Male children were killed with the men; and the women, abandoning everything they could not carry, returned to Austrian territory, where I visited them to get the facts of the matter.
The result was that I decided to go to Mostar and lay the facts before the consuls, who had been charged to form a commission to investigate and report on the state of things in Herzegovina.

I was joined by the correspondent of "Le Temps" and a Belgian engineer engaged on the new road beyond Seraievo, and we engaged a courageous coachman to drive us to the capital of Herzegovina, for timid people would not venture to make the journey, such was the anarchy of the country.

As far as Metcovich we were in Austrian territory, but there we fell into the Asiatic order of things, meeting a frontier guard of ragged Turkish regulars, to whom the visas on our passports seemed of small account, in view of their evident desire to regard us as enemies; and all along the road to Mostar we had the scowling faces of the native Mussulmans bent on us as we passed, and the few Christians we saw wore an air of harelike timidity.
The city of Mostar is one of the most picturesque I have ever seen.

At that time its dirt, decay, and generally unkempt appearance added to the picturesqueness, but not to the comfort.

We got shelter at a khan, whose owner hardly knew if he dared admit a Christian guest; but the authority of the English consul, Mr.Holmes, reassured him, and we were admitted to the society of more fleas than I had considered possible at that time of the year.