"By the women mainly. But, all the same, we have also a male guard whichcovers the whole frontier except that to seaward. Each man has with himsix women, so that the whole line is unbroken. Moreover, sir, you mustbear in mind that in the Blue Mountains our women are trained to arms aswell as our men--ay, and they could give a good account of themselves,too, against any foe that should assail us. Our history shows what womencan do in defence. I tell you, the Turkish population would be biggerto-day but for the women who on our frontier fought of old for defence oftheir homes!"
"No wonder this nation has kept her freedom for a thousand years!" Isaid.
At a signal given by the President of the National Council one of theDivisions moved forwards. It was not an ordinary movement, but anintense rush made with all the _elan_ and vigour of hardy andhighly-trained men. They came on, not merely at the double, but as ifdelivering an attack. Handjar in hand, they rushed forward. I can onlycompare their rush to an artillery charge or to an attack of massedcavalry battalions. It was my fortune to see the former at Magenta andthe latter at Sadowa, so that I know what such illustration means. I mayalso say that I saw the relief column which Roberts organized rushthrough a town on its way to relieve Mafeking; and no one who had thedelight of seeing that inspiring progress of a flying army on their wayto relieve their comrades needs to be told what a rush of armed men canbe. With speed which was simply desperate they ran up the hill, and,circling to the left, made a ring round the topmost plateau, where stoodthe King. When the ring was complete, the stream went on lapping roundand round till the whole tally was exhausted. In the meantime anotherDivision had followed, its leader joining close behind the end of thefirst. Then came another and another. An unbroken line circled andcircled round the hill in seeming endless array, till the whole slopeswere massed with moving men, dark in colour, and with countlessglittering points everywhere. When the whole of the Divisions had thussurrounded the King, there was a moment's hush--a silence so still thatit almost seemed as if Nature stood still also. We who looked on werealmost afraid to breathe.
Then suddenly, without, so far as I could see, any fugleman or word ofcommand, the handjars of all that mighty array of men flashed upward asone, and like thunder pealed the National cry:
"The Blue Mountains and Duty!"
After the cry there was a strange subsidence which made the onlooker rubhis eyes. It seemed as though the whole mass of fighting men hadpartially sunk into the ground. Then the splendid truth burst uponus--the whole nation was kneeling at the feet of their chosen King, whostood upright.
Another moment of silence, as King Rupert, taking off his crown, held itup in his left hand, and, holding his great handjar high in his right,cried in a voice so strong that it came ringing over that serried masslike a trumpet:
"To Freedom of our Nation, and to Freedom within it, I dedicate these andmyself. I swear!"
So saying, he, too, sank on his knees, whilst we all instinctivelyuncovered.
The silence which followed lasted several seconds; then, without a sign,as though one and all acted instinctively, the whole body stood up.Thereupon was executed a movement which, with all my experience ofsoldiers and war, I never saw equalled--not with the Russian Royal Guardsaluting the Czar at his Coronation, not with an impi of Cetewayo's Zuluswhirling through the opening of a kraal.
For a second or two the whole mass seemed to writhe or shudder, and then,lo! the whole District Divisions were massed again in completeness, itsCouncillors next the King, and the Divisions radiating outwards down thehill like wedges.
This completed the ceremony, and everything broke up into units. Later,I was told by my official friend that the King's last movement--the oathas he sank to his knees--was an innovation of his own. All I can say is,if, in the future, and for all time, it is not taken for a precedent, andmade an important part of the Patriotic Coronation ceremony, the BlueMountaineers will prove themselves to be a much more stupid people thanthey seem at present to be.
The conclusion of the Coronation festivities was a time of unalloyed joy.It was the banquet given to the King and Queen by the nation; the guestsof the nation were included in the royal party. It was a uniqueceremony. Fancy a picnic-party of a hundred thousand persons, nearly allmen. There must have been made beforehand vast and elaboratepreparations, ramifying through the whole nation. Each section hadbrought provisions sufficient for their own consumption in addition toseveral special dishes for the guest-tables; but the contribution of eachsection was not consumed by its own members.
It was evidently a part of the scheme that all should derive from acommon stock, so that the feeling of brotherhood and common propertyshould be preserved in this monumental fashion.
The guest-tables were the only tables to be seen. The bulk of thefeasters sat on the ground. The tables were brought forward by the menthemselves--no such thing as domestic service was known on this day--froma wood close at hand, where they and the chairs had been placed inreadiness. The linen and crockery used had been sent for the purposefrom the households of every town and village. The flowers were pluckedin the mountains early that morning by the children, and the gold andsilver plate used for adornment were supplied from the churches. Eachdish at the guest-tables was served by the men of each section in turn.
Over the whole array seemed to be spread an atmosphere of joyousness, ofpeace, of brotherhood. It would be impossible to adequately describethat amazing scene, a whole nation of splendid men surrounding their newKing and Queen, loving to honour and serve them. Scattered about throughthat vast crowd were groups of musicians, chosen from amongst themselves.The space covered by this titanic picnic was so vast that there were fewspots from which you could hear music proceeding from different quarters.
After dinner we all sat and smoked; the music became rather vocal thaninstrumental--indeed, presently we did not hear the sound of anyinstrument at all. Only knowing a few words of Balkan, I could notfollow the meanings of the songs, but I gathered that they were alllegendary or historical. To those who could understand, as I wasinformed by my tutelary young friend, who stayed beside me the whole ofthis memorable day, we were listening to the history of the Land of theBlue Mountains in ballad form. Somewhere or other throughout that vastconcourse each notable record of ten centuries was being told to eagerears.
It was now late in the day. Slowly the sun had been dropping down overthe Calabrian Mountains, and the glamorous twilight was stealing over theimmediate scene. No one seemed to notice the coming of the dark, whichstole down on us with an unspeakable mystery. For long we sat still, theclatter of many tongues becoming stilled into the witchery of the scene.Lower the sun sank, till only the ruddiness of the afterglow lit theexpanse with rosy light; then this failed in turn, and the night shutdown quickly.
At last, when we could just discern the faces close to us, a simultaneousmovement began. Lights began to flash out in places all over thehillside. At first these seemed as tiny as glow-worms seen in a summerwood, but by degrees they grew till the space was set with little circlesof light. These in turn grew and grew in both number and strength.Flames began to leap out from piles of wood, torches were lighted andheld high. Then the music began again, softly at first, but then louderas the musicians began to gather to the centre, where sat the King andQueen. The music was wild and semi-barbaric, but full of sweet melody.It somehow seemed to bring before us a distant past; one and all,according to the strength of our imagination and the volume of ourknowledge, saw episodes and phases of bygone history come before us.There was a wonderful rhythmic, almost choric, force in the time k
ept,which made it almost impossible to sit still. It was an invitation tothe dance such as I had never before heard in any nation or at any time.Then the lights began to gather round. Once more the mountaineers tooksomething of the same formation as at the crowning. Where the royalparty sat was a level mead, with crisp, short grass, and round it whatone might well call the Ring of the Nation was formed.
The music grew louder. Each mountaineer who had not a lit torch alreadylighted one, and the whole rising hillside was a glory of light. TheQueen rose, and the King an instant after. As they rose men steppedforward and carried away their chairs, or rather thrones. The Queen gavethe King her hand--this is, it seems, the privilege of the wife asdistinguished from any other woman. Their feet took the time of themusic, and they moved into the centre of the ring.
That dance was another thing to remember, won from the haunting memoriesof that strange day. At first the King and Queen danced all alone. Theybegan with stately movement, but as the music quickened their feet kepttime, and the swing of their bodies with movements kept growing more andmore ecstatic at every beat till, in true Balkan fashion, the dancebecame a very agony of passionate movement.
At this point the music slowed down again, and the mountaineers began tojoin in the dance. At first slowly, one by one, they joined in, theVladika and the higher priests leading; then everywhere the whole vastcrowd began to dance, till the earth around us seemed to shake. Thelights quivered, flickered, blazed out again, and rose and fell as thathundred thousand men, each holding a torch, rose and fell with the rhythmof the dance. Quicker, quicker grew the music, faster grew the rushingand pounding of the feet, till the whole nation seemed now in an ecstasy.
I stood near the Vladika, and in the midst of this final wildness I sawhim draw from his belt a short, thin flute; then he put it to his lipsand blew a single note--a fierce, sharp note, which pierced the volume ofsound more surely than would the thunder of a cannon-shot. On theinstant everywhere each man put his torch under his foot.
There was complete and immediate darkness, for the fires, which had bynow fallen low, had evidently been trodden out in the measure of thedance. The music still kept in its rhythmic beat, but slower than it hadyet been. Little by little this beat was pointed and emphasized by theclapping of hands--at first only a few, but spreading till everyonepresent was beating hands to the slow music in the darkness. This lasteda little while, during which, looking round, I noticed a faint lightbeginning to steal up behind the hills. The moon was rising.
Again there came a note from the Vladika's flute--a single note, sweetand subtle, which I can only compare with a note from a nightingale,vastly increased in powers. It, too, won through the thunder of thehand-claps, and on the second the sound ceased. The sudden stillness,together with the darkness, was so impressive that we could almost hearour hearts beating. And then came through the darkness the mostbeautiful and impressive sound heard yet. That mighty concourse, withoutfugleman of any sort, began, in low, fervent voice, to sing the NationalAnthem. At first it was of so low tone as to convey the idea of a mightyassembly of violinists playing with the mutes on. But it gradually rosetill the air above us seemed to throb and quiver. Each syllable--eachword--spoken in unison by the vast throng was as clearly enunciated asthough spoken by a single voice:
"Guide our feet through darkness, O Jehovah."
This anthem, sung out of full hearts, remains on our minds as the lastperfection of a perfect day. For myself, I am not ashamed to own that itmade me weep like a child. Indeed, I cannot write of it now as I would;it unmans me so!
* * * * *
In the early morning, whilst the mountains were still rather grey thanblue, the cable-line took us to the Blue Mouth, where we embarked in theKing's yacht, _The Lady_, which took us across the Adriatic at a pacewhich I had hitherto considered impossible. The King and Queen came tothe landing to see us off. They stood together at the right-hand side ofthe red-carpeted gangway, and shook hands with each guest as he went onboard. The instant the last passenger had stepped on deck the gangwaywas withdrawn. The Lord High Admiral, who stood on the bridge, raisedhis hand, and we swept towards the mouth of the gulf. Of course, allhats were off, and we cheered frantically. I can truly say that if KingRupert and Queen Teuta should ever wish to found in the Blue Mountains acolony of diplomatists and journalists, those who were their guests onthis great occasion will volunteer to a man. I think old Hempetch, whois the doyen of English-speaking journalists, voiced our sentiments whenhe said: