Once on the banks of the Danube when I was going to sail from one of these countries to her neighbour with whom she had recently been at war, and some of the inhabitants had kindly come to see me off, I was presented, amongst other things, with an old gentleman's good wishes, which he had taken the trouble to express in French and in verse. I believe that he recited them, but there was a considerable tumult on the landing-stage. Then a very angry traveller appropriated one of my ears and began to tell me that they were for detaining him in this country; three or four natives of the country reported, simultaneously, into my other ear that he had been letting off his revolver and was altogether a dangerous man. I was to settle whether he should sail or not, and meanwhile his luggage had been put ashore. He waved his passport in my face. Both he and his opponents were gesticulating with great violence, and this they continued to do even after I filled their hands with most of the small and large bouquets which the friendly people had brought down for me. There was so much noise that the boat's whistle, which the captain started, was no more than a forest-tree soaring slightly over those around it. As I tried to disentangle myself from those who encircled me I caught sight of the old gentleman of the poem—in appearance he was a smaller edition of the late Dr. Butler of Trinity; he was clearly nervous lest I should depart without his lines, which he extended towards me, written on the back of one of his visiting-cards. I was just then being told by the agitated traveller that he had only been firing into the air because it was Easter, and that this was his invariable custom at midnight on Easter-Eve. The explanation was so satisfactory that everyone welcomed my suggestion that he should sail and that they should send his revolver on to him by parcel post. They all shook hands with him. The two nationalities were on excellent terms. And we may transfer the old gentleman's good wishes to them and the other Yugoslavs:
Oh! la belle journée de votre bonheur,
Souhaitons votre bon voyage tout-à-l'heure.
Couronné de grands succès du ciel je vous implore,
Allegrèsse, santé et prosperité je vous augure.
FOOTNOTES:
[116] Cf. Modern Italy, by Giovanni Borghese. Paris, 1913.
[117] Cf. Through the Lands of the Serb.
[118] Cf. The Children of the Illuminator, by Bishop Nicholai Velimirović. London, 1919.
[119] Edinburgh Review, July 1920 (anonymous).
[120] Subsequently printed as a pamphlet with the title, Die Ausgestaltung des deutschen Kultur-Einflusses in Bulgarien. This was printed by the Opposition parties in Sofia, who to circumvent the censor gave out that it was written by an Englishman against Bratiano.