan, appointed Commander-in-Chief of 
 the Army, took in hand the reorganisation of the 
 Servian military forces. All the foreign military 
 attache's were unanimous in praising the progress 
 which the Servian Army, under his guidance, made 
 in two years. He gained great popularity among 
 the officers. If he had chosen he might any day, 
 without the slightest difficulty, have superseded his 
 son on the throne. But he rejoiced to give an 
 example of devotion and loyalty to the young King. 
 He never mentioned his son without saying, " My 
 exalted son, His Majesty the King." He liked to 
 show publicly on every occasion his great respect 
 
THE REGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 101 
 
 for him. He and Dr. Vladan thought ,tS^ were 
 working to strengthen the monarchical principle-,., 
 among the people. They succeeded "iir that : btjbcft ' Jji 
 but partially, and at the same time they only aroused 
 in the young King an exaggerated idea of his own 
 importance and power. Instead of working together 
 to inspire him with the desire to act as a constitu- 
 tional King, and to educate him for such a position, 
 they probably unintentionally deepened and 
 developed in him autocratic tendencies. Especially 
 my friend Dr. Vladan sinned terribly in that respect. 
 Poor fellow, no one suffered more later on from the 
 results of the political education which he, during 
 his regime of "Work and Order," gave to that 
 already demoralised enfant terrible on the throne. 
 I always thought that a practice, introduced by Dr. 
 Vladan, must have especially deplorable conse- 
 quences, namely, when the Government had any 
 difficulty in passing their measures before the 
 legislative body, Dr. Vladan would ask the King to 
 call the most prominent members of the Skupshtina 
 not rarely the entire Skupshtina to the Palace, 
 and to ask them to sacrifice their personal con- 
 victions and vote the Government measures to 
 please him. Both the King and the Skupshtina 
 were demoralised by such proceedings. The young 
 King, always successful whenever he wished to 
 have his own way with his Government and with 
 the Skupshtina, concluded that there was nothing 
 he could not get from them if he only insisted on 
 it. The Skupshtina, yielding so often to the 
 
102 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 " charming pressure " (douce violence) of the eloquent 
 young King, and, invited so frequently to sacrifice 
 itself in the service of " the Monarchical Principle," 
 lost its independence, the respect which it enjoyed 
 before in the country, and even its own self-respect. 
 
 On the other hand, it must be acknowledged 
 that the complete harmony between the King, his 
 Government, and the Skupshtina, really established 
 perfect order in the country, and enabled it to make 
 considerable progress in almost every direction of 
 public life. 
 
 This happy state of things did not last long. 
 
 Its first rude interruption was by the so-called 
 "St. Johns Days Attempt" on the life of King 
 Milan (June 24th (July 6th) 1899), and its end by 
 the marriage of King Alexander with Mme. Draga 
 Mashin. 
 
 I have previously stated what were the relations 
 between Russia and Servia during the nineteenth 
 century. I have to add here a few particulars 
 relating especially to the regime of "Work and 
 Order." 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1897, an important 
 political arrangement was made between Russia and 
 Austro-Hungary concerning the Balkan Peninsula. 
 The text of that arrangement has never been 
 published, and therefore, outside the Russian and 
 Austro- Hungarian Ministers who made it, nobody 
 knows positively its stipulations. However, in 
 diplomatic circles the general impression was that 
 there were only two stipulations : one to keep up 
 
THE REGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 103 
 
 the status quo in the Balkans ; and the other one, 
 that neither Austro- Hungary nor Russia should 
 interfere with the internal affairs of the Balkan 
 States. 
 
 The return of King Milan to Servia seriously 
 alarmed not only the Panslavonic, but also Official 
 Russia. Non - official Panslavonic Russia feared 
 that Milan, the personification of anti-Panslavonism, 
 would try naturally to displace Panslavonic ideals 
 by exclusively Servian ideals instead of preparing 
 the Servians for a union with Russia he would 
 concentrate their energy to the realisation of what 
 he called "the Servian idea," namely, the formation 
 of a great, strong, and really independent Servian 
 Empire. Official Russia knew that the sympathies 
 of King Milan were w r ith Austro- Hungary, and his 
 antipathies with Russia. They feared that he would 
 be the willing tool of Austro- Hungary, her willing 
 agent in everything that could disturb Russian 
 policy in the Balkans. Indeed, Official Russia 
 suspected for some time that it was Austro- Hungary 
 who brought about the return of King Milan to 
 Servia. I was told that the Russian Foreign 
 Minister remonstrated in a friendly spirit with Count 
 Goluchowsky, and wanted the Austro- Hungarian 
 Government to use its reputed influence with King 
 Milan to leave Servia, otherwise his sojourn in 
 Servia would practically mean the preponderance 
 of the Austro- Hungarian influence there, which 
 would be contrary to the spirit of their arrangement. 
 Count Goluchowsky denied that Austro- Hungary 
 
104 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 had anything to do with the return of King Milan 
 to Servia, and that her eventual attempt to persuade 
 him to leave the country would just constitute the 
 interference in the internal affairs of an independent 
 Balkan Kingdom which they both promised not to do. 
 
 Austrian co-operation for the amicable removal 
 of Milan from Servia having been denied her, 
 Russia immediately organised the campaign against 
 Milan. As King Alexander and the Government 
 of "Work and Order" stuck faithfully to King 
 Milan, as indeed the new regime of Dr. Vladan 
 had been established on the supposition that King 
 Milan remained in the country, and at the head of 
 the army, the Russian campaign was directed, not 
 only against King Milan, but against King 
 Alexander and his Government too. 
 
 In every important capital of Europe, the Russians 
 had organised special bureaus, whose exclusive 
 task was to spread and publish in the papers all 
 sorts of disparaging statements about Milan. Such 
 a bureau was established in London, too, at the 
 head of which a Frenchman, decorated with a 
 high Russian Order, was placed, having a Polish 
 Jew journalist, who wrote English well, as his 
 assistant. Secret agents, male and female, all 
 over the world, had got orders to malign King 
 Milan on every occasion. I knew personally of 
 a Russian Princess who used to give luncheon 
 and dinner parties at the sumptuous and costly 
 Claridge's Hotel, entertaining her English guests 
 with all sorts of stories some perhaps true, but 
 
THE REGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 105 
 
 many that I heard her tell certainly invented 
 about the Russian Mte noire, Milan of Servia. 
 
 In Servia the " Asiatic Department," to which 
 the Russian management of Milan and his country 
 belonged, did not need special agents. The Radicals 
 of Servia, always intensely Russophil, many of them 
 personally devoted to the Pretender, most of them 
 opposed to Milan for his " Austrophilism," were 
 only too eager to serve Russia. Through them 
 the agitation in Servia against Milan, and, indeed, 
 against the Obrenovich Dynasty, was organised 
 and nourished. But the cause of the dynasty of 
 " Order and Work " was defended by three men 
 probably the ablest in all Servia, namely, Milan, 
 Alexander, and Dr. Vladan, who, moreover, had 
 the army and the State power in their hands. No 
 wonder that the agitation, started and organised 
 by the Russians, and carried on in Servia by the 
 partisans of Peter Karageorgevich and by the 
 bond fide Russophil Radicals, did not succeed in 
 the least. The advantages of order had been soon 
 felt in the increased prosperity throughout the 
 country. The great mass of the peasantry did not 
 conceal its satisfaction. Even the Eastern districts 
 (Krayina, Zaechar, Knyazevatz), which of old were 
 always Radical Russophil and pro-Karageorgevich, 
 received King Alexander and his father in 1899 
 with great cordiality and loyalty. 
 
 One of the reasons why the anti-dynastic 
 agitation had no success was in the old methods 
 of the Russian and Radical tactics. They spread 
 
106 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 again lies and calumnies, which they had used 
 during the last eighteen years, and of the falseness 
 of which the people of Servia had ample time to 
 assure themselves. They again asserted that King 
 Milan had sold Servia to Austria for hard cash, 
 that he was eating up the millions collected from 
 the people in taxes and other public imports, using 
 them to pay off his immense debts, contracted in 
 Paris in gambling, and in keeping his mistresses in 
 a sumptuous style ; that he had returned to Servia 
 to fulfil his engagement towards the Roman 
 Catholic Pope to turn the Servians from orthodoxy, 
 and convert them by force into Roman Catholics ; 
 that he had concluded a Military Convention with 
 Austria, with the object of destroying the power of 
 Russia, that he might afterwards, when Russia 
 was no longer in a position to protect Servia, 
 place his country under Austrian rule. The only 
 new variation in these old and exploded calumnies 
 was : That Milan's programme was to get first the 
 army under his control (which had been already 
 accomplished), marry his mistress, Arthemise, the 
 divorced wife of his former private secretary, 
 Milan Christich, legalise the position of the 
 illegitimate boy whom he had by Arthemise, then 
 put his own son King Alexander into an asylum, 
 or eventually poison him, ascend the throne for 
 the second time, and declare Arthemise's son the 
 heir-presumptive. This version made some impres- 
 sion, because it looked so plausible, although it had 
 not the slightest foundation in fact. 
 
THE REGIME OF "WORK AND ORDER" 107 
 
 Another reason for the want of success was 
 in the altogether mistaken notion of the Russian 
 Government on the true situation in Servia. The 
 reports of their agents regarding the alleged 
 dissatisfaction in Servia were too exaggerated. 
 According to them, nothing was needed but a 
 visible proof that the Almighty Tzar of all the 
 Russias was against the Obrenovich and for 
 Karageorgevich, and the people would rise at 
 once, drive away Alexander and Milan, and recall 
 Karageorgevich. The Tzar made one of those 
 demonstrations by placing most graciously the 
 young sons of Prince Peter Karageorgevich in 
 the officers' school for nobility in St. Petersburg. 
 Before that, Mr. Jeadovsky was sent as the Russian 
 Minister to Belgrade on a special mission, to show 
 the people of Servia that the Tzar did not care 
 for the Obrenovich Dynasty, that he hated and 
 despised Milan, and that he would not take any 
 interest in the welfare of Servia so long as Milan 
 remained in that unhappy country. Jeadovsky did 
 not hesitate to denounce and calumniate King 
 Milan to every Servian politician or citizen with 
 whom he came in contact, calling him the most 
 opprobrious names. He went even so far as to 
 insult King Milan, taking no notice of him when 
 they met in society, and refusing to salute him in 
 the streets of Belgrade. He expected that such 
 conduct would prove to the Servians that Milan 
 was a man of no consequence to Russia, that he 
 was hated by the Tzar, and that they would do well 
 
108 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 to drive him away. But his conduct had quite the 
 opposite effect. The people in general, and the 
 higher class of Belgrade citizens, thought that an 
 insult to the King's father meant an insult to the 
 King, and to insult the King of Servia was to 
 insult the people of Servia. Belgrade society 
 closed its doors against Mr. Jeadovsky. Of course, 
 this did not matter much to him. But when, on 
 the occasion of the national festival (February 22, 
 1899), all the foreign Ministers, and even Mr. 
 Jeadovsky 's two secretaries, had been invited to 
 the diplomatic dinner in the Palace, with the sole 
 exception of Mr. Jeadovsky himself, then it was 
 evident that he could not any longer remain in 
 Servia. The Russian Government recalled Mr. 
 Jeadovsky. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF KING MILAN 
 
 DR. VLADAN had published copies of several reports, 
 which Mr. Jeadovsky, as the Russian Minister to 
 Servia, sent from Belgrade to his chief, the Russian 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, Count Mouraviev. 
 I have reason to know that there can be no doubt 
 whatever that those are accurate copies of the 
 originals. 
 
 They are simply full of stereotyped attacks 
 on King Milan. They prove that Mr. Jeadovsky 
 did not make independent observations of the facts 
 by which he was surrounded in Belgrade, but 
 thought it sufficient to echo all sorts of inventions, 
 lies, and calumnies against King Milan, which 
 specially paid journalists were instructed to spread 
 in the European Press. 
 
 Not so much as a specimen of the style and 
 character of this Russian diplomatist's despatches, 
 but as an illustration of his recklessness and daring, 
 I will quote here a passage from his despatch to 
 Count Mouraviev, written on July 21, 1898 
 
 " The participation of King Milan in the 
 Government, and his boundless influence on his 
 
 109 
 
110 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 weak-headed son, does not terrify me so much, 
 because of his political convictions and his devotion 
 to Austria, but because he lacks entirely all moral 
 principle or simple honesty. He does not hesitate 
 to exhibit ostentatiously this moral deficiency in 
 the public and private relations of his life. This 
 absence of elementary honesty permits us to say 
 that he is ready, for the sake of his private interest, 
 to throw Servia again into the abyss, and if a good 
 opportunity presents itself, to sell Servia to anyone, 
 leaving us again to re-purchase her at a very high 
 price. Consequently, it seems to me to be absolutely 
 necessary to save Servia ; it is necessary in our 
 own interest that this evil should as soon as possible 
 be cut down (in the Russian 'presyetch ')." See 
 Dr. Vladan's End of a Dynasty, p. 215. 
 
 What was in the mind of the Tzar's repre- 
 sentative in Belgrade, when he thought it absolutely 
 necessary that " this evil [namely, King Milan] should 
 as soon as possible be cut down " ? For the sake 
 of human nature, and for the sake of the honour of 
 the "Orthodox, Holy Russia," let us hope that 
 that unfortunate phrase was not meant to mean 
 what subsequent events led most people to believe 
 it did mean. 
 
 On the 7th of November 1898, the Russian 
 newspapers Novoye Vremya and Novosti brought 
 news that reports were current that an attempt on 
 the life of King Milan had been committed. Was 
 that a bond jide false report ? or was it an indiscreet 
 echo of a certain resolution made in one or other of 
 
ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF KING MILAN 111 
 
 the Panslavonic circles, with which those papers 
 were in touch ? 
 
 On the 3rd of December 1898, the Servian 
 newspaper Srbobran, which is published in Agram 
 (Croatia), and was well known to be in touch with 
 official and semi-official circles in St. Petersburg, 
 published an article entitled "The Rupture between 
 Russia and Obrenovich," in which it was said : 
 " The present situation in Servia is very similar to 
 one which prevailed in Bulgaria under Stambulov, 
 and there is no doubt that it will be ended in the 
 same way." As it is well known, Stambulov's 
 anti- Russian regime in Bulgaria was ended by the 
 assassination of Stambulov by a Russian hireling. 
 The paper clearly announced that the anti- Russian 
 Milan was to finish like the anti-Russian Stambulov. 
 
 The Russian paper Le Nord, which appears in 
 the French language in Paris, published on the 
 9th (2ist) February 1899, an alleged proclamation 
 of the anti-dynastic Committee of the Servian 
 Radical Party, " which warned the European 
 capitalists not to lend money to Servia under 
 Milan's regime, and refused responsibility for the 
 crisis which, after the fall of Milan, would swallow 
 all those who assisted him." Was it not strange 
 that an organ of the Russian Foreign Office and 
 Le Nord was well known to be such an organ 
 should announce publicly that the fall of Milan was 
 expected ? 
 
 The above-mentioned paper Srbobran, in its 
 issue of the 25th February 1899, commenting on 
 
112 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 the non-invitation of Jeadovsky to the diplomatic 
 dinner at the Palace on the 22nd of that month, 
 wrote : " Both Milan and his son will pay dearly 
 for the insult to Jeadovsky. The departure of the 
 Russian Minister from Servia will convince the 
 people of Servia that they ought to destroy a 
 regime which dares to provoke Russia." 
 
 All these extracts from the papers, well known 
 to be at the disposal of the Russian Government 
 (and which I take .from Dr. Vladan's book), show 
 only the failure of the Russian Government to 
 remove King Milan from Servia. The friends of 
 King Milan, who knew that the Russian policy 
 had no scrupulosity in choosing her methods and 
 weapons to attain her objects, were earnestly 
 anxious about his safety, especially since rumours 
 were spread that the murderer of Stambulov, who 
 freely moved in Sofia, visiting coffee-houses and 
 places of amusement, openly boasted that he had 
 obtained the mission to assassinate King Milan. 
 
 One day in the month of May the Servian 
 Government received from Sofia a letter announc- 
 ing that very soon a great crime would be committed 
 in Belgrade, of which only the writer and two other 
 persons had any knowledge. The writer was a 
 certain Stephen, lately a servant in the Russian 
 Legation in Belgrade, who was dismissed " because 
 he was caught in stealing," as Colonel Taube, the 
 Russian Military Agent, explained. The Servian 
 Government offered to bring the man before the 
 Court of Justice to be punished, if it should be 
 
ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF KING MILAN 113 
 
 proved that he had committed a theft. But Colonel 
 Taube declined to prosecute him. He only desired 
 that he should be expelled from Servia to Bulgaria, 
 which was done by the Servian Government. Now 
 his letter from Sofia, announcing that a crime was 
 shortly to be committed in Belgrade, could not 
 be, and was not, taken seriously by the Servian 
 Government. 
 
 On the 2ist June (Old Style) 1899, King 
 Milan, accompanied by his Aide-de-Camp, Lukich, 
 left shortly after 6 o'clock in the evening the 
 Commander-in-Chiefs offices in the Citadel of 
 Belgrade, driving in an open victoria to the Palace. 
 Ten minutes later his carriage was just turning a 
 corner to enter the principal street (Prince Michael's 
 Street) leading from the Kalimegdan Park in front 
 of the fortress, to the Palace, when a young man, 
 standing in front of the corner house, a hotel with 
 a coffee-house, fired a revolver at the King. After 
 the first shot he ran after the carriage and fired 
 three more shots. One bullet grazed King Milan's 
 left shoulder, without causing a serious wound ; but 
 his Aide-de-Camp, Lukich, received a bullet in his 
 shoulder. 
 
 In the confusion the would-be murderer ran 
 down the sloping street to the shore of the Sava, 
 and sprang into that river, but was captured and 
 brought to the Prefecture. At the first examination 
 by the Prefect, the prisoner declared that his name 
 was Knezevich, that he was born in Bosnia, and 
 his intention was to kill King Milan ; his co-worker 
 8 
 
114 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 was the Colonel on the retired list, Vlayko Nicolich, 
 and he obtained from the Prefect of Shabatz a pass 
 for Roumania. In Bucharest he went to a certain 
 house, where he met a gentleman, who spoke 
 Servian, but with the Russian accent ; and that 
 gentleman, whose name he did not know, showed 
 him a big bag of gold, and promised to give it to 
 him if he killed King Milan. He gave him "on 
 account" 500 napoleondors (^400), with which 
 money he came to Belgrade, some eight days ago, 
 to watch for an occasion to kill King Milan. He 
 added that the gentleman accompanied him from 
 Bucharest to Belgrade, and then recrossed the 
 river to the Hungarian town, Zimony. 
 
 Two weeks later the house in which the Chief 
 of the Russian Secret Police for Servia, Bulgaria, 
 and Roumania lived in Bucharest, was photo- 
 graphed, and the photograph shown to the would- 
 be assassin, Knezevich, who at once and before 
 several witnesses recognised it as the house to 
 which he went in Bucharest, and in which he met 
 the man with the bag of gold. The photograph 
 was certified by the Roumanian authorities to be 
 the house in which the Russian Colonel M. lived. 
 
 The Prefect of Belgrade, Mr. Rista Bademlich, 
 who made the first interrogatories with the would- 
 be assassin Knezevich, in a private letter to Dr. 
 Vladan, dated July 7th (i9th) 1899, expressed his 
 conviction that two Russian Colonels in official 
 positions were at the head of the conspiracy to 
 murder King Milan. The Prefect mentioned them 
 
ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF KING MILAN 115 
 
 by name, which names can be seen in Dr. Vladan's 
 book, The End of a Dynasty, p. 366. 
 
 The same authority asserts that a foreign 
 minister in Bucharest, after the full investigation 
 of the matter, reported to his Government that at 
 the head of the conspiracy to murder King Milan 
 were two Russian Colonels, whom he mentioned 
 by name. 
 
 As King Milan escaped unhurt, the Russian 
 Press-agents all over Europe, as well as in Servia, 
 received instructions to inform the Press, that the 
 attempt was nothing but a fraud, that King Milan 
 himself had arranged this apparent conspiracy, and 
 hired the soi-disant assassin ; that, in fact, he made 
 an attempt against himself, to gain an opportunity 
 to denounce Russia, and imprison her devoted 
 friends, the leaders of the Servian Radicals ! 
 
 Unfortunately, King Alexander and King Milan 
 played into the hands of their enemies. They 
 committed a very grave fault by insisting that the 
 Government should place Belgrade under martial 
 law, arrest at once the members of the executive of 
 the Radical Party, and place them together with 
 Knezevich, as his instigators, before a Court- 
 Martial. The Cabinet, under the leadership of 
 Mr. Vukashin (in the absence of Dr. Vladan, who 
 was taking the waters at Marienbad), after some 
 show of resistance yielded to the pressure of both 
 Kings. The Constitution of the year 1869, then 
 in operation, allowed them to do so legally ; but 
 both morally and politically to bring the personal 
 
116 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 enemies of King Milan before a Court- Martial was 
 a fatal mistake. 
 
 This extraordinary measure was disapproved by 
 every right-thinking and independent man in Servia. 
 It aroused the public opinion of Europe against the 
 Servian Government and Servia. It was one of 
 the misdeeds which told against King Alexander 
 heavily. I consider it, and I deplore it, as one of 
 the gravest mistakes which King Milan ever made. 
 
 The papers seized in the houses of the arrested 
 leaders of the Radicals showed undoubtedly they 
 met sometimes to discuss the political situation of 
 the country, and that they in their confidential 
 letters often expressed the desire, that the masterful 
 bearing of King Milan should in some way or other 
 be stopped, and even that they would be glad to 
 see a change of dynasty ; but there was no legal 
 proof forthcoming that they had any connection 
 with Knezevich's attempt on the life of King 
 Milan. The Court-Martial, however, found that 
 the attempt had some connection with the secret 
 meetings and activity of the Radical leaders, and 
 pronounced very severe sentences against them. 
 Fortunately, the only man sentenced to death, and 
 whose sentence was carried out, was Knezevich, 
 who actually tried to kill King Milan. 
 
 In connection with the attempt on King Milan's 
 life, and with the proclamation of the Court- 
 Martial and condemnation of the Radical leaders, 
 there exists a terrible insinuation. 
 
 It was made by King Milan, and King 
 
ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF KING MILAN 117 
 
 Alexander's Premier published it. Dr. Vladan 
 not only published it, but in reporting the events, 
 and especially the conversations which he himself 
 or his locum tenens, Mr. Vukashin Petrovich, had 
 with King Alexander at the time of the attempt 
 and during the Court-Martial, he has drawn special 
 attention to every action and every word of King 
 Alexander which could give colour to the horrible 
 accusation. 
 
 Not long before his death, King Milan told Dr. 
 Vladan that he had reason to believe that the 
 attempt on his life in June 1899 was instigated 
 and organised by his own son Alexander, and his 
 mistress, Draga Mashin, assisted by Russia ! 
 
 King Milan was an exceedingly intelligent man, 
 a very able controversialist, and a great casuist. 
 Trained to be suspicious of everybody and of 
 everything, and surrounded by men who often 
 wished to exploit his suspiciousness, it is not extra- 
 ordinary that sometimes he was led to exaggerate. 
 If he had not been a King, he would have been a 
 most able detective. Not rarely a small detail, 
 which to all others would seem perfectly meaning- 
 less, to him was the starting point for the construc- 
 tion of most remarkable theories. 
 
 To illustrate this I will mention a case which 
 concerned me personally. A great lover of 
 flowers, I spoke on one occasion in 1886 with 
 Queen Nathalie, in King Milan's presence, on 
 roses. The Queen thereupon told Sasha to go 
 and bring from her room three roses, and give 
 
118 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 them to me. A few weeks after that I read in 
 a public sitting of our Academy a historical 
 sketch of Princess Helene Balsha, who, in the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century, as Regent for 
 her young boy, reversed the policy of her late 
 husband towards the republic of Venice, and 
 tried to reconquer the towns which her husband 
 had ceded to the Doge. At the time of my 
 reading that paper King Milan was abroad. 
 On his return to Belgrade I noticed that he 
 treated me very coldly. As this lasted for some 
 time, I asked him one day what it meant "As 
 you want to know what I have against you, I 
 will tell it you frankly," began King Milan, 
 evidently painfully agitated. " I have reason to 
 believe that you are in conspiracy with the 
 Queen and her friends to force me to abdicate 
 and to proclaim her the Regent. My eyes were 
 opened for the first time when she told Sasha 
 to bring from her room those three roses, and 
 give them to you. Those three roses meant, 
 no doubt, the three members of the Regency, 
 and there is a certain meaning even in the 
 peculiar circumstance that Sasha, at her bidding, 
 should place in your hands the emblem of the 
 Regency! If I was willing to disbelieve the 
 natural interpretation of the incident, your paper 
 on Helene Balsha dispelled every doubt in me. 
 The whole of your description of Helene is 
 nothing but a glorification of Nathalie, the 
 modern Helene Balsha! Practically your lecture 
 
ATTEMFI ON THE LIFE OF KING MILAN 119 
 
 before the Academy was nothing but the recom- 
 mendation to the people to reconcile themselves 
 with the Regency of Nathalie, who is known to 
 hate my policy, as Helene Balsha disapproved of 
 the policy of her husband ! " The construction 
 of such a theory was quite plausible. There 
 were certainly some points of similarity between 
 the situation of Helene Balsha and the situation 
 of Queen Nathalie. Yet, at the same time, neither 
 Queen Nathalie conspired to become the Regent 
 for her son, nor had I ever thought, even for a 
 moment, of such a contingency. 
 
 There is no doubt that King Alexander treated 
 his father with great harshness, with monstrous 
 callousness ; but the accusation that he deliberately 
 and in cold blood planned the assassination of his 
 father, in order to remove the greatest obstacle 
 to his marrying his mistress, cannot be accepted 
 without positive and convincing proofs. Such 
 proofs do not exist. 
 
 I wish also to draw attention to the fact 
 that King Milan, with all his suspiciousness and 
 detective ingenuity, did not suspect his son or 
 his mistress of any foul play, either at the time 
 of the attempt or a year afterwards. It was only 
 after the harsh treatment he experienced from 
 King Alexander on and after his marriage that 
 his suspicions were aroused. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 ON THE EVE OF THE FATAL DEED 
 
 IN March 1900 I was transferred from London to 
 Constantinople as the Servian Envoy Extraordinary 
 and Minister Plenipotentiary. 
 
 Passing through Vienna I went to pay my 
 respects to Count Goluchowsky, whose personal 
 acquaintance I made in Paris in 1882, and renewed 
 (1894) it m Bucharest, where at that time the Count 
 represented Austro- Hungary, while I acted as the 
 Servian Minister to the Roumanian Court. 
 
 Before leaving Count Goluchowsky I asked his 
 Excellency if he had a message for King Alexander 
 and King Milan. 
 
 "Yes, certainly," answered the Count. "Tell 
 their Majesties that it is really most important, 
 indeed most urgent, that King Alexander should 
 not delay any longer his marriage. He is exposed 
 to serious personal danger as long as he has no heir 
 to the throne. We wish to see the political con- 
 solidation of Servia, which cannot be realised while 
 the Royal dynasty has only one representative. 
 King Alexander, highly intelligent as he is, seems 
 to be perfectly aware that his first duty to his 
 
 120 
 
ON THE EVE OF THE FATAL DEED 121 
 
 dynasty, and to his people, is to marry without any 
 further delay. When I saw him here the last time, 
 he expressed the hope and the wish that his Majesty, 
 my august master, would help him to obtain the 
 hand of a suitable Princess. You can tell him from 
 me that not only his Majesty the Emperor and the 
 King interests himself personally in his happiness, 
 but also the Emperor of Germany joined our Kaiser 
 in efforts to find for King Alexander a suitable 
 Princess. But your King makes too many con- 
 ditions and claims. He says the Princess must be 
 young, beautiful, and lovely, so as to win his love ; 
 further, she ought to be politically well connected, 
 and at least have family relations with one of the 
 first-class Courts of Europe ; further, she ought to 
 be a highly cultured and gifted woman ; and, last 
 but not least, very wealthy. Please tell the King 
 that a Princess who possesses all these conditions 
 could do better than marry King Alexander of 
 Servia and spend her life in Belgrade ! Therefore, 
 he ought to be satisfied if we succeed in finding for 
 him a Princess who possesses some of his stipula- 
 tions. And, thanks to the interest which the 
 Emperor William takes in the matter, I think we 
 are in a position to recommend to him one of the 
 most charming and most cultured Princesses in 
 Europe." 
 
 On my arrival in Belgrade I was immediately 
 invited to dine at the Palace. After dinner King 
 Alexander took his father, King Milan, his Premier 
 Dr. Vladan, and myself into the central salon of 
 
122 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 the Old Palace to have a private talk. I im- 
 mediately delivered Count Goluchowsky's message, 
 and added my own arguments in support of the 
 Count's contention that it was really of the highest 
 importance that the King should speedily be 
 married. 
 
 Both King Milan and the Premier were highly 
 pleased with Count Goluchowsky's message. King 
 Milan asked me if the Count divulged to me who 
 the Princess was. He was pleased to hear that he 
 did not. " But, of course," he added, " we know 
 whom he meant ; and I think Sasha admits that 
 according to her photograph she must be a lovely 
 young woman." 
 
 " According to her photograph, certainly," re- 
 peated King Alexander, who until that moment 
 had been silent, absorbed in deep thought, drinking 
 his mocha and smoking a cigarette. " Certainly ; 
 but you know I cannot decide before I have seen 
 her personally. You do not know, Mijatovich, but 
 I may tell you, that Vladan has made me an ulti- 
 matum, declaring that he will resign his post and 
 leave me if I do not marry this year. I promised 
 him, as well as papa, that I would do so. And I 
 mean to keep my word." 
 
 He spoke with much calmness, and with such 
 apparent assurance and sincerity, that Dr. Vladan 
 seemed happy. King Milan (who was walking 
 restlessly near the Turkish, low coffee-table, around 
 which we sat on low arm-chairs) came straight to 
 his son, and kissed him tenderly. I felt really 
 
ON THE EVE OF THE FATAL DEED 123 
 
 moved, and was happy too. I could not dream 
 that the young King was only acting and deceiving 
 us all three, as if we were innocent babes, or stupid 
 and blind idiots. 
 
 " But, of course," King Alexander continued, 
 " some delay is unavoidable. Papa must now go 
 first to take a cure at Carlsbad. You think he 
 looks well, but in truth he is ill. He hardly eats 
 anything, and he must go to Carlsbad. And as 
 you see, Dr. Vladan has made a wreck of himself 
 in untiring service to his King and country, and he 
 wants to go to Franzensbad. Now, we three 
 cannot be absent from Servia at the same time. 
 Therefore, we have arranged that papa and Vladan 
 go first to make their respective cures ; Vladan will 
 then make a trip to Paris to see the exhibition. On 
 his return to Belgrade I join papa in Vienna, go 
 with him to Paris, and then to Germany to see my 
 Princess, and, if God so wills, give her the ring ; 
 and certainly by the end of the year, if not sooner, 
 you will see me a married man." 
 
 About the middle of April 1900, the Servian 
 Minister in Berlin, Mr. Milan Boghitchevich, a 
 relative of the Obrenovich House, reported to the 
 Servian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Vladan, 
 that on April i3th he saw Count Billow on some 
 official business of minor importance, and that the 
 Count on that occasion mentioned that it was time 
 for the King of Servia to marry, as the Royal 
 dynasty consisted only of King Alexander and his 
 father King Milan. Mr. Boghitchevich reported 
 
124 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 further that he gave a rather evasive answer, saying 
 that from what he knew it seemed that King 
 Alexander had as yet no intention of marrying. 
 Dr. Vladan was exceedingly astonished, and asked 
 the Minister to explain what on earth was his reason 
 for such an evasive answer. In his private letter 
 to Dr. Vladan, dated Berlin, 27th April, 1900, Mr. 
 Boghitchevich writes 
 
 o 
 
 " These are my reasons why I gave such an 
 evasive answer to Count Blilow. Nearly two years 
 ago his Majesty the King instructed me to make 
 certain inquiries about a German Princess, who is 
 related to several European Courts, and whose 
 sister is already a Queen. The Emperor of 
 Germany takes great interest in her, because his own 
 sister had married into her family. Last year the 
 Emperor said to me once, and to my wife several 
 times, that the Princess would be a good match for 
 our King. I reported it to his Majesty our King, 
 but had very little success. When Count Blilow 
 lately spoke to me about the desirability that our 
 King should marry, I knew that he had this same 
 Princess in view. Having obtained information 
 about the inclinations of our King in that respect, 
 I dared not give any other but an evasive answer, 
 as I had no instruction to speak either for or against 
 it. I thought it wise to prepare Count Blilow for 
 the eventuality that King Alexander might decide 
 not to marry the Princess. The best proof that the 
 King does not mean to marry her is the fact that 
 as yet he has never spoken to you about it," etc. etc. 
 
ON THE EVE OF THE FATAL DEED 125 
 
 This letter alarmed somewhat Dr. Vladan. 
 He went at once to King Alexander with Mr. 
 Boghitchevich's two letters, as well as with his 
 own, showed them to the King, and asked for 
 information. 
 
 The King explained. Two years ago his cousin 
 Milan Boghitchevich bothered him so much with 
 suggestions that he should marry a certain German 
 Princess that, to get rid of his importunities, he 
 ordered him to make certain preliminary inquiries, 
 but nothing more. But Boghitchevich went beyond 
 his instructions ; and especially his wife, who went 
 even so far as to decide the Emperor to honour in 
 view of the approaching alliance the concert which 
 the Servian Singing Society of Belgrade gave in 
 Berlin. He King Alexander considered this 
 only as a simple courtesy of the Kaiser, who, as is 
 well known, delights in showing courtesies. How- 
 ever that may be, it was now the time to act earn- 
 estly, and he could most positively assure his dear 
 Premier, that within three, or at the latest four 
 months, his marriage would be an accomplished fact. 
 Dr. Vladan was perfectly satisfied with this 
 explanation. 
 
 The very next day after this conversation 
 between King Alexander and Dr. Vladan his 
 Premier, the Prefect of the Police of Belgrade, Mr. 
 Rista Bademlich, came as usual very early, to 
 show to the Premier the police report prepared for 
 the King. Having delivered his usual report, he 
 startled Dr. Vladan by suddenly saying 
 
126 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 " I say, Mr. President, my ' Kooma ' will cause 
 us a terrible misfortune." 
 
 " Which Kooma 1 do you mean ? " 
 
 Bademlich : " You know I mean that misfortune- 
 bringing woman, Draga Mashin." 
 
 Dr. Vladan : " But why should that person 
 bring us misfortune. What interest could she have 
 in doing so ? " 
 
 Bademlich : " She has made the King perfectly 
 blind, so that he cannot see anything but her ; and 
 spends every night with her. Do you not know 
 that she has, with the magic drinks she gives him, 
 made him so foolish that he spends hours under 
 her window, begging her humbly to let him in ? 
 Have you never thought that the King, when 
 waiting under Draga's windows in that otherwise 
 deserted street, might be murdered, or catch a 
 serious illness, in wet and cold weather." 
 
 Dr. Vladan : " We know all that." 
 
 Bademlich : " And yet you take no steps to 
 stop this shame and scandal." 
 
 Dr. Vladan: "We do not undertake anything, 
 because if we tried, he would rightly stop us by 
 saying that our duty is to attend to State business, 
 and not to his personal and private love-making ; 
 and that he does not prevent us taking the necessary 
 measures for his safety, which is the duty of the 
 Home Minister, and your own, my dear Prefect 
 
 1 " Kooma " in feminine, " Koom " in masculine form, are the 
 Servian names for principal witnesses at a wedding, as well as for the 
 godmothers and godfathers. 
 
ON THE EVE OF THE FATAL DEED 127 
 
 of the Police ! Besides, as I am informed, the 
 King is always, on such visits, accompanied by 
 Colonel Marko, whose sword and revolver are 
 worth as much as a squadron of guards, which, of 
 course, could not accompany the King to the 
 windows of Draga. You ought, however, to place 
 always in the neighbourhood a sufficient number of 
 detectives, who could rush at the first shrill whistle 
 of Colonel Marko to his orders." 
 
 Dr. Vladan tried, without much pruderie, to 
 explain why the Government allowed King 
 Alexander to have a mistress. The arguments are 
 too physiological and cynical to be repeated in 
 decent society. In addition, he thought that as 
 the relations between Alexander and Draga had 
 lasted now several years, it gave grounds to believe 
 that the King would probably tire of his nine or 
 ten years' older mistress, and that he would soon 
 give her up. He had not the slightest doubt 
 that would be the case the moment the King 
 married the young and charming Princess, whom 
 he the King had in view. After the long 
 dissertation of Dr. Vladan, the Prefect Bademlich 
 asked 
 
 Bademlich : " Mr. President, do you and your 
 colleagues really believe that the King will marry 
 according to our hopes and wishes, so long as he 
 has Draga ? " 
 
 Dr. Vladan : " I am sure of it. On New Year's 
 Day the King gave me, in the presence of his father, 
 the Ministers and the State dignitaries, in the most 
 
128 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 solemn way, his Royal word that, in the course of 
 the year, he would marry." 
 
 Bademlich : " And I say to you, Mr. President, 
 and I beg you to mark my words : this woman has 
 bewitched the King so completely that he firmly 
 believes that with no other woman could he ever be 
 happy indeed, that to no other woman could he 
 ever be a husband! And if the King means to 
 keep his word, which he so solemnly gave to you, 
 he means, simply, to marry Draga Mashin ! " 
 
 Dr. Vladan (loudly laughing) : "What do you 
 say ? Draga Mashin a Queen of Servia ? Listen, 
 my dear fellow, what you have just said is too 
 strong. You are such an excellent Police Prefect 
 that I cannot understand how such folly could have 
 ever entered your head, and much less how you 
 could give expression to it. It is evident that you 
 do not know anything of the science of psychology, 
 and especially that you are not acquainted with the 
 psychology of sovereigns." 
 
 Bademlich : " Well ; but I tell you one thing 
 I would not give mypretktiik (he used that word), 
 for all your grammatik, or whatever your scientific 
 theories might be called. I warn you, Mr. 
 President, to take care that you do not one day 
 repent having relied too much on your science ! 
 Then it will be too late for you, for us all, and for 
 the country ! " 
 
 Three months later, events proved that the 
 practical common-sense of an experienced police 
 officer had been far more clear-sighted than the 
 
ON THE EVE OF THE FATAL DEED 129 
 
 psychology and physiology of the learned Dr. 
 Vladan. 
 
 Dr. Vladan from whose Memoirs I have taken 
 the report of his conversation with Bademlich 
 acknowledges that himself. He, however, explains 
 his mistake by saying that he assumed quite normal 
 conditions in King Alexander, whereas the autopsy 
 after the catastrophe proved that Alexander was 
 not normally constituted. 
 
 On June 6th (iQth), 1900, King Alexander told 
 Dr. Vladan that his father, King Milan, would 
 leave Belgrade for Carlsbad the next day, with 
 a special mission to stay first for a few days in 
 Vienna, to speak with the Emperor of Austria 
 concerning his (King Alexander's) marriage. Dr. 
 Vladan expressed his great pleasure in hearing 
 this. 
 
 "Well, then," continued the King, "you must 
 do me a pleasure, too. It is very probable that I 
 shall have to leave Belgrade, even before my birth- 
 day, August 2nd (i4th), to go to Carlsbad, not to 
 the cure, but to meet my intended. You will admit 
 yourself that it is highly desirable that we should 
 meet to see if putting all other conditions aside 
 we could have that sympathy for each other that 
 is absolutely needful, even in a marriage made from 
 the 'highest State reasons.' But I cannot leave 
 the country before you and papa return. You 
 have not only to make your cure at Marienbad, but 
 also to go to Paris to see our Pavilion at the 
 Exhibition. You will want six or seven weeks 
 
130 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 for all that. I think it, therefore, desirable that 
 you start at once on your leave of absence." 
 
 Dr. Vladan expressed his willingness to leave 
 for Vienna on the 8th, that is in two days." 
 
 " Thank you, Doctor!" said the King, with a 
 deep sigh, as if he suddenly were relieved from a 
 great weight. " Only, please don't forget what I 
 told you about the special mission of my father to 
 Vienna must remain a secret. I beg of you not to 
 show in conversation with my father that you know 
 anything about it. Because if he does not succeed, 
 it might not be pleasant for him to learn that 
 besides the Emperor and us, someone else was in 
 the secret. When you see Goluchowsky, there is 
 no need for you to take the initiative in talking 
 with him on my marriage. But if he speaks to 
 you on the subject, I authorise you to ask him for 
 his support in the matter." 
 
 On June 7th (2oth), King Milan left Belgrade 
 for Vienna. The next day the Premier, Dr. Vladan, 
 having given over his duties as President of the 
 Cabinet and Foreign Minister to his colleague, the 
 Minister of Finance, Vukashin Petrovich, left also 
 for Vienna. 
 
 King Alexander, Draga Mashin, and the 
 Russian Charge d' Affaires, Mr. Mansuroff, had 
 now a clear field to themselves. 
 
QUEEN DRAGA 
 
 In the year of her marriage inth King Alexander 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE WITH DRAGA MASHIN 
 
 ON Thursday, July 6th (iQth), 1900, there was in 
 the afternoon the usual reception of the foreign 
 diplomats in the Servian Foreign Office in Belgrade. 
 The last Minister to be received was the German 
 Minister, Baron Waecker - Gotter. The locum 
 tenens of the Servian Premier and Foreign Minister, 
 Mr. Vukashin Petrovich, was just leaving the 
 building, together with the Baron, when the Home 
 Minister, Mr. George Genchich, stopped him, and 
 asked him to return at once with him to his office. 
 He said to him, in a visible state of agitation 
 " I cannot tell you what it is, but I will only say, 
 something fateful, something fatal, something dread- 
 ful is going to happen ! I was obliged to take an 
 oath that I should not betray the secret, and I shall 
 not do so. But this I can tell you, that I have 
 wired in cipher to King Milan, that a great mis- 
 fortune for him personally, for King Alexander, 
 for Servia, and for us all is in preparation, and 
 have asked him to come at once to prevent that 
 misfortune, if possible." 
 
 Mr. Genchich advised his colleague to go to 
 
 131 
 
132 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 the Palace at once. " Perhaps the King will tell 
 you what is going on." 
 
 It was nearly 7 o'clock p.m. Mr. Petrovich 
 whom I shall call Mr. Vukashin, as he always 
 signs himself, and as he is generally known in 
 Servia under that name went to the Palace, and 
 was surprised to find in the antechamber old Mr. 
 Nicholas Christich waiting. Mr. Christich had 
 been generally called to the Palace during the last 
 thirty years whenever the Kings of Servia found 
 themselves in an exceptionally difficult situation. 
 Mr. Vukashin asked the old statesman laughingly 
 " Have you perhaps come to form a new 
 Cabinet ? " 
 
 King Alexander received Mr. Vukashin in great 
 agitation and irritation. He told him simply that 
 he had then no time to listen to him, and dis- 
 missed him somewhat ungraciously, in a few minutes. 
 The Minister felt so humiliated and offended that 
 he went home and wrote his resignation. 
 
 On July 7th (2oth), Dr. Vladan, on his journey 
 from Zurich to Lucerne, received a telegram from 
 his locum tenens, Vukashin, stating that he had 
 resigned, and begging him to return at once. 
 Vladan wired to King Milan at Carlsbad, and 
 asked him if he knew what was taking place in 
 Belgrade. Dr. Vladan and King Milan wired that 
 day to each other in ciphers, but they could not 
 decipher their despatches with the cipher books 
 which King Alexander's Secretary had given them. 
 Losing much precious time in unsuccessful decipher- 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 133 
 
 ing, both were annoyed ; but they did not suspect 
 that by the King's order they were given wrong 
 books. Even this small detail was foreseen ! At 
 last, on July 8th (2ist), King Milan wired to Dr. 
 Vladan, in an open telegram, that he had received 
 from the Home Minister, Genchich, an urgent 
 request to return at once to Servia, "but secretly." 
 " To return secretly was not compatible with my 
 duty. I therefore refused the request, and asked 
 for information by a letter." 
 
 A little later on the same day, Dr. Vladan 
 received in Lucerne the following telegram 
 
 "The King has decided to marry Draga 
 Mashin. The Government has resigned, feeling 
 unable to prevent that catastrophe for the country 
 and dynasty. VUKASHIN." 
 
 Dr. Vladan wired to King Alexander in cipher 
 
 " Vukashin announces to me, by a telegram of 
 this day, that your Majesty has decided to marry 
 Mme. Draga Mashin. Most humbly I pray your 
 Majesty to let me know if this fatal decision for 
 Servia and for the dynasty was a definite one." 
 
 King Alexander answered the same day, in a 
 telegram which had only two ciphers, which meant 
 
 "Yes, my decision is definite. ALEXANDER." 
 
 On the same day Dr. Vladan received two 
 other telegrams. The one was from Carlsbad 
 
 " I have sent in my resignation as Commander- 
 in-Chief of the Army, but you do not resign at 
 least for a day or two. If possible, come at once 
 to me. MILAN." 
 
134 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 The other telegram was from Belgrade, signed 
 by Mr. Vukashin 
 
 " The question is decided. The resignation of 
 the Cabinet has been accepted." 
 
 Dr. Vladan, having ceased to be the head of 
 the Government, thought it useless to go to Carls- 
 bad to confer with King Milan, who had ceased to 
 be the head of the Servian Army. 
 
 The foregoing story is only a chronological 
 sketch of the events which rapidly followed each 
 other. I now raise the curtain to depict a drama. 
 The diary, or rather the memorandum, which has 
 been written by one of the principal actors of the 
 drama itself, gives us a graphic description of the 
 events. 1 
 
 On July 7th (2Oth), early in the morning, 
 King Alexander had in his hands the resignation of 
 his Acting Premier, Mr. Vukashin ; but he returned 
 it to him, and invited him to lunch. Everybody in 
 the Palace noticed that the King was that morn- 
 ing somewhat preoccupied, irritable, and confused. 
 After the luncheon he took Mr. Vukashin to a 
 small but elegantly furnished room in the Palace, 
 known as Queen Nathalie's Boudoir. 
 
 The King : "I have something of the greatest 
 importance to tell you, something on which depend 
 my future, my life, my destiny. But let me in the 
 
 1 The Diary of Vukashin Petrovich, Minister of Finance in the 
 Cabinet of Dr. Vladan, and his locum tenens in the Premiership and 
 the Foreign Office during his absence. Printed in Dr. Vladan's 
 book, The End of a Dynasty, pp. 559-588. 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 135 
 
 first place reproach you for your resignation. We 
 have been so many years such good friends that 
 we have no right to be over-sensitive in small 
 matters. Have you seen Genchich ? Has he 
 told you anything?" 
 
 The Minister : " Yes, I have seen Genchich ; 
 but, unfortunately he refused to tell me anything." 
 
 The King: "Well, then, I will presently tell 
 you everything myself; but before we do so, you 
 must make a solemn oath on this holy picture, that 
 you will not tell anyone what I am now going to 
 confide to you ! " 
 
 And with those words King Alexander brought 
 out from his breast a small bijou holy eikon of the 
 Russian type, which of late he had taken to wearing 
 on a gold chain. Probably the picture represented 
 Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of the family 
 Obrenovich. I believe it was the gift of his 
 mistress Draga, and very likely she made it 
 doubly precious to him by swearing on it to love 
 him, and to be faithful to him through all eternity. 
 
 The Minister : " Your Majesty, I must tell you 
 that I do not believe in holy pictures, and an oath 
 on them would not be binding on me." 
 
 The King : " Then swear by the memory of 
 your departed son." 
 
 Mr. Vukashin Petrovich had a very gifted and 
 promising son, a young doctor, who a year or two 
 before these events died in a Vienna hospital from 
 blood-poisoning, through a wound got in a surgical 
 operation. 
 
136 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 The Minister : " The memory of my son is 
 certainly sacred to me, but I cannot make it the 
 foundation for an oath." 
 
 The King: "Then give me your word of 
 honour." 
 
 The Minister : " Certainly ; but only after I 
 have seen that my word of honour will not bring 
 me into conflict with my other duties." 
 
 The King rose in evident anger, and with the 
 words : " In that case I have nothing to tell you," 
 left the room. 
 
 But in ten minutes he returned, went near Mr. 
 Vukashin and said : " Why should you not promise 
 me to keep the secret ? " 
 
 The Minister : " My refusal concerns only the 
 secrets of the State ; but if you have to tell me 
 something that does not concern the State and 
 public service, you may be sure that I will carry 
 it with me to the grave." 
 
 The King: "Very well. Now, listen to me. 
 You know, Vukashin, that I have had neither 
 childhood nor youth like other men. The eternal 
 quarrel between my parents made my life bitter, 
 undermined my health in general, and my nerves 
 more especially. Such a life killed in me every 
 sentiment. I have never had any ambition, not 
 even the ambition to reign as a King. I wear the 
 crown, not because I love it, but because it is my 
 duty to do so. You must have noticed that 
 yourself." 
 
 The Minister : "In what you say, Sire, is 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 137 
 
 certainly some truth, but as you have touched 
 upon delicate family relations I cannot say any- 
 thing about them." 
 
 The King : " Very well. Hear only what I 
 have further to say. You and your colleagues 
 have always pressed me to marry. I have now 
 decided to do what you have wished. Having 
 come to this decision, I found that none of the 
 great Sovereign Courts was willing to give me 
 one of their daughters for wife. No Princess 
 belonging to a great dynasty is willing to marry 
 me. Indeed, it would be foolish for anyone to give 
 up her fine life in her own country and exchange it 
 for the life in Servia. I am really not disposed to 
 marry a Princess belonging to a branch line and to 
 a little Court ; and, besides, such a marriage would 
 bring to our people no advantage. A foreign 
 Princess from a small Court would try to exercise 
 influence on the business of the State. That would 
 without fail cause dissatisfaction in the country, and 
 put me, personally, in a very awkward position. 
 Therefore, I have decided to marry a Servian, a 
 daughter of my own people. What do you say to 
 that, Vukashin ? " 
 
 The Minister : " Personally, Sire, I have no 
 aristocratic prejudices, and am more with the 
 democratic tendencies of our time. And, therefore 
 although for different reasons and not for those 
 you adduce I have nothing against the marriage 
 of your Majesty with a Servian, provided that she 
 is from a respectable house, well educated, young, 
 
138 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 at least five years younger than your Majesty, and 
 pure as an angel. Such a Queen could gain the 
 love of the people. Such a Queen the Servians 
 would really prefer to a foreign Princess, and your 
 Government would not oppose the wish of your 
 Majesty." 
 
 The King (rising up): "Yes, but all the diffi- 
 culty lies just therein, that there exists already a 
 woman, whom I love more than anyone or any- 
 thing in this world, the only woman with whom I can 
 be perfectly happy, and only then can I consecrate 
 my whole life to the interests of the people if she 
 becomes my wife. In the whole world there is 
 only one woman who can make me forget the 
 bitterness of my past life, and make me feel happy. 
 That woman has been hitherto my good angel, who 
 gave me strength to bear patiently all that I had to 
 bear." 
 
 The Minister : " And who is that woman, Sire ? " 
 
 The King: "That woman is Madame Draga, 
 the daughter of the late Panta Lunyevitza." 
 
 The Minister (in consternation) : " Draga 
 Mashin? . . . No, Sire, that cannot be that 
 ought not to be." 
 
 The King's eyes filled with tears, not of tender 
 emotion, but of rage. He took off his binocle, 
 rubbed it spasmodically with his handkerchief, 
 fixed them again on the bridge of his nose, 
 bit the ends of his moustache, jumped from his 
 seat, walked hurriedly about the room, sat down 
 again, and again jumped up and walked nervously 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 139 
 
 about. At last he stopped before the Minister, and 
 said 
 
 The King : " Are you my friend, Vukashin ?" 
 
 The Minister : " That I am, Sire." 
 
 The King : "If you are my friend, you ought 
 to help me to carry out my purpose. It cannot be 
 otherwise. From this my purpose I will not desist, 
 whatever may happen ; and he who tries to hinder 
 me is my enemy." 
 
 The Minister : " That being so, I lose no time 
 in declaring that I cease to be your Majesty's 
 Minister." 
 
 After some conversation between the King and 
 the Minister concerning the course which the King 
 might follow in forming a new Cabinet, the Minister, 
 according to his Diary, reverted to the communica- 
 tion the King had made to him. 
 
 The Minister : "I pray your Majesty most 
 graciously to forgive me if I say anything that a 
 Minister who has just resigned ought not to say. 
 It is hard for me to believe that you mean to marry 
 Madame Draga. Do you not see, Sire, that such a 
 step is nothing less than the suicide of the dynasty ? 
 Putting aside anything that could be said against 
 that lady, her known sterility would be quite suffi- 
 cient to prove what I have just said. But other 
 circumstances of the case ought not to be over- 
 looked. Madame Draga is much older than your- 
 self. She does not enjoy a good reputation 
 rightly or wrongly and as it often happens in 
 common life, a good mistress does not make always 
 
140 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 a good wife. The Pretender Peter Karageorgevich 
 would gain, in consequence of such a marriage, 
 much more than if he had distributed a million 
 napoleondors to the agitators against the Obreno- 
 vich Dynasty. You ought to know, Sire, that after 
 such a marriage not a single European Court will 
 receive you ; you will be boycotted by all the 
 Sovereigns in Europe. The entire intelligence of 
 the country will rebel against it, and will never be 
 reconciled to it. Not only your Majesty, but Servia 
 will lose the esteem which it now enjoys in the 
 world, and will soon become an object of irony and 
 contempt. Believe me, Sire, I would gladly sacri- 
 fice my life if I could but save you from this fatal 
 step " 
 
 The King (interrupting him) : " Hear me once 
 for all, Vukashin. I am inflexibly resolved to 
 marry Madame Draga. Don't insult me by attacks 
 on her. She is an honest and honourable woman ; 
 and only her enemies speak badly of her. The 
 difference in the ages is not so great. She is only 
 eight years older than I, and you know how often 
 such cases take place amongst our people. Of 
 course, I know that the enemies of our dynasty 
 will exploit this opportunity against us, as they 
 would any other. You say you speak to me as a 
 friend ; but you will allow me that I have my own 
 convictions. Your opinion is based on a hypothesis ; 
 my own is founded on facts and proofs." 
 
 After a silence of a few minutes the King con- 
 tinued 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 141 
 
 " I will give you at once the proof that Draga 
 is an honest and honourable woman. I made her 
 acquaintance in 1894. Her modesty, her wisdom, 
 her entire bearing pleased me much, and impressed 
 me deeply. I took every opportunity to approach 
 her. She persistently evaded me. When at last I 
 succeeded in entering her room, she protested most 
 energetically ; and when I declared to her that 
 without her I could not live, she simply took me by 
 the shoulders and pushed me her King outside. 
 I say that only an honest and honourable woman 
 could act thus. All the time she lived at Biarritz 
 she did not permit me to come near her. Much 
 later, after she came to Belgrade, and after she got 
 proofs that without her and her love I could not 
 live, has she sacrificed herself for me. Yes, I am 
 passionately in love with her, and without her I 
 cannot live ! " 
 
 The Minister, using cleverly the intimate con- 
 fessions which the King had just made to him, 
 suggested that he should at least adjourn his 
 marriage with Draga for a year, employing that 
 time to the restoration of his health. But the King 
 laughed with scorn at the cautious Minister's 
 suggestion. The Minister asked him if he had 
 informed his father, King Milan, of his decision. 
 
 " No," answered the King, "as yet I have not 
 told him anything. But there is now no power on 
 earth which could prevent my marrying Draga, 
 whatever the consequences may be! I would 
 prefer to give up my crown, and live with Draga 
 
142 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 on a revenue of 9000 francs (^360) a year, than 
 possess the crown and a Civil-list of 1,200,000 
 francs (,48,000). Whatever I had I have given 
 her. I gave her 500,000 francs that she should not 
 leave me. I knew that my marriage with her 
 would meet with extraordinary difficulties ; there- 
 fore, I have surrendered myself to her, body and 
 soul, and, therefore, I have made it impossible for 
 her to leave me. You ought to know that she per- 
 sistently refused to become Queen. I alone know 
 what difficulties I have had to gain her consent. 
 And now, after I have at last broken down her 
 resistance, you come and make difficulties ! Have 
 you no pity for me ? Do you wish to force me to 
 go away for ever ? Because you ought to be per- 
 fectly certain that, if I cannot marry Draga as King, 
 I will leave Servia for ever, and marry her as a 
 private individual." 
 
 The conversation was here broken off. He told 
 Vukashin that he would be engaged for an hour, but 
 that he (the Minister) must not leave the Palace 
 until his return. Practically he arrested the Minister. 
 
 The King went, accompanied by an Equerry, to 
 Draga's little house, and spent some time with her. 
 On his return to the Palace, he allowed the Premier 
 to leave ; but ordered him to come early next day 
 with all his colleagues. 
 
 He called then his private secretary, Dr. Voislav 
 Velykovich, and asked him to help him to write 
 a proclamation, in which he announced to the 
 people his engagement to Draga. Dr. Velykovich 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 143 
 
 refused, and then and there resigned his post. A 
 violent scene took place between them. At last 
 they came to a compromise ; the King accepted 
 the resignation of his private secretary. Dr. Vely- 
 kovich remained his old friend, and assisted the King 
 to compose his proclamation to the people of Servia. 
 
 The next day, Saturday, July 8th (2ist), all the 
 Ministers, at a Cabinet Council, wrote and signed 
 their collective resignations. In that document 
 they stated that, after all their efforts to decide his 
 Majesty to give up his fatal intention of marrying 
 Mme. Draga Mashin had been unsuccessful, there 
 remained nothing to them but to request his 
 Majesty to accept their resignations. 
 
 At the same time the Cabinet decided to take 
 an important step. The Minister of Public Works, 
 Colonel Borivoy, and the Minister for Home Affairs, 
 Genchich, were sent to Mme. Draga Mashin. In 
 the name of the Government they represented to 
 her that her marriage with the King would cause 
 the ruin of the dynasty, and be a great misfortune 
 to the country. They appealed to her love for the 
 King and the country, and begged her to do them 
 both a signal service by preventing that marriage, 
 and hinted ^that the country would liberally recom- 
 pense her for such a service. They asked her to 
 leave the country at once. I do not know if Mr. 
 Genchich told her that in the case of her refusal, 
 she would, that very morning, be forcibly carried 
 out of the country. 
 
 Mme. Draga listened to them with great calm- 
 
144 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 ness, and apparently agreed fully with their ideas. 
 She said she was ready to leave the country, but 
 she must have at least a few hours to pack up. 
 While her maid did this, she would hide herself in 
 the house of an intimate friend, where the King 
 could not discover her. And she left her house in 
 a carriage. 
 
 Draga proved herself a very able actress on that 
 occasion. She succeeded in misleading the Ministers 
 concerning her sincerity. If she had refused to 
 comply with their suggestion, she would have been 
 most probably carried away forcibly across the river 
 to Hungary. But she complied readily. At the 
 same time, to her younger brother, who put her in 
 the carriage, she whispered the name of the friend 
 to whom she was going. 
 
 Two hours later, King Alexander came to see 
 Draga. He got into a rage when he found that she 
 had left, and that no one in the house knew where 
 she had gone. Her brother professed ignorance, but 
 after some time, yielding to the pressing questions 
 of the enraged King, he confided to him his sister's 
 hiding-place. The King drove at once to the 
 house of Draga's friend, and brought her back to 
 her own home ; and then and there put on her 
 finger a beautiful diamond ring, declaring himself 
 formally engaged to her. 
 
 So failed miserably the only attempt of the 
 Government to frustrate the marriage of King 
 Alexander with Draga. 
 
 It is true they sent also the Minister of Educa- 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 145 
 
 tion and Church Affairs to the Archbishop of 
 Belgrade and the Metropolitan of Servia, to draw 
 his attention to the terrible consequences for the 
 dynasty, Servia, and for himself personally, if he 
 dared to give his blessing to such a marriage. But 
 the Archbishop Inokentiye was well known as the 
 most unreliable of men. He did try to persuade 
 the King to give it up, but soon perceived that all 
 his efforts were useless. 
 
 The Acting-Premier Vukashin states in his 
 Diary that he had one moment the idea to arrest the 
 King in the Palace, or to carry him forcibly out of 
 the country ! He asked the War Minister, General 
 Atanaskovich, if such a plan could be successfully 
 executed. The General answered that he could do 
 it, but that he would not, because such an act would 
 demoralise all discipline in the army. Naturally, 
 Mr. Vukashin had to give up his idea, and ask his 
 colleague to promise him never to mention it to 
 anyone. 
 
 King Alexander's proclamation, announcing to 
 the people his engagement with Draga Mashin, 
 created consternation among the true friends of 
 the Obrenovich Dynasty, and generally produced 
 the greatest impression and astonishment in the 
 country. 
 
 The most intimate friends of the King, who 
 had free access to the Palace, implored him to 
 desist from his fatal intention. The King refused 
 to receive most of them. Those whom he received 
 were told that, if they were really his friends, they 
 
 IO 
 
146 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 ought to help him to achieve the only desire of 
 his heart, to marry the only woman whom he 
 loved with all his heart and soul, and who alone 
 was able to make him happy. It was no use to 
 talk to him of consequences, he was ready to take 
 all the consequences ; and his determination to 
 marry Draga was unalterable and inflexible. 
 
 A deputation of influential citizens, most of 
 them well known as the dynasty's devoted friends, 
 asked for an audience, and were received. Led 
 by Michael Pavlovich and Marko Vuletich, they 
 frankly acquainted the King of most deplorable 
 impressions created everywhere by his engagement 
 to Draga Mashin. Some of them even hinted 
 that rumours were circulating concerning the 
 lady's reputation. The King warmly defended 
 his fiancee, assured them that he knew her to 
 be a perfectly honourable woman, that she was 
 his guardian-angel, that she was a true Servian 
 woman, and a great patriot, and that in the end, 
 whatever she was or is, she was the only woman 
 he loved, or could love ; and that he would rather 
 lose his throne and crown, yes, even his life, 
 than live without her love. The deputations 
 left the Palace deeply distressed. Some of them 
 thought the young King talked and behaved as 
 if he were bewitched. 
 
 The town was full of all sorts of rumours. 
 One of them was that the officers of the Belgrade 
 garrison, perfectly disgusted that their King should 
 marry his mistress, had decided to go together to 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 147 
 
 the Palace and ask the King either to give up 
 his mad intention, or abdicate in favour of his 
 father. 
 
 The difficulty of the situation was dangerously 
 complicated by the inability of the King to form 
 a new Cabinet. All the more important politicians, 
 well known as devoted friends of the dynasty, 
 refused to form a new Government. All the 
 public services seemed disorganised, and every- 
 thing was unsettled. The friends of the dynasty 
 expected every moment to hear that King Milan 
 had crossed the frontier to Servia, or that the 
 officers had forced the King either to give up 
 Draga or the throne. King Alexander never 
 vacillated for a moment in his determination, but 
 was physically nearly exhausted, and quite in 
 despair, when a telegram was brought to him. 
 His face brightened, he sighed deeply, as a man 
 who suddenly is relieved of a terribly oppressive 
 weight. Later in the day he received the Russian 
 Charge d' Affaires, Mansuroff. The official Gazette 
 brought, printed in thick letters, the following 
 Court communication : 
 
 "Belgrade, July 13, 1900. At the order of 
 his Imperial Majesty, Tzar Nicholas n., the 
 Imperial Russian Charge* d' Affaires, Monsieur 
 Paul Mansuroff, visited, to-day, his Majesty the 
 King, and, in the name of his exalted sovereign, 
 congratulated him on his engagement. Immedi- 
 ately after, the Charge" d'Affaires went to visit 
 the Serene fiance'e of the King, Madame Draga, 
 to express to her his good wishes.' 
 
148 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 The Russians had taken care throughout the 
 last fifty years to educate the poor Servians to 
 look on Russia as the Holy Orthodox country, 
 on the Tzar as the permanent protector, and the 
 only true friend of the Servian people. At the 
 bidding of Russia, the predominant political party, 
 the Radicals, did everything to embitter the life 
 of King Milan, and drive him from the throne. 
 At this critical moment for the dynasty and for 
 Servia, Russia gave a sign to her friends that 
 the marriage of King Alexander with Draga 
 Mashin should be accepted. All good Servians, 
 all good orthodox people, who had perhaps 
 hesitated, ought to follow the example of the 
 great friend of the Servians, the great orthodox 
 Tzar of all the Russias. Not only did he con- 
 gratulate King Alexander and his fiancee Draga, 
 but he formally accepted the sacred functions of 
 the " Koom " at their wedding. There was not 
 nor could any longer be the slightest doubt 
 that Russia, in the person of Tzar Nicholas IL, 
 highly approved of the marriage of King 
 Alexander with Draga Mashin. More than 
 that, the Tzar had accepted to be the principal 
 co-operator and co-officiator at the church 
 ceremony of the wedding. This was regarded 
 with disgust by those Servians who firmly believed 
 that the fatal marriage of Alexander with 
 Draga was entirely the work of Russia, which 
 thereby wanted to definitely close the door of 
 Servia to her hated enemy, Milan, even if she 
 
KING ALEXANDER 
 
 In the year of his marriage with Queen Draga 
 
ALEXANDER'S MARRIAGE 149 
 
 thereby should risk the ruin of the dynasty 
 Obrenovich. 
 
 About the same time, when the Tzar's demon- 
 stration in favour of Alexander's marriage with 
 Draga had broken the resistance of his true 
 friends, the Continental papers published the 
 following letter, written by poor King Milan, to 
 his beloved son : 
 
 " MY DEAR SON, With the best will to oblige 
 you, I cannot give my consent to the impossible 
 marriage for which you have decided. You ought 
 to know that, by doing what you intend, you are 
 pushing Servia into an abyss. Our dynasty has 
 sustained many a blow, and has continued to 
 live. But this blow would be so terrible that 
 the dynasty could never recover from it. You 
 have still time to think it over. If your decision 
 should really be, as you say, inflexible, then, 
 nothing remains for me but to pray to God for 
 our fatherland. I shall be the first to cheer the 
 Government which shall drive you from the 
 country, after such a folly on your part. Your 
 father, MILAN." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 KING ALEXANDER AND THE SERVIAN ARMY 
 
 KING ALEXANDER had no natural predisposition to 
 be a soldier, and he really never was a soldier. 
 Perhaps his short - sightedness, from which he 
 suffered from childhood, was the principal cause. In 
 his education they tried to instil in him the military 
 spirit. But with no success. He was a politician 
 and not a soldier. He disliked to wear the 
 uniform of an officer, and preferred to dress in 
 mufti. 
 
 King Milan was also far more a politician than 
 a soldier ; but he was aware of the essential import- 
 ance of the devotion of the army to the throne and 
 to the dynasty, and did everything to secure its 
 devotion and loyalty. As the Commander-in-Chief 
 he really did great things for the efficiency of the 
 army, and identified himself entirely with the 
 officers, and certainly was very popular with them. 
 King Alexander was never able to inspire con- 
 fidence and devotion. During the time King 
 Milan was at the head of the army it was loyal 
 to the dynasty ; but even though no officer showed 
 an enthusiastic devotion to King Alexander 
 
 150 
 
ALEXANDER AND THE SERVIAN ARMY 151 
 
 personally, he was neither exactly liked nor 
 disliked. 
 
 But since his marriage with Draga Mashin 
 King Alexander became decidedly unpopular with 
 the army. His marriage with a simple Servian 
 woman, who was well known to have been his 
 mistress for several years, and about whom all sorts 
 of scandalous stories were in circulation particularly 
 among the officers alienated from him even that 
 little sympathy and devotion which he possessed 
 in the army. His harsh and contemptuous treat- 
 ment of officers, who came to the Palace to implore 
 him to give up his intention of marrying Draga, 
 had offended many of them bitterly. And the 
 order which he gave to some of his Court officers, 
 as, for instance, to Colonel Kumrich, to fire on 
 his father Milan and kill him "as a mad dog," if he 
 should attempt to cross into Servia, filled them 
 almost all with amazement and horror. 
 
 About the relations of King Alexander to the 
 Servian Officers, Mr. Pera Todorovich has published 
 a very characteristic conversation which he had with 
 the King only a few months before the catastrophe. 
 The King wanted to hear from this devoted friend 
 of his father and his own who certainly had one 
 of the finest political intelligences among all the 
 politicians of Servia what he, with his great know- 
 ledge of the people, thought about the chances of 
 the Pretender Prince Peter Karageorgevich. After 
 some talk, King Alexander said that the impressions 
 which his friend received in the country, and his own 
 
152 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 personal convictions were, that Karageorgevich had 
 no chance as a really dangerous pretender to the 
 throne of Servia. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Sire," interrupted Mr. 
 Todorovich, "what I meant to say is this: 
 Karageorgevich has just as many chances as you 
 yourself give him! The success of his partisans 
 is dependent on your own want of success, their 
 progress on your losses, mistakes, and errors. 
 Whatever you neglect or give up they will cultivate 
 and try to win to their cause ; who you alienate 
 they will try at once to draw towards their pretender. 
 Owing to this, I have the greatest anxiety about 
 the army. Excuse me, your Majesty, do not take 
 it badly from me, nor be annoyed about what I am 
 going to say : you are neglecting the army, and 
 you have, in one sense, given it entirely up ! " 
 
 The King flushed and snorted. He did not 
 like it. Excitedly he said 
 
 " How have I given it up ? When, where, and 
 how have I neglected it? ... That is only an 
 artificial cry. Come here, and show me where I 
 have neglected the army." 
 
 " Wherein have you neglected it ? . . . I cannot 
 prove that better than by asking you to compare 
 your own treatment of the army with the manner 
 in which your father King Milan treated it. 
 Compare what he had done for the army,' with 
 what you have done, and you will then see clearly 
 the great difference." 
 
 " But what is wrong in my treatment of the 
 
ALEXANDER AND THE SERVIAN ARMY 153 
 
 army ? ... I do for the army all I can. I deprive 
 other branches of the public service of what is their 
 due, that the army should have more than enough. 
 If there are promotions, they are in the army ; 
 if there are decorations by orders and prizes, the 
 army has them ; and if the public treasury has 
 money or not, the army must have it. If I have 
 ever done or given anything to anyone it has been 
 to the army. And now you want me to do still 
 more. Tell me openly, express yourself clearly, 
 wherein you find fault with me. . . . You mention 
 to me King Milan. But King Milan was a clever 
 actor. I do not understand the art of playing a 
 studied part ; it is not in my nature." 
 
 He spoke with increasing agitation, and was 
 evidently getting angry. 
 
 Mr. Todorovich found himself in an awkward 
 position. He reproached the King for his neglect 
 of the army, and, when challenged to point out 
 wherein consisted his neglect, was unable at a 
 moment's notice to do so. He begged the King 
 to be calm and to remember that when his friends 
 criticised his conduct it was always with the loyal 
 intention to serve his best interests. He reminded 
 the King that somewhere in the Bible it is said 
 that man does not live by bread alone, but by 
 spirit, too. He ought to remember that in his 
 relations with the army. No doubt he took care 
 that his officers got promotion and that their salaries 
 were paid regularly ; but between him and his army 
 there was not that entente which existed between 
 
154 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 King Milan and the army. The King of Servia 
 and the Servian Army ought to be one body and 
 one soul. Closeted in his Palace, he communicates 
 with a limited number of higher officers, and the 
 great body of officers are kept at a considerable 
 distance from him. It seems to them that the 
 King has no personal interest in them, and they 
 lose every personal interest in the King. He then 
 mentioned that there were several officers who 
 complained that their lawful rights had been dis- 
 regarded, that they were badly and unjustly treated. 
 All such things provoke dissatisfaction, and, as a 
 devoted friend of the dynasty, he was alarmed when 
 he heard, positively asserted, that there was serious 
 dissatisfaction with the King in the army. 
 
 " Oh, I know well those malcontents in the 
 army ! " said the King bitterly. " They are mostly 
 younger officers, dissatisfied in consequence of their 
 private interests. But that is nothing extraordinary ; 
 it is really inevitable. In the great mass of officers 
 everywhere you will find officers with some failings. 
 In our army there are young officers who were 
 unable to pass successful examinations ; there are 
 men who prefer spending their time in playing cards 
 instead of in earnest studies ; there are others who 
 were the heroes of all sorts of adventures. Then 
 there are officers who have not been correct in the 
 execution of their official duties, and even some 
 who have been accused, if not convicted, of fraud. 
 Of course, all such men are dissatisfied. But how 
 can I help it? I should have liked, indeed, that 
 
ALEXANDER AND THE SERVIAN ARMY 155 
 
 all officers were satisfied. But among nearly two 
 thousands officers, is it an extraordinary phenomenon 
 that there are some who are not satisfied ? Only, 
 that dissatisfaction has not the meaning which you 
 attribute to it. You exaggerate its importance." 
 
 " In such matters it is more advisable to ex- 
 aggerate the danger than to minimise it," answered 
 Mr. Todorovich. " May God grant that I am 
 wrong. I do not like to disturb your Majesty, and 
 after all it is not my business to submit to you 
 reports about the temper among the officers. But, 
 believe me, Sire, there are certain proceedings in 
 the army which fill me with great anxiety. If you 
 only knew. ... If you only heard " 
 
 The King interrupted Mr. Todorovich, saying 
 ironically 
 
 " Ah, yes ! If I only heard how certain officers 
 abuse myself and the Queen, how they treat us with 
 bad words, and what menaces they utter against 
 us ! Do you really think that I do not know it ? 
 You are mistaken. I know it in all and in every 
 detail." 
 
 " For God's sake, Sire, why then do you treat 
 this state of things with such indifference ? Why 
 do you not call all those dissatisfied officers and 
 ask them to tell you frankly what is the matter ; 
 talk with them heartily and thoroughly, and when 
 you hear the causes of their dissatisfaction try to 
 remove the same, in order that those officers may 
 see that in you they have not only their Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, but their friend, their father ? " 
 
156 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 " How little do you know men ! " answered 
 King Alexander. " By acting as you suggest I 
 would only make matters worse. Those men do 
 not understand kindness and generosity. They 
 would interpret it as a proof that I am afraid of 
 them and that I wish to bribe them. But I will 
 find another solution to the difficulty. At present 
 I yet hesitate, simply out of consideration for the 
 public opinion in Europe, that it should not raise 
 the cry : * Look, there is a conspiracy in the 
 Servian Army ! ' But if the malcontents continue 
 their agitation, then I will quickly finish my account 
 with them." 
 
 He spoke with bitterness and with great 
 decision. He looked gloomy and agitated. He 
 rose up and gave his right hand to his friend. Mr. 
 Todorovich was deeply moved. He bowed over 
 the King's hand and kissed it. 
 
 " May God guide you, Sire, in all you do. Try 
 to do it kindly and peaceably. That is the best 
 way." 
 
QUEEN DRAGA 
 
 In the costume of the Servian Queens of the Middle Ages 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAGA 
 
 ABOUT a year before the catastrophe of i2th June 
 1903, a friend of King Alexander, Mr. Pera 
 Todorovich, commenced to publish in the serial of 
 his paper, Male Novine, a historic novel written 
 by himself, to which he gave the title " A Prophecy," 
 and which had for its foundation the prophecies of 
 the clairvoyant peasant, Mata of Kremna. We 
 refer our readers to the first chapter of this book. 
 
 The story had not progressed very far, when 
 King Alexander called Mr. Todorovich to the 
 Palace and asked him to stop the publication. The 
 editor defended himself, as he naturally desired to go 
 on with the story, which had already nearly doubled 
 the circulation of his paper, and which the public 
 bought rapidly and with ever increasing interest. 
 
 "You know," said King Alexander, "that we 
 have enemies, you know how they invent and spread 
 all sorts of mischievous stories concerning myself 
 and the Queen. And now you, who are our friend, 
 have found nothing better to do but to write about 
 a prophecy which is believed to forebode nothing 
 pleasant about us." 
 
 157 
 
158 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Mr. Todorovich argued that, after all, it was 
 better that he, a proved friend of the dynasty, should 
 continue the Kremna prophecy in a story ending 
 favourably for the dynasty, than that an enemy of 
 the dynasty should use it against the King. Be- 
 sides, he had a plot by which everything ended well. 
 
 " I do not see how you will be able to end it 
 well, when the prophecy says that my dynasty is 
 to perish. Now, tell me frankly, is not the end of 
 my dynasty foretold ? Is it not ? " 
 
 " Quite so, your Majesty ; but I will deal with 
 my story in such a way that everything will be 
 toned down, and end well," said the editor, anxious 
 to continue his very interesting serial. 
 
 The King interrupted him rather sharply : " Oh, 
 the devil, you will soften and give it a good end ! 
 ... It would have been far better if you had never 
 started that unfortunate story." 
 
 After a few moments of silence, he continued in 
 a somewhat quieter tone 
 
 " After all, as regards myself, I do not care so 
 much for your story ; but the Queen is very much 
 annoyed about it. You ought to go to her to ex- 
 plain and excuse yourself. She has a bad opinion 
 of that serial story of yours, and finds fault with 
 you. She spoke to me repeatedly about it. You 
 must go and see her." 
 
 Mr. Todorovich did not go at once to see the 
 Queen. He was ill, and engaged otherwise. 
 Several weeks later he was sufficiently well to ask 
 for an audience from the Queen. 
 
LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAG A 159 
 
 She received him standing, and remained so for 
 some time. 
 
 "To tell you frankly, Mr. Todorovich," began 
 Queen Draga, " I am angry with you. Formerly 
 I used to read your Male Novine with great pleasure 
 and enjoyment ; but now, whenever I take a fresh 
 number into my hands, I tremble with fear, lest I 
 find you discoursing on that cursed prophecy ! " 
 
 Surprised by such an unusual reception, Mr. 
 Todorovich did not know what to say, and was 
 silent. Queen Draga continued 
 
 " For myself personally, I do not care so much. 
 I have hardened my heart against all sorts of 
 annoying stories. But my heart bleeds for the 
 King. He worries about it very much indeed. I 
 am afraid he will be ill. Every day they fill his 
 head with all sorts of reports, so that he gets no 
 sleep. I am afraid the insomnia, from which he has 
 suffered now several months, will in the end kill 
 him." 
 
 " For God's sake, your Majesty," Mr. Todoro- 
 vich said at last, "is it possible that my story in 
 my paper renders the King sleepless ? " 
 
 " I do not say that exactly ; but only that your 
 story disturbs the sleep of the King. But your 
 serial, the rumours and reports, all disagreeable 
 and alarming, conspire together to disturb the King, 
 and to keep him awake. His nerves are so excited 
 that he cannot get even a short nap. How often 
 the dawn finds him fully awake, without having had 
 a moment of sleep. Only when it is full daylight 
 
160 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 does he get quieter, and falls asleep. But even 
 then his sleep is very disturbed." 
 
 " I beg pardon, your Majesty, most humbly," 
 answered Mr. Todorovich. " I had not the slightest 
 idea that my serial could possibly exercise such 
 an impression on the King. His Majesty even told 
 me that he did not care on his own account, but 
 that your Majesty was annoyed about it ; and he 
 ordered me to come and explain to you my object, 
 and to apologise if I had done wrong." 
 
 " Of course," said the Queen, with a sad smile, 
 " the King will not, either to you, or to anyone, 
 acknowledge that some things do annoy him very 
 much. You remember, for instance, that at the 
 time of his engagement with me, the King was 
 angry with you ; but I daresay you do not know 
 why. I will now tell you why. In the number of 
 your paper in which you announced our engagement, 
 and produced our portraits, immediately under them 
 you drew a black mourning line, with several black 
 crosses, and wrote quite a dirge on the death of 
 King Humberto of Italy, his assassination, and his 
 funeral. I thought it was carelessness, and bad 
 taste on your part, to put, immediately below our 
 portraits, the story of an assassination. But with 
 the King the matter was much worse. He hates to 
 hear anything about death. The moment anyone 
 mentions an assassination, or simply death, he 
 changes colour, shivers, and is terribly disturbed, as 
 some persons are when they suddenly see a snake. 
 It is not fear ; it is a sort of sickness ; it is his nature. 
 

 QUEEN DRAGA 
 
 In the costume of old Servian Queens 
 
LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAG A 161 
 
 I have tried to make him resist this sickly weakness, 
 but so far without success. ... Of course, I tell you 
 this in confidence, as our faithful and reliable friend." 
 
 Thereupon she sat down in an arm-chair, and 
 asked him to take a chair near her. 
 
 "Yes," continued the Queen, "because I knew 
 you to be a devoted friend of the King, I have 
 defended you when the King was very angry, 
 believing that you intentionally surrounded our 
 portraits with crosses and a funeral dirge, dealing with 
 death, assassinations, blood, and a catastrophe ! " 
 
 A conversation followed, concerning the opposi- 
 tion which Mr. Todorovich, and many other friends, 
 made to the King's marriage with Draga. She 
 told him that she knew well his attitude towards her 
 at that time ; but she considered him now as not 
 only the King's, but her own friend too. 
 
 " Because I consider you to be a faithful and true 
 friend, I tell you the whole truth. The King will 
 never acknowledge to anyone that he is annoyed 
 and disturbed, because it may seem that he is afraid 
 of something. But in truth he is really disturbed 
 and very anxious, and, therefore, the duty of all his 
 friends is to do what they can for his security and 
 for his peace. I am sure you will do so, and, 
 therefore I hope you will stop further publication 
 of ' A Prophecy ' in your serial." 
 
 " I will do so, your Majesty," answered Mr. 
 Todorovich, " but I cannot understand what there 
 is in the serial so alarming for you." 
 
 "Ah! we are not worried at all by what has 
 ii 
 
162 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 appeared," said the Queen, quite lively; "but with 
 what is coming ! The King is afraid that the * Black 
 Prophecy ' will be published, and I am annoyed that 
 you write about it, just at the moment when we 
 receive warnings and menaces, and when so many 
 of our enemies wish us all sorts of evil." 
 
 " My object in writing the story," said Mr. 
 Todorovich, " was, indeed, to soften what you call 
 1 The Black Prophecy,' to put it in such a form as 
 would prevent the gloomy impression which it 
 otherwise must produce among the people. I spoke 
 to the King about it." 
 
 The Queen asked Mr. Todorovich, would it be 
 possible to tone down the prophecy? She had 
 heard several versions, and would like to hear what 
 Mr. Todorovich knew about it. 
 
 Mr. Todorovich asked the Queen if she had 
 read what Mr. Ch. Mijatovich had written about it 
 in the Male Novine, as that was the best report as 
 yet published. 
 
 4 'Yes, I have read it," said the Queen; " but 
 Mr. Mijatovich broke off his report at a point when 
 it would have been more interesting to us. He 
 stopped at the ascension of King Alexander to 
 the throne ; and we are, of course, more interested 
 to learn what had been foretold concerning us 
 personally ; what will happen to us, and what will 
 come after us ! Therefore, I should like you to tell 
 me all you know about it. But please do not 
 ' soften ' anything, do not hide anything from me. 
 Tell me all." 
 
LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAG A 163 
 
 This is now the story of the Black Prophecy, 
 as told Queen Draga by Mr. Pera Todorovich 
 
 " In the village Kremna, in the district of 
 Ujitza, lived in the last century a man, by name 
 Mata. His village and the neighbourhood 
 considered him somewhat strange, perhaps mentally 
 deranged, although absolutely a quiet and inoffen- 
 sive man. 
 
 "On 28th May, Old Style (gth June, New 
 Style), 1868, he came to the town of Ujitza, as 
 he often used to do. But on that day, in the 
 afternoon, he took up a position in the centre of the 
 principal business street, and called out excitedly 
 
 "'Oh, men! ... Oh, brethren! For Gods 
 sake, help, help ! they are killing our ruler. They 
 are killing our Prince ! Do not let them ! For 
 God's sake, help ! Look, they are slashing him 
 with their yatagans [long Turkish knives]. Oh, 
 oh, look, look! Blood! Oh, how horrible! How 
 terrible ! Blood ! Blood ! Oh, woe to us ! ... 
 Our Prince Michael is murdered ! ' 
 
 Here Queen Draga shuddered visibly. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Todorovich ! " she said, " indeed 
 it is terrible. What must that poor man have 
 felt, when, in his madness, he thought he saw 
 that terrible scene ? " 
 
 Mr. Todorovich continued 
 
 " A great crowd gathered around him, and 
 asked what was the matter, and why he shouted 
 so. He told them that he had just witnessed the 
 assassination of the Prince. 
 
164 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 " The police came. They first censured and 
 reproved sharply the 'madman,' for having caused 
 an obstruction in the street, and finally arrested 
 him for ' Having spread false and alarming news 
 about the Sovereign.' 
 
 "Next day (29th May, Old Style xoth June, 
 New Style), in the evening, an official telegram 
 arrived from Belgrade, confirming the assassina- 
 tion of Prince Michael Obrenovich, in the 
 Koshootnyak (the Deer Park), near Belgrade. 
 At first the police suspected that Mata was in 
 the conspiracy, but they soon arrived at the con- 
 clusion that it was impossible, and they let him 
 go free. 
 
 " While the police had put to him several 
 questions, to elucidate the matter, Mata told them 
 some of his visions, of which several had been 
 already fulfilled ; and I believe that others will not 
 be fulfilled if God is the ruler of our destinies 
 and not Satan." 
 
 The Queen listened, evidently deeply moved. 
 She was pale, and looked exceedingly sad. With 
 a low and somewhat shaky voice, she said 
 
 " Please, I pray you, continue. What has he 
 told them about future events ? " 
 
 "Well, your Majesty, the man was later on 
 brought to Belgrade. He was subjected to all 
 sorts of questions at the Home Office, where his 
 statements were put down on paper. King Milan 
 himself had a talk with him. So far as I have 
 been informed, this is what he said : ' Prince 
 
LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAGA 165 
 
 Michael will be assassinated, and he will be suc- 
 ceeded by a relative, who will be to a certain 
 extent a torment for the country ; he will gain a 
 Royal crown, and under his reign the country will 
 be enlarged and strengthened. He will be a 
 King, but will have many misfortunes. He will 
 die in the prime of life. ... He will have an 
 only son, who will be still more unfortunate, dying 
 very young, indeed, before his thirtieth year.' ' 
 
 The Queen sighed deeply. 
 
 "O God! Is it possible? Before his 
 thirtieth year? Oh, Mr. Todorovich, has the 
 man really said so ? " 
 
 "Your Majesty has ordered me to tell all 
 and everything, and hide nothing," answered Mr. 
 Todorovich. 
 
 " Oh yes. Please go on." 
 
 " ' He will die young, and with him his candle 
 will be blown out ! ' ] 
 
 The Queen interrupted Mr. Todorovich, by 
 asking what he meant by "his candle will be 
 blown out." 
 
 " I think," answered Mr. Todorovich, "he meant 
 that the candle which we light and keep burning 
 on the Saint Patrons days of our families will 
 burn no longer. In other words, the house of 
 Obrenovich will cease to exist ! " 
 
 " Terrible ! " and the Queen again shuddered, 
 and looked most unhappy. " But please go on." 
 
 "'And after his candle shall be blown out, 
 another house will come to reign in Servia. But 
 
166 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 not for long. Internal struggles and bloodshed, 
 revolts and conflicts will take place, which will 
 cause a foreign army to enter into and occupy 
 Servia. That foreign Power will subject the 
 Servian people to great oppression. There will 
 come such sad and hard times that those who are 
 living, when they pass a churchyard, will say: 
 " Oh, graves, open, that we may lie down and 
 rest. Oh, how happy you are who have died, 
 and are saved from our troubles, misfortunes and 
 shame ! " But after many years of great sufferings, 
 a man will appear in the midst of the nation, 
 will raise it up, and lead it against the foreign 
 oppressors ; and will succeed in liberating and 
 uniting all the Servians into one and the same 
 free and independent State. Then will commence 
 an epoch of contented and happy life, so much 
 so, that people passing the churchyards will say 
 to those who are dead : " Rise up, dead ones, to 
 see what a happy life we live now." 
 
 There Mr. Todorovich stopped his story of 
 the " Black Prophecy." Queen Draga sat in her 
 arm-chair, pale, sad, lost in thought, staring at a 
 point of the soft carpet of the room. It seemed 
 as if she had been turned into a statue. 
 
 After some time spent in silence, which her 
 friend dared not interrupt, she raised her head, 
 stared straight at Mr. Todorovich for some time, 
 then, with a deep sigh, she whispered 
 
 "A terrible prophecy! . . . Simply horrible! 
 ... He will die before his thirtieth year, and 
 
LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAG A 167 
 
 he is now in his twenty-seventh year! He has, 
 then, only three years to live ! Oh, can it be 
 true?" 
 
 She then bent her head low, covered her face 
 with both hands, and apparently wept. 
 
 Mr. Todorovich pitied her. Deeply moved 
 and silent, he tried to think of something that 
 could give her some consolation. But he other- 
 wise one of the most intelligent and clever men 
 could not hit upon anything. Then he re- 
 membered yet one or two details from the 
 "Black Prophecy." 
 
 "Your Majesty, there is yet something that 
 should interest you," he said. 
 
 "Yet something?" asked the Queen, raising 
 her head; "what is it?" 
 
 " It is this," continued Mr. Todorovich. "The 
 prophet added that the man who will appear in 
 the midst of the people to lead them to liberty 
 and independence, will be in some way a descend- 
 ant of the Obrenovich Dynasty. He used a figure 
 to explain himself. 'It will be,' he said, 'as if a 
 mighty oak tree has been cut quite near the 
 ground, but after some time, and suddenly from 
 its roots, spreading under the ground, a new 
 branch, at some distance from the original oak, 
 pushes up through the earth, and grows to be a 
 new oak tree.' ' 
 
 The Queen sadly shook her head. 
 
 " Very little consolation for us in that, dear 
 Mr. Todorovich." 
 
168 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Mr. Todorovich continued 
 
 "It is strange that this extraordinary peasant 
 has foretold not only the increase of Servia's 
 territory, but even the invention of the telephone." 
 
 " Indeed!" said the Queen, visibly surprised. 
 " I have not heard that mentioned by anyone." 
 
 4 'Yes, indeed! In his depositions, which have 
 been written down by a secretary, he said among 
 other things : ' The King, sitting in Belgrade, 
 will converse with the Prefects of Ujitza, 
 Negotin, Losnitza, Nish, Pirot, Vranya!' The 
 official, who was writing down his statements, 
 looked at him, surprised, and said : ' Nish, 
 Pirot, Vranya, are not in Servia, but in Turkey ! ' 
 ' They are now in Turkey, but then they will be 
 in Servia,' answered the peasant. 'And you 
 probably mean the King will communicate with 
 his Prefects by telegraph ? ' asked the official. 
 4 No, no,' said the prophet ; ' not by telegraph, 
 but they, although at great distance, will talk in 
 their own voice, just so as we two talk, and hear 
 each other.' 'That is impossible!' exclaimed the 
 official. ' Now it is impossible ; but then it will 
 be quite possible, and the people will be able to 
 talk with each other at great distances.' ' 
 
 " It is extraordinary," said the Queen. " That 
 detail I have not known. It makes me only more 
 unhappy, because, when this man was able to fore- 
 tell so exactly the accession of new territories to 
 Servia, and even the invention of the telephone, 
 why, then, should he be wrong on other points ? 
 
LAST INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN DRAGA 169 
 
 But . . . after all there is one important question : 
 Is it really true that such a man did exist, and that 
 he really said all those things which he is now 
 reported to have said ? You know what happens 
 in our days, and in everyday life ; someone says 
 only one word, and by the evening he is reported 
 to have said ten." 
 
 "That is quite possible, your Majesty," said 
 Mr. Todorovich. " Let us hope that he is not 
 correctly reported, at least in that part concerning 
 the King, and that even if he had been correctly 
 reported his statements concerning the King shall, 
 by God's mercy, not be fulfilled. But concerning 
 the authenticity of his prophecy I have heard 
 that, in the Home Office, or at the Foreign Office, 
 the official acts are kept in two special bundles ; and 
 that on one occasion, at the order of the King 
 Milan, they were brought here to the Palace for his 
 perusal." 
 
 The Queen said that she would try and get 
 those papers, to see them for herself ; but that she 
 must do it without the knowledge of the King, 
 because he would be still more disturbed if he were 
 to read the prophet's statements from the original 
 depositions. 
 
 Then, as suddenly she remembered something, 
 she said 
 
 " But, Mr. Todorovich, you never mentioned 
 if there is anything about me personally in that 
 1 Black Prophecy.' Yet some people have told me 
 that there is." 
 
170 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 " So far as I know, your Majesty, the clairvoyant 
 of Kremna said only that : ' The King will marry a 
 Servian lady, his own subject, and that she will 
 share with him his destiny.' ' 
 
 " Oh, my God ! What I am praying for is to 
 share with him his destiny! It seems to me the 
 poison would be sweet to me if only I could drink 
 it with him ! " 
 
 After yet some conversation concerning the 
 possibility of foreseeing events so long a time before 
 they happened, and after his advice that she should 
 order that all the official papers concerning the 
 "Black Prophecy " should be brought to her, Mr. 
 Todorovich took leave from the unhappy Queen. 
 
 Neither Queen Draga nor the devoted friend of 
 the dynasty, Mr. Todorovich, had the slightest fore- 
 boding that the fulfilment of the " Black Prophecy " 
 was so imminent. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY 
 
 SOME fifteen years ago I made the acquaintance of 
 a young and able ex-officer of a great Continental 
 army. I cannot publish his name, but will call him 
 4 'Count Y." He was very restless, very active, 
 and energetic. He delighted in political intrigue, 
 and was really a born amateur detective. He was 
 a member of several secret societies, and was in 
 touch with the Russian Nihilists, the Bulgarian 
 Committadjis, the Albanian Ligueists, the German 
 Socialists, and the Paris Anarchists. 
 
 One of his sweethearts was nothing more than 
 a maid in the service of the Royal family of Italy ; 
 another of his sweethearts was a nurse in the 
 Russian Embassy to France, and he corresponded 
 with them. At the same time, in Paris, London, 
 and Vienna, he had access to the best circles of 
 society. 
 
 He was quite a psychological and political 
 puzzle, and I became highly interested in him. He 
 had great confidence in me, and often told me 
 things which looked very much like State secrets, 
 or, at least, like secrets of the various secret societies. 
 
 171 
 
172 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 His stories were not always confirmed by facts, but 
 often they were. 
 
 In the summer of the year 1901 he communi- 
 cated to me in some detail how two of the Great 
 Powers were working to send away King Alex- 
 ander, and to replace him on the throne by Prince 
 Peter Karageorgevich. I could not believe the 
 story, and did not report it to Belgrade. 
 
 In the summer, 1902, he met me by chance in 
 the British Museum, and told me that the agents of 
 a certain Power had approached three influential 
 Servian officers during their cure at Carlsbad that 
 summer, with the suggestion to join in a military 
 pronunciamento against King Alexander. The 
 officers refused to enter into ; the conspiracy, but 
 promised not to allow the soldiers to fire on the 
 people if they should revolt against the King. I 
 reported to King Alexander in a private letter what 
 I had been told, and by whom, advising him at the 
 same time not to attach too much importance to the 
 communication. 
 
 In the autumn of 1902 that gentleman made a 
 special appointment to meet me in town (he lived 
 then out of town), and communicated to me that 
 certain papers had been exchanged between a 
 certain pretender and a certain Great Power, and 
 that, according to his information, the doom of 
 King Alexander was sealed. I personally could 
 hardly believe it ; but I still considered it my duty 
 to make a report to King Alexander. 
 
 In the very beginning of 1903 my informant 
 
THE CONSPIRACY 173 
 
 came to the Servian Legation to tell me that one of 
 the plans (there being several plans) of the con- 
 spirators was to organise a public meeting, so that 
 the crowd would go en masse apparently with loyal 
 intentions past the Palace, then rush into the Palace, 
 overwhelm the guards, and assassinate King 
 Alexander. Again I communicated to the King 
 what I had heard, advising him to take precautionary 
 measures, although this particular communication 
 might not have any real foundation. 
 
 In the light of subsequent events, my informant 
 was evidently far better informed than I could have 
 ever credited him. 
 
 In the light of those events, certain impressions 
 which I received in Vienna in the first days of 
 January 1902, had quite a peculiar significance. 
 Travelling from Belgrade to the Tyrol, I stopped a 
 few days in Vienna, and saw some of the most 
 influential personages of the Austrian political 
 circles. I was not surprised to learn that they had 
 been disgusted by the conduct of King Alexander 
 on the question of his marriage. But I was struck 
 by certain impressions, which led me to suspect that 
 the question of replacing King Alexander by Prince 
 Peter Karageorgevich was completely arranged 
 between Russia and Austria. I was plainly told 
 that Austria could never more believe the word of 
 Alexander, and that if the Servians were to choose 
 Peter Karageorgevich to-morrow for their King, or 
 anyone else, excepting the Prince of Montenegro, 
 Austria would acknowledge the free choice of the 
 
174 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Servian people. Of course, I do not mean to 
 insinuate that Austria and Russia knew, and much 
 less that they approved, the methods by which the 
 Servian conspirators proposed to make the change 
 on the Servian throne. But already, towards th 
 end of 1901, they must have come to an under- 
 standing concerning the possible, or even probable, 
 change on the throne of Servia. 
 
 Queen Draga, in the last interview which Mr. 
 Todorovich had with her, not many days before 
 her assassination, told the King's friend that both 
 she and the King had received for some time 
 information that a conspiracy against them was in 
 preparation, and that many officers, especially young 
 ones, had entered into it. Some of these com- 
 munications were made by anonymous letters, 
 others confidentially in a personal interview. 
 Some of the informers asserted that the conspiracy 
 had been organised and was directed from abroad, 
 others that it had started spontaneously with a 
 certain group of officers. The Queen had the 
 impression that the conspiracy was organised by 
 someone outside Servia, who seemed to be an 
 experienced conspirator. To the young officers 
 drawn into the conspiracy it had been cleverly 
 suggested that they would act as patriots and 
 heroes if they were to deliver the country from 
 such an unworthy King and Queen. 
 
 It seems the conspiracy was definitely organised 
 shortly after the return of Colonel Mashin from 
 Russia, in the autumn of 1902. The Colonel 
 
THE CONSPIRACY 175 
 
 placed himself at its head, taking as his principal 
 coadjutors Lieutenant-Colonel Damyan Popovich 
 and Lieutenant-Colonel Mishich. These three 
 superior officers were in secret communication 
 with another body, composed of civilians, enemies 
 for personal reasons of Alexander and Draga, or 
 inveterate enemies of the Obrenovich Dynasty, 
 like Lyuba Zivkovich, Stoyan Protich, Atza 
 Stanoyevich, Nicola Hadji-Thoma. At the head 
 of this civilian body of conspirators was Mr. 
 Genchich, formerly the Home Minister of King 
 Alexander, but who, after the marriage of the King 
 with Draga, was condemned, for an open letter to 
 the King, in which he criticised his conduct, to 
 seven years' imprisonment, although he was re- 
 leased in the second year of his confinement. 
 Their object was not only to annihilate the 
 Obrenovich Dynasty, but to put on the throne the 
 Karageorgevich Dynasty. 
 
 Once decided to murder King Alexander and 
 Queen Draga, the only question that remained was 
 when and where to do it. 
 
 I do not know if the incidents of the 6th (i9th) 
 March 1903 had anything to do with the attempt 
 to kill the Royal couple. A meeting of shop 
 assistants and students was arranged to take place, 
 to protest against certain police measures concern- 
 ing shop assistants. Somebody suggested that the 
 whole meeting should proceed to pass the Royal 
 Palace. A great crowd moved through the 
 principal streets towards the Palace. But thirty 
 
176 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 yards from the Palace the crowd was stopped by 
 the police, and when it refused to disperse was 
 fired on ! According to the official reports only a 
 few people were killed and wounded. The opposi- 
 tion papers again exaggerated the number. I say 
 I do not know if those incidents have not been a 
 cover for a planned attack on the Palace and the 
 Royal couple. They looked, in some respects at 
 least, very much like the plan which was com- 
 municated to me by Count Y. only two months 
 before. 
 
 But there seems to be no doubt that Palm 
 Sunday, 6th (iQth) April, was really selected for the 
 execution of the murderous attack on the Royal 
 couple. Under the reign of the Obrenovichs Palm 
 Sunday was a national fete day, in commemoration 
 of the second and successful rising of the Servians 
 under Milosh Obrenovich against the Turks. To 
 the church ceremony in the Cathedral in Belgrade 
 was added, since 1868, a short religious and 
 military ceremony in the Citadel of Belgrade, in 
 commemoration of the delivery of that fortress by 
 the Turks to Prince Michael Obrenovich on the 
 Palm Sunday of 1867. In the Citadel a kiosk was 
 raised, in which every year a Te Deiim was sung 
 in the presence of the King, State dignitaries, 
 officers, citizens, and a part of the Belgrade 
 garrison. According to what the Queen told Mr. 
 Todorovich, a day or two before Palm Sunday 
 the King received information that fifteen young 
 officers had sworn to surround him on that day in 
 
THE CONSPIRACY 1*7 7 
 
 the kiosk in the fortress, and to cut him and the 
 Queen to pieces with their swords. The kiosk 
 would have to be surrounded on all four sides by 
 the soldiers under the command of officers taking 
 part in the conspiracy. In consequence of this 
 information the King and Queen did not go either 
 to the Cathedral or to the fortress. As it happened 
 to be raining that day, the official and semi-official 
 papers explained that the Royal couple could not 
 attend the Palm Sunday celebration on account of 
 the bad weather. 
 
 Shortly afterwards the foundation stone of the 
 Home of Arts in Belgrade was to be laid, and the 
 King and the Queen were to perform the ceremony, 
 to which they both looked forward with pleasure. 
 But they received, just in time, a communication 
 that certain officers had decided to murder them ! 
 The communication came from a man who received 
 full credence. The King and the Queen at the 
 last moment gave up going to the ceremony, and 
 in that way frustrated the second plan of the 
 conspirators. 
 
 The Queen told Mr. Todorovich that the 
 conspirators intended to murder them one evening 
 while they were in the circus ; but at the last 
 moment they gave the intention up, finding that 
 very many gendarmes were placed around the 
 circus who would fire on them, and, as the circus 
 was always full, many innocent people would be 
 sacrificed. 
 
 Adjoining the southern carriage road, by which 
 
 12 
 
178 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 the carriages generally leave the Palace, is a large 
 building, of which the first ground floor is occupied 
 by the Home Office, and the first floor by the 
 Foreign Office. The principal salon of the latter 
 has a balcony, which is walled in, but cut at short 
 intervals, just as if it was prepared for fighting, or 
 firing down on the principal, but comparatively 
 narrow, road. The King and the Queen cannot 
 go out or drive from the Palace without passing 
 that building. The conspirators thought that the 
 balcony of the Foreign Office formed an excellent 
 ambush, from which to fire on the King and the 
 Queen. Four of them had been selected by lot. 
 A servant of the Foreign Office was approached 
 with a heavy bribe, to take in secretly their 
 rifles, and allow them to hide themselves on the 
 balcony. But again one of the conspirators had 
 pity on the young King, and sent him information 
 anonymously. The leaders of the conspiracy were, 
 on the other hand, informed by someone in the 
 Palace that suspicious orders had been given 
 to the police to watch the balcony. They at once 
 recognised that the plan was betrayed, and gave 
 it up. 
 
 It was evident not only that a conspiracy was 
 in permanent existence, but that the conspirators 
 were determined to murder the King and Queen. 
 Since the beginning of the year 1903 they lived 
 like two persons condemned to death, expecting 
 every moment to see the executioners enter their 
 cells. They had no peace, no rest ; they were in 
 
THE CONSPIRACY 179 
 
 a permanent nervous excitement, which ended by 
 a general prostration. Never in the history of the 
 world have a King and Queen undergone more 
 terrible penalty ; during, at least, the last five 
 months of their life, they suffered as if they had 
 been stretched and tortured on a rack. 
 
 When Queen Draga confided all this suffering 
 to the faithful and sympathetic Todorovich, this 
 friend of the dynasty exclaimed 
 
 " But if all those informations which the King 
 received were true, then the situation is simply 
 horrible ! " 
 
 " Of course it is horrible !" said the Queen. 
 " But there is something that wears us and exhausts 
 our strength more than the danger it is the un- 
 certainty. You just said yourself, 'If all those 
 informations were true ! ' That is just what tor- 
 ments the King more than anything else. We 
 have asked ourselves all these months : ' Can it be 
 true? Is it possible that the Servian officers 
 thirst for the blood of their King and Queen ? ' 
 This uncertainty paralyses the King's usual energy 
 and decisiveness, and cripples his action. When we 
 consult our devoted friends about it, we find that 
 everyone has some special opinion of the matter. 
 Some friends come and exclaim in great alarm : 
 ' For God's sake, why are you waiting ? Do you 
 not see that you are in imminent danger of your 
 lives ? ' A few days since a friend came to tell 
 us how, in the circle of the conspirators, someone 
 drew attention to the fact that of late the King 
 
180 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 hardly ever left the Palace, whereupon some of 
 them remarked : ' Yes, the bear has withdrawn 
 into his cave ; but we will go and find him there. 
 . . .' We had such a case as this. A young 
 officer came and insisted to see the King privately. 
 Admitted into the King's presence, he, in the 
 greatest agitation, trembling and shaking, con- 
 fessed that he was one of the conspirators, that he 
 had given his word of honour to his comrades not 
 to separate himself from them ; but, overwhelmed 
 with irresistible pity for the youth of the King, he 
 came to implore him to try to save himself. But 
 then, General Milovan (the Minister of War), 
 and General Tzintzar - Markovich (the Premier), 
 characterised the story of the young officer as an 
 invention, as a speculation to get promotion, and 
 such like. They were sure that the young man 
 had not understood what his superior officer had 
 told him. They even suggested that he ought to 
 be punished for spreading false news, and alarming 
 the King. Especially General Tzintzar- Markovich 
 and he ought to know assured the King that 
 it is simply impossible that any officer conspired 
 against the King. 
 
 " I do not wish to mention any names. But to 
 show you what confusion prevails in the Palace and 
 around us, I will tell you one thing. You know 
 that Lieutenant - Colonel Mika Naoumovich is 
 among all the equerries at the Court the greatest 
 favourite of the King. If the King could take off 
 his own head, he would trust it to the keeping of 
 
THE CONSPIRACY 181 
 
 his faithful Mika. You know probably that Mika 
 and Boza (the Prefect of the Police) are chums 
 and bosom friends. Well, Boza told the King that 
 he had reasons to suspect the loyalty of his friend 
 Mika, and implored the King to send him away 
 from the Palace. But the first Aide-de-Camp, 
 General Laza, and the Premier, General Tzintzar- 
 Markovich, laughed at the suspicion as simply 
 ludicrous. Now, what is the poor King to do, 
 when his most trusted friends give him totally 
 opposite advice ? 
 
 "Yes," continued the Queen; "some of our 
 best friends come to the King and say : ' Why are 
 you waiting ? Do you not see clearly the nest of 
 the conspiring snakes ? ' The moment the King 
 prepares to act, other not less faithful and trusted 
 friends rush in : * For God's sake, Sire, don't ! 
 You will strike innocent men, and then you will 
 provoke a terrible misfortune.' Some cry : ' Don't 
 wait ! ' Others again : ' Do wait ! ' The King 
 gets perplexed. One day he follows the advice of 
 one group of friends, and several suspected officers 
 have been arrested. The next day he listens to 
 the other group, and then orders the release of the 
 arrested officers. Such a procedure has spoilt 
 everything, and taught the conspirators to be more 
 careful. The faithful and loyal officers are now 
 systematically avoided by the conspirators, and 
 they themselves (the loyal officers), having seen 
 that by their loyalty to their King they have only 
 succeeded in compromising themselves with their 
 
182 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 comrades, find it better to be silent. As I men- 
 tioned, this uncertainty, this confusion, this 
 perplexity, is quite a curse to us. It prevents the 
 King having rest and sleep. 
 
 "The King himself," continued the Queen, "is 
 sometimes cheerful ; but of late that is less and less 
 frequent. There are days and nights in which he 
 is overwhelmed by sadness, anxiety, and something 
 like fear. Some nights he sits in his working room 
 the whole night, lost in deep thought. I go to him, 
 and try to cheer him up, and to induce him to go 
 to bed. But it is no use. Often, in the morning, 
 I find him sitting, fully dressed, in his arm-chair. 
 Sometimes he comes to my bedroom, draws a chair 
 near the bed, takes my hand in his, and sits pale 
 and silent for a long time. One night he came to 
 me just when I was beginning to doze. He took 
 my hand in his, kissed it, and said with a very, 
 very sad voice: * Queen of Servia, whom hatest 
 thou?' 'What do you mean, Sasha?' 'Whom 
 hatest thou, Queen of Servia ? ' ' Oh, my dear 
 Sasha, what is the matter with you ? Why should 
 I hate anyone ? I do not hate anyone ! ' ' Nor do 
 I hate anyone. And yet we are hated! And 
 hated just by those to whom we have done so 
 many kindnesses. And why do they hate me? 
 Is it because I am the son of a King, and King 
 myself, and not the son of a fisherman, born in a 
 hut somewhere on the Danube ? But if my King- 
 ship is my crime, what have you done to them, 
 you a weak woman ? ' He was pale, his hands 
 
THE CONSPIRACY 183 
 
 were cold as ice, and tears were rolling down 
 his face." 
 
 This was the last interview of Queen Draga 
 with a journalist, who was, at the same time, an 
 intimate friend. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE ASSASSINATION 
 
 JUNE loth, 1903, was a sunny and a very sultry day 
 in Belgrade. 
 
 A distinguished friend of mine went, about 
 1 1 o'clock in the morning, to the Palace to see the 
 King. At that hour a company of King's Own 
 Guardsmen all picked and handsome young men 
 under the command of Captain Panayotovich, 
 was marching with drums and bugles into the 
 Courtyard of the Old Palace, to replace a company 
 of infantry which was doing the duties of the Palace 
 guard since the previous day. 
 
 Captain Panayotovich had the reputation of an 
 excellent and brave officer, devoted with absolute 
 loyalty to his duty and to his King. 
 
 My friend went to the waiting-room of the Old 
 Palace. The equerry doing duty on that day was 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Michael (otherwise called Mika) 
 Naoumovich. His father was well known as a 
 devoted partisan of Karageorgevich, but Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Michael Naoumovich was considered as 
 entirely devoted to the Obrenovich Dynasty. King 
 Milan patronised him very much, and King Alex- 
 
 184 
 
COLONEL ALEXANDER MASHIN 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 185 
 
 ander not only took him for one of his equerries, but 
 repeatedly saved him from awkward situations, and 
 paid his debts. Only a few days before, King 
 Alexander gave him 20,000 dinars (^800) to pay off 
 his latest debts. As an officer he was reputed to 
 be an able commander ; but as a man he was of 
 dissolute habits, a gambler and heavy drinker. At 
 that very moment he was a traitor to his King and 
 benefactor. When my friend entered the small 
 waiting-room he found Naoumovich's big and 
 heavy form seemingly quite collapsed in an arm- 
 chair. 
 
 He rose up slowly, with evident effort, to greet 
 my friend. He was quite yellow, evidently 
 depressed, and in bad spirits. In violation of the 
 regulations, he came unshaved that day to his duty 
 in the Palace. My friend thought he looked as if 
 he had spent the previous night in debauchery, and 
 had left home without washing his face. He 
 seemed somewhat dazed and troubled. 
 
 " What is the matter with you, Colonel ? " asked 
 my friend. 
 
 " I am ill, very ill," he answered. " I am 
 suffering from a fever, which I am trying to drive 
 away by strong cognac. Shall we take a glass 
 together ? " 
 
 He knew what was going to happen that night. 
 He knew that that was to be the last day of the 
 King, who had been always kind to him, to whom 
 he had sworn to be faithful, and whom he now was 
 on the point to betray. He did not know that that 
 
186 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 was to be also his own last day. But God knows 
 what forebodings he might have had that very 
 morning, when my friend saw him physically so 
 collapsed ! 
 
 A few moments later, the first Aide-de-Camp 
 to the King, General Laza Petrovich, entered. 
 General Petrovich was one of the handsomest and 
 smartest officers of the Servian Army. He was 
 nicknamed " Lepi Laza," the " Handsome Laza." 
 Looking very smart in the Servian General's uniform, 
 well-groomed, as if he had been an English officer, a 
 pleasant smile in his dark eyes, and always ready 
 to laugh and show his fine teeth, he came in 
 to greet heartily my friend, and to joke with 
 him. He seemed quite happy. Evidently he had 
 no foreboding that in about twelve hours he would 
 witness a terrible massacre, and be dead himself. 
 
 King Alexander received my friend for a few 
 minutes only. He was in the Servian General's 
 undress uniform. He looked well, and seemed to 
 be in good spirits. He explained to my friend that 
 he could not talk with him then, as he had invited 
 the Austro- Hungarian Military Attache* to an 
 interview, and Colonel Pomyankovsky was waiting 
 in the drawing-room for an audience. He asked 
 my friend to come to the Palace that evening, 
 " when they would have plenty of time to talk 
 together." 
 
 Poor King Alexander, poor young man ! Little 
 did he think that his time was very short indeed, 
 that he was living then the last hours of his life, 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 187 
 
 and that in less than twelve hours he would be 
 cruelly assassinated ! 
 
 That afternoon was unusually hot and sultry for 
 the time of the year. As if it had been the middle 
 of summer, everybody remained indoors, and only 
 towards the evening came out for a walk on the 
 " Teraziya " the principal street on the ridge of the 
 triangular elevation on which Belgrade is built, and 
 which, passing the Palace, leads on to the Citadel's 
 glacier, transformed into a pretty park. Owing to 
 the sultriness of the air people expected a great 
 storm that night. 
 
 At seven o'clock in the evening, in the small 
 waiting-room of the Old Palace were to be seen 
 the smart and smiling " Handsome Laza," who 
 was positively cheerful ; the unshaven and evidently 
 deeply agitated Lieutenant-Colonel Naoumovich, 
 who looked then even worse than at noon of that 
 day ; the Home Minister, Mr. Velya Todorovich, 
 who seemed to be in a cheerful mood, as if the 
 secret police had not informed him that a conspiracy 
 might explode any day, and at any time ; the 
 handsome, elegant, and certainly very able Mr. 
 Lyuba Novakovich, Minister of Agriculture, 
 Commerce, and Industry ; and the spare figure and 
 pale face of Mr. Zivan Zivanovich, the Minister of 
 Public Instruction. That face looked somewhat 
 colder and sterner than usual. Mr. Zivanovich is 
 generally believed to have known not only that a 
 military conspiracy was in existence, but, also, that 
 that very night something would be attempted 
 
188 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 against the King ! With them in the waiting-room 
 was also the Servian Minister to Bulgaria, Mr. 
 Paul Marinkovich, whom the young King wished 
 specially to see that night. 
 
 A few minutes later an equerry entered the 
 room, to inform the Cabinet Ministers of the 
 King's desire to see them at once, and all three 
 together. Mr. Marinkovich was called to the 
 Queen. 
 
 What the King said to his Ministers, I do 
 not know. 
 
 Mr. Marinkovich was kind enough to inform 
 me of the subject of Queen Draga's conversation 
 with him. 
 
 The Queen looked sadly depressed. He 
 thought she received him coldly. I should say 
 she, with a woman's sensitiveness and intuition, 
 felt vaguely the approaching danger. She com- 
 plained of the situation, which she described as 
 " simply awful." 
 
 " We know that something is going on against 
 us ; we know that Russia is working against the 
 King ; this is a terrible evil, and all our friends 
 ought to stand by us, and help us ! " 
 
 This conversation was interrupted by the arrival 
 of the Premier, General Tzintzar-Markovich. I 
 believe he was sent for by the Queen. Mr. 
 Marinkovich rose and left them. He was im- 
 mediately called to the King. It was exactly 
 7.45 p.m. 
 
 King Alexander kept his envoy to Bulgaria 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 189 
 
 nearly two and a half hours. They discussed a 
 very confidential and very important subject. 
 
 About the Christmas of 1902, King Alexander 
 decided to enter into an alliance with Bulgaria, 
 and declare war on Turkey. Mr. Marinkovich 
 was entrusted with the negotiations of a secret 
 Treaty with Bulgaria. Meantime the Servian 
 General Staff had elaborated all the details of the 
 invasion of the Kossovo Vilayet by the Servian 
 Army. Alexander gave all his energetic interest 
 to this great subject. He discussed only a few 
 hours before his officers arrived to murder him 
 with his Minister to Bulgaria all the diplomatic 
 details, and the great features of the military plans 
 for the liberation of "Old Servia" and Macedonia. 
 This circumstance only deepens the tragic elements 
 in this great tragedy. 
 
 The King told his envoy that the War Minister, 
 General Milovan Pavlovich, was of opinion that 
 action should not begin before September of that 
 year ; but that by that time the Servian Army 
 would be ready to take the field. 
 
 The last note which King Alexander made 
 with his own hand that fateful night, ran as 
 follows : 
 
 " To order the Finance Minister to insure the 
 regular payment of salaries to the officers and 
 the men of the Pirot garrison, and tell the War 
 Minister to issue orders to the commander of that 
 garrison to instruct his officers to go as often as 
 possible across the frontier to meet the Bulgarian 
 
190 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 officers, and to fraternise with them ; and for that 
 object the officers to receive more frequently extra 
 pocket-money." 
 
 At 10.30 p.m., General Tzintzar - Markovich 
 entered the room, in which King Alexander was 
 absorbed in talking, with his Bulgarian Envoy, of 
 the prepared plans for the Serbo- Bulgarian action 
 against the Turks. 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, Sire," said the Premier, 
 "have pity on this young man! The Queen is 
 very angry with him, thinking that because of him 
 you keep her waiting for the supper all this time." 
 
 The King rose at once, and all three proceeded 
 to the large entrance hall, leading to the Queen's 
 room and to the dining-room. On their way there, 
 the King said to his Premier 
 
 " Mito, 1 the Bulgarian 2 says that he believes 
 the thing would be quite possible. But as it is 
 now already so late, you had both better come 
 to-morrow to dine with me, and after dinner we 
 will discuss all the points ! " 
 
 In the entrance hall, in a corner, the musicians 
 of the Guards were waiting to commence to play 
 during supper. A little farther, Captain Nikodiye 
 Lunyevitza, the Queen's younger brother, was stand- 
 ing with a few officers. There was also the equerry 
 on duty, Lieutenant-Colonel Naoumovich, in full 
 uniform. He looked very ill. 
 
 1 Diminutive from Demeter, which was the Christian name of 
 General Tzintzar-Markovich. 
 
 2 King Alexander called by that nickname Mr. Markinovich. 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 191 
 
 " Naoum ! what is the matter with you? 
 You look so unwell ! " said the King to him. 
 
 " I am ill, your Majesty ! " answered the traitor 
 with trembling voice. 
 
 " Why have you then not asked to be relieved 
 of duty to-night ? " asked poor King Alexander 
 sympathetically ; but without waiting for the 
 answer, he hurried to the Queen's boudoir, to 
 fetch her to the supper. 
 
 At that hour in the guard-house in the court- 
 yard of the Palace strange doings were in progress. 
 Naoumovich had sent to the officers' room the 
 strongest wines which the King's cellar could 
 supply. 
 
 Second Lieutentant of the Guards, Peter 
 Zivkovich was pouring glass after glass to the 
 loyal commander Captain P. Panayotovich. It is 
 believed that Zivkovich, who was in the con- 
 spiracy, drugged the wine which he served to 
 the Commander of the Guards. Before the King 
 and Queen retired, about midnight, to their rooms, 
 their faithful Commander of the Guards was in a 
 deep sleep, lying absolutely unconscious on a sofa 
 in the officers' room of the Guards. 
 
 After a hot and sultry day, the coffee-houses 
 and " beer-gardens " of Belgrade were filled with 
 people. Especially the garden of the well-known 
 Restaurant " Kolaratz," opposite the National 
 Theatre, and about half-way between the fortress 
 and the Palace, was very full. At one table sat 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Mishich, his dark face 
 
192 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 looking very serious, while he talked in low tones 
 to a younger man in civilian dress. That man 
 was his own brother-in-law, Dushan Vouich, who 
 was soon to assume the duties of the Prefect of 
 the Police. Not far from his table, about ten 
 younger officers were sitting together, smoking 
 and drinking beer. A group of officers were 
 drinking in the little garden in front of the hotel 
 " The Servian Crown," almost opposite the principal 
 entrance to the fortress. They seemed to be much 
 excited. They repeatedly ordered the gipsy 
 musicians to play the March of Queen Draga. 
 They were drinking heavily. Other conspirators 
 were gathered in the Officers' Club, not quite 
 two thousand yards from the Palace. They were 
 also drinking, and seemed more than usually 
 hilarious. 
 
 Alexander Mashin, colonel on the retired list, 
 the organiser of the plot, and the chief of the 
 executive committee of the conspirators, was that 
 evening on a visit to his friend Colonel Yovan 
 Pavlovich, once Treasurer of the King, but now 
 placed on the retired list because he disapproved 
 of the King's marriage with Draga Mashin. 
 Colonel Mashin's parents were of the Czek 
 nationality, and emigrated to Servia from Bohemia 
 during the reign of Prince Alexander Karageorge- 
 vich. His father was a very able physician, and 
 was one of the Court doctors to Prince Kara- 
 georgevich, and remained faithful to that dynasty 
 to the end of his days. But as Alexander Mashin 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 193 
 
 showed great intelligence, and was a promising 
 young officer, King Milan took him under his 
 own special protection, made him one of his 
 aides-de-camp, and by his influence decided his 
 son Alexander to send Mashin as Envoy Extra- 
 ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Monte- 
 negro, and in 1899 as Servia's Military Expert 
 Delegate to the International Peace Conference at 
 the Hague. It was well known that, for reasons 
 unexplained, Colonel Mashin hated his sister-in- 
 law Draga, the widow of his elder brother Svetozar 
 Mashin, and that his hatred was intensified after 
 her marriage with King Alexander. 
 
 I do not know what was the subject of con- 
 versation between the two Colonels, both of whom 
 were placed on the retired list because of Draga. 
 Probably they spoke of the common subject of 
 their hatred. But Colonel Yovan Pavlovich knew 
 nothing about the conspiracy. 
 
 After ii o'clock p.m., Mashin often looked at 
 his watch to see the time. It seemed as if he 
 had an appointment which he was anxious not to 
 miss. 
 
 At about a quarter to twelve he left his friend ; 
 but half an hour later he reappeared in Colonel 
 Pavlovich's house. This time he was dressed 
 in the full uniform of a Colonel of the standing 
 army, and his astonished friend asked him what 
 it all meant. Mashin told him everything was 
 arranged to liberate, that very night, the Servian 
 people of Alexander and his Draga, and of the 
 13 
 
194 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Obrenovichs altogether, and call Peter Kara- 
 georgevich to the throne. Colonel Pavlovich was 
 greatly shocked. He implored Mashin to desist 
 from the decision to assassinate Alexander and 
 Draga. 
 
 " It is now too late ! The thing must be done ! 
 But as I may be killed this night myself, here is 
 my last will and testament, and I leave my wife 
 and children to your friendship," answered Colonel 
 Mashin, and hurried away. 
 
 He went straight to the Palilula Barracks, where 
 King Alexander's own Vllth Regiment of Infantry 
 was quartered. The commander of the first bat- 
 talion of that regiment, Major Milivoy Angyel- 
 kovich, received him and introduced him as the 
 new Commander of the Danubian Division (to 
 which the regiment belonged), whose orders im- 
 plicitly to obey King Alexander had specially 
 commanded them. Colonel Mashin ordered the 
 entire regiment under arms at once. Some detach- 
 ments were entrusted to certain officers, who started 
 immediately for their destination. The remainder 
 of the regiment was led by the Colonel towards 
 the Palace, and surrounded it on the northern, 
 eastern, and southern sides. They reached the 
 Palace somewhat later than arranged, and for a 
 quarter of an hour Mishich and other officers, who 
 were already in front of the Palace, had misgivings 
 that something was wrong. 
 
 Colonel Mishich, leaving the Kolaratz garden, 
 went to the fortress, and brought out the Vlth 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 195 
 
 Infantry Regiment, which he had placed in the 
 comparatively narrow street between the Russian 
 Legation and the small front garden of the Old 
 Palace. 
 
 The Police Commissioner, seeing the troops 
 emerging at midnight from the fortress, and moving 
 in the direction of the Palace, telephoned to the 
 Prefect of Police, Marshityanin, whom he knew to 
 be at home. This gentleman, undoubtedly devoted 
 to the King, and generally considered a sharp-witted 
 official, lost his wits, and, instead of telephoning 
 the report to the Palace, he peevishly ordered the 
 Commissioner to address the officer doing duty at 
 the Central Police Station. The officer on duty 
 at that station for that night was a young man, 
 brother-in-law of the King's first Aide-de-Camp, 
 General Petrovich. Instead of spending the night 
 at the station, he went to enjoy himself with some 
 friends, leaving in his place a young clerk, who did 
 not know what to do when someone telephoned that 
 troops were moving towards the Palace. If these 
 two small misadventures had not happened, if the 
 King had been advised of the movements of the 
 troops in time, he might have taken the command of 
 his Guards, and of the gendarmerie in the adjacent 
 courtyard, telephoned to the barracks, and to the 
 Banyitza Camp for help ; and events might have 
 taken another turn. But fatality decided that it 
 should be otherwise. 
 
 At about half -past 'twelve the troops had 
 surrounded the Palace. None of the soldiers knew 
 
196 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 what was going on. Some of the officers who were 
 with the troops did not know either. They were 
 told confidentially, by the officers who were in the 
 conspiracy, that the King had decided to send away 
 Queen Draga, and that he had ordered the troops 
 to come to the Palace to assist him without disturb- 
 ing the order and peace of the town. 
 
 About twenty officers appeared at that moment 
 before the southern iron gate, leading from the street 
 to the courtyard of the Palace. 
 
 One of them gave by whistle a signal. 
 
 Second Lieutenant Zivkovich, having caused 
 his commander, Captain Panayotovich, to fall into 
 a deep sleep, took the keys of the gates. Hearing 
 the whistle signal, he hurried to the southern gate, 
 opened it, and let in the officers who were impati- 
 ently waiting there. 
 
 As they rushed up the paved carriage drive, 
 they made sufficient noise to alarm a sergeant of 
 the Guards, who, seeing at the same time a crowd, 
 shouted to the Guards : " To arms ! To arms ! " 
 
 The soldiers ran out of their rooms and grasped 
 their rifles. One of the inrushing officers fired his 
 revolver at the loyal sergeant, and killed him on 
 the spot. 
 
 Second Lieutenant Zivkovich, Commander of 
 the company of the Guards on duty, sprang forward, 
 drew his sword, and cried to his men : " Stand 
 still!" 
 
 In a few seconds the company was standing at 
 attention. 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 197 
 
 
 Zivkovich addressed them 
 
 "The King's orders are that you do not move 
 from here whatever takes place around you ! " He 
 stood in front, to prevent them moving. 
 
 Some of the conspirators rushed to the rooms of 
 the first Aide-de-Camp of the King, General Petro- 
 vich, who seemed not yet to have gone to bed. He 
 rushed out, dressed, to see what was the matter, 
 when he heard the shot which killed the sergeant, 
 and was met by the conspirators, of whom one fired 
 at him, wounding him on the left arm. Others 
 seemed to disapprove, and left one or two of their 
 comrades to bandage the wound of the General, and 
 to keep watch over him. 
 
 The crowd of officers then rushed to the entrance 
 door of the Old Palace. It was to have been 
 opened to them by the King's equerry, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Naoumovich, but in consequence of the 
 agitation of the whole day, and possibly owing to 
 continuous heavy drinking, he had fallen into a 
 heavy sleep, and did not hear his co-conspirators at 
 the door of the Palace. His comrades had to break 
 the door open with a dynamite cartridge. Its 
 terrible detonation was heard all over the town, 
 exactly at half-past twelve, awakening many people, 
 and bringing them out of their houses into the street 
 to discover what was the matter. The detonation, 
 and the shaking of the building, awakened Naoumo- 
 vich, who then hurried to meet his comrades. But 
 they were so enraged with him for his dangerous 
 negligence, or his treachery, that one of them, by 
 
198 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 name Captain Dragutin Dimitriyevich, shot him 
 dead on the spot. It is an extraordinary circum- 
 stance that the officer who killed Naoumovich was, 
 according to general rumour in Belgrade, the lover 
 of Naoumovich's wife ! Another version is that 
 Naoumovich, who was waiting and watching, fully 
 dressed, for the arrival of his co-conspirators, did 
 open the outside door of the building to them, and 
 smashed the door of the great salon by a dynamite 
 cartridge ; but, agitated as he was, he bungled over 
 it, and was himself killed by the explosion. 
 
 Anyhow, the conspirators obtained access to the 
 inner rooms of the Palace at a few minutes after 
 half-past twelve. 
 
 Meanwhile the dynamite explosion at the 
 Palace, in addition to revolver shots which were 
 heard, opened the eyes of the gendarmes in the 
 next courtyard to the Palace courtyard, and they 
 began to fire on the crowd which they saw in 
 the Palace yard, and in front of the Palace 
 door. 
 
 Not quite five hundred yards from the Palace 
 was the police station for that part of the town, 
 which is called " Teraziya." The gendarmes of 
 that station, about ten or fifteen men, hearing the 
 explosion in the Palace, and seeing what seemed to 
 be a crowd of people in the street in front of the 
 Old Palace, began to fire on them. But that 
 apparent crowd were soldiers of the Vlth Regiment, 
 who answered by firing their rifles at the police 
 station, and for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 199 
 
 it seemed as if a battle were raging around the 
 Palace. 
 
 But at the order of Lieutenant-Colonel Mishich, 
 a detachment of the Vlth Regiment succeeded in 
 mastering the few gendarmes of the police station, 
 having killed some of them. The gendarmes of 
 the Palace, in the courtyard next to the Palace 
 courtyard, were stopped firing by the Commander 
 of the Infantry Guards, Captain Luba Kostich, 
 who arrived there with the whole regiment of the 
 Guards, and told them that what was going on had 
 been ordered by the King, who wanted to send 
 away Queen Draga. 
 
 The explosion of the dynamite cartridge had 
 broken the electric light wires. There was perfect 
 darkness in the Palace. The officers, led by 
 Captain Dragutin Dimitriyevich, who, in conse- 
 quence of his strength and brutality, was nicknamed 
 "Apis," and who already had killed Naoumovich 
 and a soldier of the sentry, were groping through 
 the rooms, shouting terrible menaces, and blasphem- 
 ing in a horrible manner. With great difficulty 
 they forced one or two servants to get them a few 
 candles. They sent one of their own comrades 
 across the street to Dr. Gashich's house to get 
 some. By the help of these candles they searched 
 every corner of the Palace, looking under every 
 sofa and behind every curtain, striking the walls 
 with their swords to detect any secret door in them. 
 But there was no trace anywhere of the Royal 
 couple. Yet their bed seemed to have been 
 
200 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 occupied, and a French book was on a small table 
 near the bed, lying open, as if it had just been 
 thrown there in haste. 
 
 They ordered the wounded General Petrovich 
 to be brought in. He was brought in, two 
 conspirators holding his arms. They told him 
 that they would spare his life if he told them 
 where the King and Queen were hiding. He 
 assured them that he had no idea where they were. 
 They began to strike him with their swords, 
 shouting, in their rage, insults and disgusting oaths. 
 He maintained that he did not know. At last 
 he said 
 
 " You have not been to the New Palace, perhaps 
 they are there ! " 
 
 They had been searching the rooms of the Old 
 Palace nearly a whole hour. They thought their 
 search was really thorough. They therefore, after 
 a short consultation, decided to go to the New 
 Palace, which is not quite two hundred yards from 
 the old one, and in the same courtyard. They all 
 left the Old Palace. 
 
 On crossing the threshold into the open air, 
 poor General Petrovich said 
 
 " Gentlemen, you have hats on your heads, I 
 am bareheaded. As I have not much hair, and 
 there is a cool breeze, I may catch cold. Please 
 send someone to fetch me my hat." 
 
 A young lieutenant put his own cap on the 
 General's head. 
 
 In the courtyard, Colonels Mashin, Solarovich, 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 201 
 
 Atanaskovich, Lieutenant-Colonel Mishich, and a 
 few other officers, were standing opposite the 
 entrance door of the Old Palace. They were 
 astonished to see the crowd of officers coming 
 out. 
 
 Colonel Mashin stepped quickly forward, and 
 asked the excited crowd of younger officers 
 
 " What on earth are you doing ? Where are 
 you going ? " 
 
 " They are nowhere to be found in this old 
 house," some of them answered; "and General 
 Laza said it may be that they are gone to the 
 New Palace, and we are leading him there to show 
 us the rooms." 
 
 " You fools ! " shouted Mashin in a rage. " Do 
 you not see that this rogue" (he actually used a few 
 indecent words) " is only making dupes of you to 
 gain time ? Back at once to the Palace, and we 
 will go with you ! " 
 
 And they all Mashin, Mishich, Solarovich, 
 Atanaskovich, and the others returned to the Old 
 Palace on a new search. 
 
 Meanwhile King Alexander and Queen Draga 
 were hidden in the small alcove, to which they 
 had access through a secret door in the papered 
 walls of the bedroom. The iron door fitted so 
 closely in the wall that in the broad daylight it 
 could hardly be discovered. What those two poor 
 people thought and said to each other while they 
 listened to the firing in the yard and in the Palace, 
 and to the shouts of the infuriated, half-drunken 
 
202 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 officers in search after them, God only knows ! 
 They certainly must have known that it was 
 imminent and violent death which was in search of 
 them. They must have heard the shocking curses, 
 disgusting oaths, and the terrible menaces, which 
 those wild beasts in human form had been uttering 
 during their apparently useless search of nearly two 
 hours. The deeper their devotion to each other, 
 the greater their ambition to do great and splendid 
 deeds as King and Queen, the more intense must 
 have been their mental suffering and agony before 
 the bullets from the revolvers and the sharp swords 
 of their officers reached their trembling bodies. 
 The agony of their souls, lasting for nearly two 
 hours, I imagine must have caused them far greater 
 sufferings than the physical agony of their mutilated, 
 massacred, dying bodies. The poor young man, 
 the poor woman ambitious to wear the Royal 
 crown, have paid a tremendous price for their 
 ambitions, for their follies and sins. I am sure not 
 one of my readers will ever wish for a moment, 
 even his or her bitterest and most hated enemy, to 
 suffer, for five minutes, what King Alexander 
 and Queen Draga had suffered for nearly two hours ! 
 
 Did they pray to God in those terrible moments ? 
 Alexander did not believe in God, but Draga did. 
 I daresay she prayed more fervently than she ever 
 prayed in her life. They certainly both wanted to 
 be saved. That intense desire to be saved brought 
 about quicker their horrible end. 
 
 The alcove in which they remained hidden had 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 203 
 
 a window facing the front of the Palace, and the 
 narrow street lined with horse-chestnut trees, in 
 which lived the Tzar's Envoy Extraordinary and 
 Minister Plenipotentiary, Mr. Tcharikoff, who was 
 actually at one of his windows, watching, no doubt 
 in great agitation, the development of the tragedy 
 of which he was confidentially informed three or 
 four days before. 
 
 Queen Draga was leaning her forehead against 
 the window, and peering into the semi-obscurity 
 towards the Russian Legation, probably in the 
 hope that every moment the doors of the Legation 
 would open, and the Tzar's Minister step forward 
 to claim, in his master's name, the lives of those 
 two unhappy people, whose marriage he, as the 
 principal witness, endorsed before the Servians and 
 before the world at large. But no! He was at 
 the window, looking, perhaps, not without pity ; but 
 seemingly helpless ! 
 
 The poor Queen Draga noticed in the garden 
 an officer walking slowly among the bushes. She 
 peered more intently, and piercing the obscurity of 
 a June night, she recognised the Commander of 
 the Royal Guard, Captain Luba Kostich. Surely 
 the Royal Guards will be faithful to their oath; 
 surely the Commander of the Royal Guards will be 
 loyal to his King! Poor Queen Draga hastily 
 opened the window, and shouted in evident distress, 
 and at the top of her voice 
 
 " Soldiers! Your King is in danger! For 
 God's sake, to the rescue, to the rescue ! " 
 
204 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 The Commander of the faithful Guards stopped 
 pacing the flower garden. He recognised the 
 Queen's voice, saw her distinctly, and fired his 
 revolver at her! She hastily drew the blinds. It 
 was too late. 
 
 Captain Kostich ran up the staircase to the 
 first floor, to the still bewildered and enraged 
 conspirators, and told them where the King and 
 Queen were hiding, as he had seen the Queen at 
 the window of the alcove. 
 
 Still they did not discover the door leading to 
 the alcove. They called for an axe. An axe was 
 speedily brought from the woodshed in the court- 
 yard. Lieutenant began to strike the wall 
 
 with it. 
 
 General Petrovich saw that in a few seconds the 
 axe would strike the door, behind which he knew 
 the King and the Queen were standing. Trembling 
 and pale, from emotion more than from pain and 
 loss of blood from his wound, he said 
 
 " Gentlemen, will you give me your word of 
 honour that you will spare the life of the King ? " 
 
 Several voices in the excited crowd answered, 
 "Yes." 
 
 General Petrovich turned to a certain point of 
 the papered wall and knocked. 
 
 "Sire! Sire!" he shouted. "Open! Open! 
 I am your Laza. Here are your officers ! " 
 
 The door opened slowly. 
 
 There stood King Alexander and Queen Draga, 
 both of them hastily and insufficiently dressed, as 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 205 
 
 they had sprung from their bed. They found 
 themselves facing a dense group of officers. 
 
 It was a historic but terrible tableau ! 
 
 King Alexander stepped forward in front of the 
 Queen, as if to shelter her, looked straight at the 
 traitors, and said 
 
 " What is it you want? . . . And what of your 
 oath of fidelity to me ? " 
 
 There was a second or two of deadly silence. 
 They looked at each other as if mesmerised. 
 
 Then Lieutenant , who before entering the 
 
 army was a teacher in a village school, cried 
 out 
 
 " What are you standing gazing at ? Here is 
 our oath of fidelity to him ! ! ! " 
 
 Saying this, he fired on the King, who sank 
 into the arms of Draga. 
 
 In a moment several revolvers were fired on 
 the falling King and on the Queen. They both then 
 dropped on the floor. The enraged conspirators 
 continued for a few seconds firing their revolvers at 
 the Royal couple, bleeding and groaning on the floor. 
 They then drew their swords, and began to slash 
 them in all directions. The poor woman, Queen 
 Draga, was especially the object of their revolting 
 cruelty. 
 
 I cannot describe the horrible, disgusting, and 
 ferocious conduct of some of those murderers. 
 They seemed to emulate the exploits of Jack-the- 
 Ripper on the dead body of the woman who was 
 their Queen. As I write these lines, I feel utter 
 
206 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 shame and humiliation that Servian officers could 
 have conducted themselves with such brutal cruelty ! 
 
 Fortunately the poor woman was killed instantly 
 by the first volley aimed at her. 
 
 King Alexander, although pierced by several 
 bullets, was not dead. He groaned in agony, in 
 a pool of blood. It is not certain that he was 
 conscious. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Mishich suggested that the 
 bodies of the King and Queen should be thrown 
 out of the window, into the flower garden, that the 
 soldiers surrounding the Palace should see that 
 they were dead. 
 
 He opened the window. Bending over it he 
 shouted 
 
 " Long live Peter Karageorgevich, King of 
 Servia ! " 
 
 The officers in front of their soldiers echoed his 
 cry by shouting : " Long live King Peter ! " 
 ("Ziveo Kralj Petar!") 
 
 Mishich moved from the window, to make place 
 for a few younger officers, who were carrying the 
 bloody and mutilated body of Queen Draga, with 
 coarse jests and screaming as if they were mad. 
 
 They threw her into the garden. 
 
 Another group of officers had followed with the 
 body of Alexander, covered with terrible wounds, 
 yet still groaning in agony. 
 
 They raised him to throw him out of the window, 
 but the fingers of the dying young man convulsively 
 caught the frame of the window, and held it fast. 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 207 
 
 One of the officers took his sword, and cut off 
 his fingers. The next moment Alexander's body 
 was thrown out, amidst the wild cries of his 
 murderers 
 
 "Ziveo Kralj Petar!" 
 
 Falling on the grass lawn of the garden, 
 Alexander's body received such a shock that his 
 right eye fell out of its socket ! Still, he was not 
 yet dead. 
 
 Two hours their bodies, naked, bleeding, and 
 broken, were lying in the garden, in view of the 
 soldiers ! At four o'clock it began to rain. At that 
 time the Russian Minister Tcharikoff crossed the 
 narrow street from the Russian Legation, entered 
 the flower garden, stopped, and, not without deep 
 agitation, looked on the bodies of the man and 
 woman who had been, only a few hours earlier, the 
 King and Queen of Servia. 
 
 A few of the officers who had murdered them, 
 with Colonel Mashin, stepped forward and saluted 
 the Tzar's representative. 
 
 The first words of Tcharikoff were 
 
 " For God's sake, gentlemen, carry their bodies 
 inside the Palace. Do not leave them here in the 
 rain, exposed to the gaze of the public." 
 
 A few moments after, two bed-sheets were 
 brought out of the Palace. The murderers placed 
 the bodies into these sheets and carried them into 
 a room on the ground floor. 
 
 They noticed that one hand of King Alexander 
 had grasped green grass from the lawn. In his 
 
208 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 death agony the convulsions of his fingers tore 
 the soft grass. 
 
 Having murdered their King and Queen, and 
 thrown them through the window into the front 
 garden of the Palace, the murderers were seized 
 by a sort of jubilant frenzy. They screamed and 
 shouted at the top of their voices, dancing and 
 running about the rooms like madmen, firing their 
 revolvers at the pictures on the walls, at looking- 
 glasses and candelabras ; some of them broke with 
 axes the bedstead of the Royal couple, and smashed 
 all the fine things on the Queen's toilette table ; 
 called for wine from the King's cellars, and the 
 trembling servants obeyed their orders. Others, 
 who felt the air of the Palace hot and sulphurous, 
 rushed into the courtyard, ordered tables to be set 
 out on the carriage drive, and drank to the health 
 of King Peter. For some time the Old Palace and 
 its courtyard were turned into a pandemonium. 
 
 However shameful the orgie of these blood- 
 thirsty officers, still more shameful was the be- 
 haviour of those murderers who kept cool. 
 
 I hope it is not true ; but I have been assured 
 by honourable men, and it was on different occasions 
 stated in the papers, that many jewels belonging 
 to the Queen, watches and rings belonging to the 
 King, were taken away by these beasts in officers' 
 uniform. Twelve hours before the King had 
 received from the Treasury 100,000 francs (^4000), 
 his monthly civil list, and, besides that amount, 
 both the King and the Queen had always in reserve 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 209 
 
 and at hand a sum of ^4000. All that money 
 disappeared during the mad tumult in the Palace 
 immediately after the assassination of the Royal 
 couple. 
 
 Meanwhile, during these bloody and horrible 
 events in the Palace, several companies of soldiers 
 marched in various directions. The officers who 
 led them had special orders. A company surrounded 
 the house of General Tzintzar-Markovich, who was 
 with King Alexander up to nearly eleven o'clock 
 that night, and was working in his room, fully 
 dressed. At about one o'clock a.m. he was startled 
 by a loud knock at the gate of his house. He 
 opened the windows, and saw the soldiers. 
 
 "What do you want? " the General asked. 
 
 " General," said the commander of the company, 
 Captain Svetozar Radakovich, " I have to give you 
 a special communication by the order of his Majesty 
 the King." 
 
 " Very well ! " answered the General, and ordered 
 his servant to open the door. 
 
 Entering the General's room, Captain Radako- 
 vich saluted and said 
 
 " His Majesty ordered me to arrest you, and 
 keep watch over you until further order ! " 
 
 "Indeed!" said the General; and then added, 
 " I will facilitate the accomplishment of your duty. 
 Let us sit down. Take a cigarette." 
 
 They talked quietly, and apparently friendly, for 
 some time. 
 14 
 
210 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 Then a servant from the General's daughter 
 came running to ask Madame Tzintzar-Markovich 
 to hurry to her daughter, who expected every 
 moment to be confined. The poor young woman, 
 hearing the detonations of dynamite and firing in 
 the neighbourhood of the Palace, where her 
 husband, the young and handsome Captain Miljko- 
 vich, was on duty as equerry, became terribly 
 agitated, with the result that her confinement took 
 place. At that moment her husband was lying dead 
 in the Palace ! 
 
 Captain Radakovich would not allow the 
 General's wife to leave the house. But after 
 both the General and Madame Tzintzar-Markovich 
 implored him to let her go, promising faithfully not 
 to tell anyone that the General was by the King's 
 order under arrest, he gave her permission to go. 
 
 The General and Captain Radakovich continued 
 talking and smoking for some time. Then the 
 General proposed that they should have some coffee. 
 He went towards the door to give orders that coffee 
 should be made. Then Captain Radakovich also 
 rose, took his revolver, and fired in quick succession 
 several shots at the General, who fell instantly on 
 his face, dead ! His two unmarried daughters 
 rushed into the room, and seeing their father dead, 
 one of them lost her reason temporarily, and the 
 other withdrew to a corner of the room, which she 
 did not leave for several days and nights, remaining 
 all the while speechless. 
 
 It was marvellous that Madame Tzintzar- 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 211 
 
 Markovich herself a woman in very delicate 
 health was able to survive that awful night ! She 
 lost suddenly and most unexpectedly her husband 
 and her son-in-law, saw her eldest daughter in 
 danger of death by premature confinement, and 
 both her younger daughters on the verge of insanity. 
 Her husband was one of the ablest Servian officers, 
 and a true Christian gentleman. 
 
 Colonel Mashin, who seemed to have acted as 
 commander-in-chief of the conspiracy, had ordered 
 Lieutenant Tankossich to murder the two young 
 brothers of Queen Draga, Captains Nikodiye* and 
 Nicholas Lunyevitza. Captain Michael Yosipovich 
 received orders to kill the War Minister, General 
 Milovan Pavlovich, and the young Lieutenant 
 Milosh R. Popovich to kill the Minister of Home 
 Affairs (Police), Mr. Velya Todorovich. 
 
 Lieutenant Tankossich sent a detachment of 
 soldiers to the house of the two brothers Lunye- 
 vitza. They were informed that they were wanted 
 at once at the office of the staff of their division. 
 At the office they were told by Colonel Solarovich 
 that they were condemned to die. Lieutenant 
 Tankossich brought them out in the yard, permitted 
 them, at their own request, to embrace each other, 
 and as good brothers to take leave of each other. 
 
 They were placed against the wall, facing 
 bravely the firing party of soldiers. At a signal 
 Tankossich made with his sword, the soldiers 
 fired, and the two handsome and brave young men 
 fell dead instantly, as most of the bullets struck 
 
212 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 them full in the face and forehead. By their 
 conduct in bravely meeting death they did honour 
 to their name. 
 
 It is positively asserted that their watches, rings, 
 silver tabatieres, and even their high patent boots 
 were all taken from their dead bodies. I mention 
 this, not only because such statements are per- 
 sistently circulated, but because they are generally 
 believed in Belgrade. It seems incredible that they 
 can be true. 
 
 Another victim of the regicides was the Minister 
 of War, General Milovan Pavlovich. He was an 
 able officer, very strict commander, but, at the same 
 time, one of the kindest men in the whole of Servia. 
 Honest and loyal himself, he refused to believe that 
 Servian officers could be so disloyal, and all the 
 confidential reports about the conspiracy among the 
 officers he treated as ridiculous inventions without 
 the slightest foundation. 
 
 After the assassination of the King and the 
 Queen, Colonel Mashin telephoned from the Palace 
 to General Pavlovich's private residence, asking if 
 the General was at home. The General's wife 
 answered that he was, and, at the same time, wanted 
 to know why they inquired after him. The answer 
 came, not from Mashin, but from Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Peter Mishich, " There are some disorders 
 in the town, and we are sending a company of 
 soldiers to protect the General ! " 
 
 When the soldiers arrived before the house of 
 the General, they, at the command of their captain, 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 213 
 
 Michael Yosipovich, opened fire at once on the 
 windows of the rooms on the first floor, in which 
 the General was known to live. He appeared, 
 fully dressed, at one of the windows, and began to 
 fire from a revolver on his assailants. Exposing 
 himself at the window, he was soon wounded, but 
 continued firing. Meanwhile a few soldiers, led by 
 Lieutenant Milan Marinkovich, rushed up the stair- 
 case towards the door of the General's room. 
 Marinkovich smashed the door with a dynamite 
 cartridge, and by his own hand killed the General. 
 Not satisfied with having murdered his chief, 
 Marinkovich ordered a soldier to smash his skull 
 with a blow from his rifle. 
 
 The General's widow, in describing the death 
 of her husband, added that his murderers carried 
 away his gold ring, and even a pair of new untried tall 
 boots. In his purse they found altogether 80 francs 
 (about ^3, 35.), of which they took 60, leaving the 
 widow 20 francs. I suppose this money was taken 
 by the common soldiers ; but there are people who 
 assert to have seen the ring of the General on the 
 finger of his murderer, Marinkovich. 
 
 Colonel Mashin had selected the young Cavalry 
 Lieutenant Milosh K. Popovich to kill the Home 
 Minister, Velya Todorovich. 
 
 That officer entering the house of the Minister, 
 and finding himself opposite a defenceless civilian, 
 had not the courage to kill him. A few minutes 
 later the murderer of General Pavlovich arrived 
 and fired on the Minister, who fell at once. Be- 
 
214 A ROYAL TRAGEDY 
 
 lieving him to be dead, the murderers left the house. 
 Mr. Todorovich, who was only wounded, and had 
 fainted, recovered consciousness, and took refuge 
 with some neighbours. 
 
 Several other political and non-political men 
 were on the list of those who were to be assassinated 
 that early morning. Among others, Lieutenant 
 George Petrovich, nephew of Queen Draga ; and 
 the editor of the Male N ovine, Mr. Pera Todorovich, 
 a devoted friend of King Alexander, and the most 
 gifted of all the Servian journalists. The officer 
 entrusted with the assassination of young Petrovich 
 missed somehow his way, and returned to head- 
 quarters to ask for better directions to the house in 
 which the Queen's nephew lived. Mr. Todorovich 
 was informed an hour before the assassins came 
 to his house, and he fled, and succeeded in crossing 
 the river to Hungary. Meanwhile, that is between 
 three and four o'clock in the morning, Colonel 
 Mashin and the revolutionary Cabinet were informed 
 by the Austro- Hungarian Minister that, if further 
 assassinations did not stop, the Austrian army 
 would occupy Belgrade. The murderous expedi- 
 tions were at once stopped. 
 
 Having proclaimed Peter Karageorgevich King 
 of Servia, from the window through which King 
 Alexander's still palpitating body was thrown, 
 Mishich and Mashin ordered the soldiers to decorate 
 their caps with green branches and flowers from the 
 Palace gardens, the military bands to march through 
 the streets playing the gayest marches, and sent the 
 
THE ASSASSINATION 215 
 
 gendarmes from house to house with orders to the 
 proprietors to display the Servian national flags, in 
 sign of the general rejoicing that the Obrenovich 
 Dynasty was annihilated. 
 
 That was the tragic end of King Alexander and 
 Queen Draga ; but that was not the end of the 
 tragedy of the Servian nation. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICH BROUGHT 
 ABOUT THE TRAGIC END OF KING 
 ALEXANDER AND QUEEN DRAGA. 
 
 WRITTEN BY A REGICIDE. 
 
 As I wished that A Royal Tragedy should be a fair 
 statement of facts, a perfectly true and impartial history, 
 I suggested to the chiefs of the regicides to let me have 
 their own statement of causes and circumstances which led 
 them to form the conspiracy for the assassination of King 
 Alexander and Queen Draga. I offered them to publish 
 their statement in the Appendix to my history of the 
 great Tragedy. 
 
 They declined to do so, or rather, they refrained acting 
 on my suggestion and offer. 
 
 But in the summer of 1905, when the desire of the 
 Servian people to see Great Britain renewing diplomatic 
 relations with Servia was intense, one of the regicides pre- 
 pared something like a Memorandum of Justification of 
 their action. It was specially prepared for the English 
 Press, although it was written in French. It was sent to 
 London, but until now it has nowhere been published. I 
 leave out the introduction, which recapitulates the events 
 of King Milan's reign, and also the last part, which simply 
 pleads for the renewal of diplomatic relations between 
 Great Britain and Servia, and I reproduce in what follows 
 
 217 
 
218 APPENDIX 
 
 that part of the Memorandum which concerns King Alex- 
 ander and the Conspiracy. I retain the title which the 
 writer gave to his Memorandum : " Principales causes qui 
 amenerent la fin tragique du Roi Alexandre et de la Reine 
 Draga? Those who know the real facts of the Servian 
 history during the last ten years will, on reading the 
 following statement, necessarily come to the conclusion 
 that the regicides' case must be exceedingly weak when 
 they had need to falsify history and misrepresent the facts. 
 
 ". . . Acting on the advice of his father, King Alexander 
 gave, on the eve of the ist of April 1892, a dinner in the 
 Palace in honour of his Regents and their Ministers. At 
 a certain moment he rose up and announced to his guests : 
 That, from that time up to the dawn, they are his prisoners 
 in the Palace ; that the army is just then proclaiming him 
 of full age and reigning King ; and that from that moment 
 he assumed full Royal powers ! He added that he was 
 acting thus because the Regents and their Ministers had 
 violated the Constitution and disregarded the rights of the 
 people. He published a proclamation to the people in 
 which he said the same. 
 
 " This was King Alexander's first * State's stroke ' (coup 
 dttat}. 
 
 " A few weeks later he made, in the most solemn manner 
 before the new Parliament, and into the hands of the 
 Metropolitan of Servia, the oath of faithful respect for the 
 Constitution and for the rights and liberties of the people. 
 
 " But already in the beginning of the autumn of that 
 year he commenced to conspire, together with his mother 
 Queen Nathalie, against the Radical regime, which he him- 
 self a few months ago had initiated. An underground 
 struggle commenced between the King and the people, led 
 by the Radicals. King Alexander tried to find polit- 
 ical men who would support him in that struggle, made 
 many experiments, and formed and dismissed numerous 
 Cabinets. He brought into the political life of Servia still 
 
APPENDIX 219 
 
 greater restlessness than that which prevailed under his 
 father. 
 
 " In the commencement of the year 1897 he invited his 
 father to return to Servia, disregarding entirely the law 
 which forbade King Milan to come to or stay in the country. 
 The judges refused to acknowledge the abolition of that 
 law by the simple expression of the King's will. King 
 Alexander answered by placing the judges on the retired 
 list, and appointing new judges who approved of the 
 irregular abolition of the Law against King Milan. This 
 was King Alexander's second coup d^tat. 
 
 " But finding it more and more difficult to reign accord- 
 ing to his own will as long as the Constitution of 1888 was 
 legally in vigour, Alexander, guided by the advice of his 
 father Milan, tried to find opportunities to get rid of that, 
 for him too Radical, Constitution. For that purpose he, 
 through some officers of his household, arranged with a 
 certain secret agent, Tchebinatz, a complot, the object of 
 which was to provoke a revolution in the country. This 
 fictitious complot gave him a pretext to put under arrest 
 the most notable leaders of the Opposition, and to suspend 
 the Constitution of 1888, replacing it by an old Constitu- 
 tion which to the representatives of the nation gave only 
 the consultative vote. This was King Alexander's third 
 coup <Jtat. 
 
 " All this was done only to enable King Alexander to 
 renew the secret Treaty which his father concluded in 
 1882 with Austria; and also that his father, King Milan, 
 might easier get money for the payment of his huge 
 gambling debts. Just for that purpose he King Milan 
 was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Servian 
 Army. 
 
 " During all that time the entire Servian nation was in 
 opposition to King Alexander's home and foreign policy. 
 Europe did not know anything about it, because, as 
 Austria had by the secret Treaty taken the engagement 
 to protect the Obrenovich Dynasty, the entire Vienna 
 
220 APPENDIX 
 
 Press diligently worked to conceal from Europe the state 
 of things that prevailed in Servia, and the European Press 
 generally went to Vienna for information on Servia. 
 
 " In order to destroy by a military tribunal the chiefs 
 of the Radical Party, who never ceased their struggle for 
 liberty, a new fictitious attempt against the life of King 
 Milan was organised, and all the principal and the most 
 courageous chiefs of the Opposition were arrested at the 
 very moment when the attempt took place. A Royal 
 decree proclaimed a Court-Martial, declaring that the 
 judges of such a Court ought to give verdict according to 
 their conscience and not according to the proofs. As 
 members of that Court were appointed the most con- 
 temptible of men. 
 
 " The chiefs of the Opposition, arrested although quite 
 innocent, were tortured by hunger, thirst, privation of sleep, 
 and all sorts of torture. And finally they were condemned 
 to prison, with hard labour, for life. 
 
 " To assure himself of the mastery over his son, King 
 Milan allowed him to make intimate acquaintance with 
 a widow, by name Draga Mashin, wife of a mining 
 engineer who died by a mysterious death, and whose 
 family believed that he was poisoned by her. 
 
 " Having a very small pension (not quite a hundred 
 francs per month) she lived under the protection of certain 
 men. She ceased to lead that disreputable life only when 
 she succeeded in approaching the Court. And she came 
 to the Court under the protection and special care of King 
 Milan, who for several reasons wanted to see his son enter 
 into liaison with such a woman. 
 
 " Somewhat later King Milan wanted to obtain for his 
 son the hand of a German Princess, and the Servian 
 Minister in Berlin received instructions to enter into 
 negotiations with that object. 
 
 " But while King Milan was apparently with the con- 
 sent and approval of his son working in that direction, 
 King Alexander was thinking how to marry his mistress 
 
APPENDIX 221 
 
 Draga Mashin. He succeeded in misleading his father and 
 in cheating him. He sent his father to Carlsbad with a 
 mission to arrange everything necessary for his marriage 
 with the German Princess. 
 
 " Having got rid in that way of his father, he suddenly 
 issued a proclamation announcing to the people that he 
 had engaged himself with Draga, the granddaughter of 
 ' Voyvode ' Lunyevitza, and that he is going to marry 
 her at once. As all his Ministers were opposed to that 
 marriage he dismissed them, and, after many difficulties, 
 formed a new Cabinet composed of most insignificant 
 men. 
 
 " The Court officers and some of the Ministers made 
 immediately a conspiracy to dethrone King Alexander 
 and to reinstate King Milan. But political parties would 
 not support that plan, fearing the wrath of the people if 
 they brought King Milan back to the throne. And thus 
 nothing came out of that Court conspiracy. 
 
 " The Radical Party, which had an immense majority in 
 the country, but whose chiefs were either in prison or in 
 exile, kept quiet. They saw that the end of the reigning 
 dynasty was approaching, as the last Obrenovich, King 
 Alexander, had taken for wife a woman of whom all 
 Belgrade knew that she was unable to bear children. 
 
 " Possibly a revolution against King Alexander might 
 have taken place at that juncture if the Emperor of Russia 
 had not helped the marriage to take place by accepting to 
 be the principal witness at the wedding ! 
 
 "No one in Servia was satisfied with that marriage. 
 Everybody felt that the dignity of Servia and of her King 
 had been lowered. Everybody saw that the moment was 
 approaching when the dynasty would collapse of itself. 
 Love-letters of Draga Mashin to some of her former lovers 
 were privately circulating in Belgrade, and could not but 
 fill the readers with shame that Draga had become the 
 Queen of Servia. 
 
 "King Alexander and Queen Draga did everything 
 
222 APPENDIX 
 
 possible to approach the people and gain their love. They 
 wanted to get from the people support against King Milan, 
 whom they still feared, and who had wired to them that 
 he would be the first to applaud the man who would drive 
 them away from Servia. They hoped to get that support 
 against the chiefs of all the parties, who suffered much by 
 seeing the degradation of their fatherland. King Alexander 
 gave amnesty to all political prisoners, recalled all political 
 emigrants back to the country, and even offered to some 
 of them to be Cabinet Ministers. On the whole, King 
 Alexander and Queen Draga had no success in that 
 endeavour, except that they won some politicians of low 
 standing. 
 
 "A few months after the marriage it was officially 
 announced to the people that the Queen was in an interest- 
 ing condition ! Then commenced that comedy, unique in 
 the history of the world by its cynicism. All that was 
 necessary to keep the people in illusion was done with the 
 greatest care. The people were divided in two groups : 
 one which judging only by appearances believed that 
 the Queen was really in an interesting condition ; and the 
 other, composed of men who knew Draga, and who believed 
 that she was simulating intentionally, and deliberately 
 cheating everybody. 
 
 "The Emperor of Russia, who was by proxy the 
 principal witness at King Alexander's wedding, and who 
 had promised to receive at his Court Alexander and Draga, 
 got such proofs of Draga's simulation that he insisted 
 King Alexander should consent that a specialist whom 
 he (the Emperor) wished to send should examine the real 
 condition of the Queen. 
 
 " The King was obliged to receive the Russian specialist. 
 He no doubt hoped that he would be able, in one way or 
 other, to obtain from him the confirmation of the Queen's 
 statement that she was with child. But he was mistaken. 
 The Imperial accoucheur found that the Queen was not 
 enceinte ! But he was so far obliging towards the Queen 
 
APPENDIX 223 
 
 that he added that a sort of tumour had been formed 
 which could quite naturally mislead anyone. 
 
 " This brought a new consternation to the people, a new 
 humiliation and shame! Everybody now saw clearly 
 what was the intention of the Royal couple, namely, to 
 cheat the people and to declare somebody else's baby as 
 Queen Draga's child. 
 
 " To quiet the people, and to give them some sort of 
 consolation, King Alexander re-established the Constitu- 
 tion of 1888 (which he had suspended in 1897), but with 
 some important additions ; as, for instance, the creation of a 
 Second Chamber (the Senate). He hoped thereby to win 
 the richer and higher class of the people, who as Senators 
 would probably act as a brake against the Radical Party. 
 He gave that Constitution without consulting the people, 
 in fact again by a coup d'etat. Anyhow, he made a 
 solemn oath, in the presence of both Chambers and of 
 Queen Draga, to respect faithfully the new Constitution. 
 
 " Having not succeeded with the plan of substituting 
 somebody's baby for their own, and so cheating the people 
 in that way, and as the doctors declared that Queen Draga 
 never could have children, the King and the Queen gave 
 up that first plan definitely, and decided to do something 
 else, not less dangerous ; namely, to proclaim one of the 
 Queen's brothers as Heir- Apparent of the throne ! Their 
 choice fell on the younger of the two brothers, on Nikodiye 
 Lunyevitza. 
 
 " To prepare the ground and accustom the people to this 
 idea, the King began to raise the position of the Queen's 
 brothers and to treat them as if they were Princes of Royal 
 blood. He organised quite an agitation in the army in 
 favour of Nikodiye. The younger brother was chosen by 
 the King and Queen instead of the elder one, simply 
 because he was somewhat less bad than his brother. 
 
 "The two brothers Lunyevitza, themselves youngofficers, 
 began to gather around them other young officers, and by 
 presents and other courtesies and kindnesses to gain them 
 
224 APPENDIX 
 
 for the intentions of the Royal couple. Officers who 
 refused such advances, and would not have anything to do 
 with the two Lieutenants Lunyevitza, were persecuted and 
 insulted. King Alexander gave the order that whenever 
 the brothers Lunyevitza, or one of them, entered a barrack 
 or a camp, the guards were to be called out to present 
 arms, and the Commander was to give them the usual 
 military reports. This caused at once a great dissatisfac- 
 tion in the army against those two 'officer-princes' who 
 were so arbitrarily imposed on it. Hardly ever a day 
 passed that they had not some words, quarrels, and conflicts 
 with officers. Often it came to scandalous scenes between 
 the officers and themselves on account of the privileged 
 position which they assumed. 
 
 " King Alexander went a step further. He requested 
 the Government to submit to the Parliament a Bill enacting 
 the inviolability of the two brothers of the Queen. The 
 Cabinet, although generally quite humble servants of the 
 King and Queen, dared not propose such a Bill. The 
 King then began to agitate personally among the Senators, 
 who by majority were Radicals, to promise to support his 
 demands. They refused to give such a promise. He 
 requested them then to resign their mandates as Senators, 
 that they might be replaced by others who would be more 
 pliable to his will, and he promised them all sorts of 
 personal advantages. They persisted in their refusal. 
 Thereupon the King began to denounce the Senate as an 
 institution which pushes itself like a wedge between the 
 King and the people, and publicly expressed his conviction 
 that the Senate ought to be abolished, or at least that in 
 some way its members ought to be replaced by others. 
 
 "Seeing that the army refused to treat the Queen's 
 brothers as Princes of Royal blood, seeing that the Senators 
 would never consent that one of the Lieutenants Lunyevitza 
 should be proclaimed Heir-Apparent to the throne of 
 Servia, King Alexander decided for another coup d'ttat. 
 He formed a new Cabinet, which was prepared to help 
 
APPENDIX 225 
 
 him to do it. Many honest State's employes, especially 
 among the prefects and police commissioners, were either 
 dismissed or transferred to some other place and service. 
 They were replaced generally by men of bad reputation, 
 known as unscrupulous and even as dishonest. When the 
 King's attention was drawn to this fact, he answered : ' It 
 is of such men that I have need ; honest and scrupulous 
 men are not willing to help me to get a Parliament which 
 would be ready to accept my proposals ! ' 
 
 " The excitement and exasperation of the people were 
 great, and growing from day to day. The patriots began 
 to talk loudly that it was high time to save Servia, and 
 especially that the Queen ought to be sent away or, if 
 necessary, strangled and murdered, the woman who 
 imposed herself on the nation being not personally worthy 
 to enter the humblest house of an honourable citizen, and 
 who now wanted to impose on the country one of her 
 brothers as heir to the throne. The dissatisfaction spread 
 to all classes, and carried away with it young and old. 
 The officers composing the household of the King and the 
 Queen expressed to their comrades in the army that they 
 regret to have to serve such a King and such a Queen. 
 Even the numerous detectives, who were chosen to spy 
 everything and everybody in the service of Alexander 
 and Draga, were making common cause with the mal- 
 contents, and communicated to them the orders which 
 they received from the Minister of Police or from the 
 Court. 
 
 " A small demonstration without importance, organised 
 by the University students and commercial assistants and 
 clerks, developed into a serious riot. All the town passed 
 on the side of the demonstrants, and the soldiers called 
 out to disperse them sympathised, and in some places 
 fraternised, with them. The officers who received from 
 the Palace order by telephone to fire on the people, refused 
 to do so without written orders according to the prescrip- 
 tion of the law. The people felt and saw that the army 
 
226 APPENDIX 
 
 was with them, and that gave them courage, and they 
 were prepared to do anything. The King and the Queen 
 became terrified, and thought that the critical moment had 
 arrived. 
 
 " The King ordered several regiments to come to the 
 capital, and in the night of the 25th March (1903) 
 he executed again a coup d'ttat. He suspended the 
 Constitution which he gave in 1901. The suspension 
 lasted only half an hour, time enough for him to sign 
 decrees by which all the members of the Senate, the State 
 Council, and the Court of Accounts who were, according 
 to the old Constitution, nominated for life were dismissed 
 from their positions and replaced by others. 
 
 " After this his Cabinet (General Tzintzar-Markovich) 
 undertook new general elections, using, according to the 
 instructions from the King, all sorts of illegal pressure on 
 the electors, and by such means it succeeded in securing a 
 sufficiently large majority of the deputies. 
 
 " But to succeed entirely in their heart's desire the King 
 and the Queen made a diabolical scheme. It was arranged 
 that it should be proven by false documents and false 
 witnesses that certain officers and certain politicians had 
 made a complot to murder the King and Queen while 
 they were walking or driving in the Deer-Park near 
 Belgrade. A man was hired who would apparently fire 
 at them (but without hurting them), who would be 
 immediately arrested, and who would then name before 
 the Court those officers and politicians as men who had 
 hired him to murder the Royal couple. This fictitious 
 attempt was to take place on the eve of the meeting of 
 the new Parliament, to which then would immediately be 
 submitted, as the matter of absolute urgency, the Bill 
 appointing Nikodiye' Lunyevitza as Heir-Apparent to 
 the throne. 
 
 "The friends of King Milan, who on the eve of 
 Alexander's marriage with Draga wished to recall Milan 
 to the throne, now, since Milan had died in exile, joined 
 
APPENDIX 227 
 
 the officers of the army, who were determined not to allow 
 that their future King should be a Lunyevitza whom they 
 despised. They were joined also by the officers of the 
 Court, who were disgusted in witnessing what was done 
 in the Palace, and what the King and Queen were pre- 
 paring to do. 
 
 "Destiny had willed that at the Court of the last 
 Obrenovich, served as an equerry the grandson of that 
 Naoumovich who was killed defending Kara-George 
 against the murderers sent by Prince Milosh (Obrenovich 
 the First). Everything that was necessary to penetrate 
 into the Palace was arranged with that officer. He 
 perished, together with those whom he delivered to the 
 conspirators. 
 
 " The officers who were ready to sacrifice their lives in 
 order to save the country from new massacres (?) and 
 from unworthy heirs to the throne, had the intention to 
 accomplish their object on Palm Sunday, in the fortress 
 where, according to custom, the King was to come ; but he 
 did not come. Then they were prepared to do it on the 
 occasion of the foundation stone for the Palace of Music 
 being laid down by the King and Queen ; but again they 
 did not appear. Then they thought to kill the King and 
 Queen in the circus, to which they went frequently ; but 
 they gave up that plan on account of the many children 
 and other people who might innocently suffer. But 
 having been informed of the King's arrangement for a 
 false attempt and its consequences, and seeing that they 
 had not much time to lose, they in the night of the 
 29th May (nth June N.S.) penetrated into the Palace and 
 accomplished their object. 
 
 " If the drama was accomplished under conditions which 
 are very regrettable and perhaps shameful, that happened 
 against the intention of the actors. It came about in 
 consequence of the officers believing themselves betrayed 
 and trapped, and also because after two or three hours of 
 searching for Alexander and Draga in the Palace, it was 
 
228 APPENDIX 
 
 absolutely necessary to prove to the soldiers and to the 
 people that the King and the Queen were really dead. 
 When they entered the Palace the conspirators did not 
 intend to do the victims to such a horrible death, but 
 when the sword is once drawn and when the fight begins 
 no one can foresee how it will end. 
 
 " It is natural to regret such an end, but at the same 
 time it is right to recognise that after all a good people 
 had suffered from their King, and after the manner in 
 which that King had treated his own father and mother 
 some such terrible end was to be expected." 
 
 In this statement of a Regicide there is much that is 
 true, but at least as much that is not true. 
 
 It is quite true that King Alexander was not a 
 constitutional monarch. By his bad education, by his 
 surroundings, by political circumstances of Servia, by the 
 follies of the leaders of political parties in Servia, he had 
 been encouraged in his autocratic proclivities. I am the 
 last man who would undertake to justify his numerous 
 " State strokes " (coups d'etaf), but it is only fair to 
 remember that Alexander, like his father Milan, was 
 obliged day and night to defend himself against the 
 permanent conspiracy which was working by all and 
 every means to replace the dynasty Obrenovich on the 
 throne of Servia by the dynasty Karageorgevich. 
 
 It is quite true that King Alexander behaved since 
 his marriage with Draga cruelly towards his father and 
 mother. I myself told him once that he will have to 
 suffer for his conduct towards his parents, and implored 
 him to change his conduct towards them. 
 
 It is quite true that he ought not to have made Draga 
 Mashin the Queen of Servia, and it is quite true that the 
 army and the Servian political world disapproved of that 
 marriage. 
 
 But it is not true that Draga Mashin led a dissolute 
 life before she came into contact with the Court. It is 
 
APPENDIX 229 
 
 not true that King Milan brought her in the way of 
 his son. 
 
 It is not true that Queen Draga simulated, with the 
 approval of King Alexander, as if she had been in an 
 interesting condition, desiring to proclaim some other 
 woman's baby as her own. She in good faith thought 
 herself to be enceinte, and not only all the Court and friends 
 of the dynasty who saw her believed so, but competent 
 doctors and specialists not only the Servian physicians to 
 the Court, but specialists of European fame, brought from 
 Paris and Vienna did believe so. The well-known French 
 accoucheur, Dr. Collet, gave to the King a written 
 assurance that the Queen was in an interesting condition. 
 Nor is it true that the Tzar insisted that two Russian 
 specialists, whom he wished to send, must examine the 
 real condition of the Queen. Dr. SneguirefT and Dr. 
 Goobareff were invited by King Alexander and Queen 
 Draga to attend her at her expected confinement, and 
 acting on their first impressions they, on their arrival in the 
 Belgrade Palace, ordered all necessary preparations for an 
 accouchement. The story of her alleged plot to cheat 
 everybody shows only how boundless was the hatred of 
 some of her personal enemies, and how the agents working 
 for the downfall of the dynasty Obrenovich did not 
 hesitate to use the most abominable lies only to discredit 
 that dynasty. 
 
 It is quite true that the reports were assiduously spread 
 that King Alexander, hypnotised by Queen Draga, wished 
 to proclaim Nikodiye" Lunyevitza, her younger brother, 
 Heir-Apparent to the throne. It is true that such reports 
 alarmed the people and disgusted many officers, especially 
 younger ones, the comrades of Nikodiyd But all those 
 reports were repeatedly and emphatically contradicted 
 officially, and denied by King Alexander on several 
 solemn occasions to the members of Parliament, to the 
 deputations from the people, to foreign diplomatists, etc. 
 Eight days before his assassination he confided to the 
 16 
 
230 APPENDIX 
 
 uncle of his father, Aleko Catargi (at present the 
 Roumanian Minister in London), that his intention was 
 to adopt a young boy of a small German Court, to bring 
 him and educate him in Servia and make him heir to the 
 Servian Crown. 
 
 It is certainly not true that the attempt on King 
 Milan's life was only a fictitious attempt arranged by 
 Milan himself and his son Alexander in order to get rid 
 of certain Radical political leaders. 
 
 And I honestly believe that the story about the plot 
 which the regicides say was projected by King Alexander 
 against himself, in order to make numerous arrests of 
 oppositionists and frighten the Parliament into submission 
 and readiness to proclaim Nikodiye Heir-Apparent, is 
 simply an invention of the regicides themselves to justify 
 their action. After the assassination of King Alexander 
 and Queen Draga they got into their hands the King's 
 private papers and secret Archives of the Court and of 
 the State, and they never produced the slightest document 
 proving that King Alexander really was arranging, or had 
 arranged, such a diabolical plot. 
 
 There is no doubt that several unconstitutional acts of 
 King Alexander, his marriage with Draga Mashin, and 
 then more especially the phantom of Nikodiye Lunyevitza 
 as future King of Servia, created intense dissatisfaction 
 among the officers especially the younger ones of the 
 army. That dissatisfaction was cleverly used by the 
 leaders of the anti-dynastic movement, and it succeeded 
 in annihilating the dynasty Obrenovich in a horrible 
 manner, which added a new bloody page to the history 
 of the Servian nation, certainly to the great and ever- 
 lasting regret of all Servian patriots. 
 
 Printed by MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, Edinburgh 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 Fii 
 
 
 OCT 14 1947 
 
 IN STACK! 
 
 NOV 81! 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 J UN 2 4 1963 
 
 RECDLO 
 
 LD 21-100m-12,'46(A2012^6)4120 
 
 2 7 7979 
 
 KjjkM- MAR *& 
 
 O 
 
 Jl 
 K 
 Uj 
 
 Z 
 
 CO 
 
 Ul 
 
 CQ 
 
 J 
 
 O 
 
 Si, 
 
 O 
 
 DAY USE 
 2 4 1983 
 
 recdcirc. FEB 24 1983 
 
1C 47024 
 
 240719 
 
 w