What must have been the thoughts of Alexander as he drove that day through the decorated streets of Belgrade? Was he so wrapt up in his love for the aspiring Draga that he had failed to discover the plots against him? Or, aware of the deep-rooted intrigue to further the ends of a selfish monarchy, did he stubbornly face disaster and ultimate death in his loyalty to his Queen?
As the royal couple returned to the konak from the cathedral, after the marriage ceremony, the streets were thronged with a staring, phlegmatic crowd, which looked upon its new Queen in silence and wonder. Not a cheer was raised; not a trumpet sounded. All marvelled, and stood aghast at the thought that so strange and incongruous a union had received the sanction of the church.
Because of the marriage of Draga to the King the ire of her enemies had been expanded to the highest power. The net of conspiracy continued to be woven more tightly about her and her faithful but foolish husband. When she learned that it was a physical impossibility for her to become a mother she schemed to pass off an alien child as a legitimate heir to the throne; but the Czar of Russia, who had been asked to act as god-father to the child, and who, at the same time, seriously doubted the motherhood of Draga, sent his court physician to Belgrade to investigate. So frantic became the new Queen’s desire to give birth to a son that, in her dilemma, she made use of her irresistible power to induce Alexander to proclaim her own brother, Nikodim Lunyevitza, as heir apparent; this Alexander did, disregarding utterly the entreaties and expostulations of the Ministry.
His action galled the Servians beyond endurance, and immediately plans were set on foot to dispose of the Queen, and the King also, should he persist in the validity of his proclamation. It is said that a woman was sent to Geneva to propose to Peter Karageorgevitch that he come to Belgrade and be proclaimed King by the army, it being understood that he accept the liberal constitution previously annulled by Alexander.
Everything now pointed to the murder of the King and Queen, but the former, although warned by word and by letter many times, seemed oblivious to all danger. He went so far as to augment the bitter feeling by issuing an order transferring a number of officers, who were known to have conspired against him, to garrisons in the interior of the country. All Servia was aware that a royal tragedy was pending. Even Draga realized it for, on the very day before her assassination, she wrote pathetically in a letter to a friend: “I am haunted by a dreadful presentiment, and often at night I seem to see a terrifying picture of Michael[2] in his death agony, stretching his blood-stained hand toward his murderers and crying, ‘Stop! My brothers! It is enough!’”
[2] Undoubtedly Prince Michael is meant, Alexander’s great-grand-uncle, an account of whose murder in Topchidere Park in 1868 has been given in a previous chapter.
CHAPTER VI
THE CAPITAL OF CRIME