The King measured with his eyes this countryman who spoke such weighty words.
“Do not trouble yourself about my head. It is an old one. Rather think of your own,” said the King, with the shadow of a scornful smile, as he moved away.
But Stambulivski replied: “My head matters little, sire; I am only thinking of the country’s.”
But Ferdinand chose to disregard the warning. His choice was already made, and a few days later he was figuring before the world once more in the uncongenial guise of Ferdinand the War Lord.
FERDINAND AS WAR LORD
“Your Majesty’s nation in arms, under the guidance of its illustrious War Lord, has added one sublime leaf of glory to another in the history of Bulgaria.”—The Kaiser.
CHAPTER XXVI
FERDINAND AS WAR LORD
The world has recently been treated to the sublime spectacle of a meeting of the Shoddy Czar and the Bloodstained Kaiser at Nish, the ancient capital of down-trodden Serbia, where the two monarchs, united only by the nefarious nature of the enterprise in which they are engaged, exchanged compliments of a dangerous irony. It was characteristic of Ferdinand that he should veil his impudent jibe under the screen of a dead language, and refer to his partner in crime as “Victor et gloriosus,” which, if it means anything, signifies, “Conqueror and braggart.”