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2 corrections, most recently by allanraymond - Show corrections

A QUAINT KING.

NICHOLAS OF MONTENEGRO. *  

The London correspondent of the Melbourne "Age," writing of the 3rd of March, says :-

The death of King Nicholas of Monte-   negro, in exile at Antibes, on the Riviera, at thc age of seventy-nine years revives memories of the patriarchial way in which he had ruled over his people. He succeeded his uncle as ruler of the principality of Montenegro in I860, and it waa not until the fiftieth anniversary of his succession that the National Parliament, which had   been recently constituted, proclaimed Montenegro a kingdom, and elevated Prince Nicholas to the rank of King. Montenegro which had formed part of the Serbian Am- pire, dismembered in 1388, baa aa ana of only 58OO square miles, and a population of 450,000. Cettinje, the capital, is a little   market town of 5000 people, Its main streets consists of whitewashed stone build-  

ings of a single story high, and even the Royal palace is an unpretentious building of about twenty rooms, it abuts on the main street, and passers-by were often greeted with culinary odors from the Royal kitchen, and sometime could see the King, in his shirt sleeve in his study.

In his palace King Nicholas waa acces- sible to any of his subjects, and he made a practice of taking a daily walk in the town, arrayed in military uniform, with a big revolver held at his waist by a sash. Foreign visitors to his capital were few, but they were always welcome, and com- paratively humble visiters, with no official   standing in their own country, were liable to receive a royal command to lunch at the palace in order that the King might relieve the monotony of his daily task by a little gossip about the outside world. Mr. William le Queux, the novelist, who had often visited Cettinje, waa a frequent guest at the Toyal table, and was on familiar terms with King Nicholas. " Among the laws made by tba King," states Mr. Le Queux, " was one to compel every male person over the age af twenty to carry a full loaded revolver at all times. The penalty for neglect of this law was five francs for each offence. It was his Majesty's custom to walk down the main street Cettinje, and examine the weapon   of every man he met. If a revolver was not loaded he would there and then collect the fine from the culprit, and pst it in his pocket. "It is thc only way ta keep my men on the alert against the Albanians,

said the King."

Another English writer states :- "King Nicholas put an end to blood feuds-the curse of Montenegro- by having feud mur- derers shot by a firing party composed of one man from each tribe in the country.   He codified and simplified the laws, started a system of education , built roads - to the horror and alarm ot some of his subjects who protested that the roads would help the Turks in their invasion of the country and even built a little railway. In October, 1905, he introduced a constitution which went far to rub off the fine bloom of

patriarchal simplicity from political life  

in thc Black Mountains as he almost immediately had recourse to the most   modern methods of securing a docile   majority, and began to lose his popularity among his people in consequence."  

Montenegro, as the home of a small sec-  

tion of the Serbian race, joined in all the Balkan wars against the Turks. The King

in spite of his patriarehial simplicity, waa an astute diplomat. He drew a pension from Russia, the protecter of the Slavs, but though he remained loyal to Russia ana sent his daughter to Petrograd to be educated, he was able to keep on good terms with Austria. Two of his six daugh- tern married Russian Grand Dukes, and two others made more brilliant matches, one marrying King Emanuel of Italy and the other King Peter of Serbia. His own wife, whom he married eixty years ago, when she was a girl of thirteen, was the daughter of a Montenegrin, and now sur-

vives him.

When the great war broke oout wth the   Austrian attack on Serbia, Montenegro threw in her lot with Serbia, but the dura- tion of the colossal conflict, and the dread ful fate which the Serbian people suffered   in their retreat before the Austrian inva- sion, weakened the faith of King Nirholaa in the ultimate victory of the Allies. When   the Austrians invaded Montenegro in the early part of 1916, King Nicholas, accom- panied by his youngest son and two un- married daughters fled from Cettinje and sought refuge with the Allies, but he sent his second son to Vienna to carry out the

surrender of Montenegro, in the hope that when thc war was over and the Central Empires were victorious, the throne would

be restored to him.

His treachery to the cause of the Allies, and particularly the cause of Serbia, cost him his throne. When the tide turned in favor of the Allies, and tbe Central Em- pires acknowledged their defeat, a National Assembly was summoned in Montenegro, and it formaly deposed Nicholas and voted in favuur of the union of Montenegro with Greater Serbia. After his deposition and exile, Nicholas, who in his young days had written stirring poetry, expressing the un- dying hope of the Serbs for national re- union and thc restoration of tbe greatness of their race, plotted against the inclusion of Montenegro with Greater Serbia ; but he had alienated the affection of his people, and his adherents in Montenegro dwindled down to n few bands of brigands, who, in thc name of loyalty to their fallen monarch, carried out robberies and murders.

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