THE MONTENEGRINS AND THEIR PRINCE To me Russie's death was a crushing disaster.

The care and constant preoccupation of my life was taken away, and nothing moved me to activity.

I missed him every moment that I was awake, and in my condition I could not rally from the depression caused by the mental void and grief.

I do not think I should have recovered from it had not Mr.Spartali conceived the idea of my going off to Herzegovina, where the insurrection of 1875 was just beginning to stir, and, to cut short my hesitation at the venture as a volunteer correspondent, got me an introduction to the manager of the "Times," and offered to pay my expenses should the "Times" not accept my letters.

I knew so well the condition in which the Turkish Empire had been left by the Cretan affair, and the apathy that had ruled ever since, that I was convinced that a disaster was pending, and the state to which Russia had brought matters in the Ottoman Empire in 1869 pointed to a Slavonic movement this time.