156 BIRD-HUNTING 



eyes, as they spoke of the dreadful barbarities to 

 which they had been subjected. And certainly, 

 though I must have lost a good deal — for 

 they spoke at length in Servian, which had to be 

 translated into French by my interpreter, and my 

 replies in French translated again into Servian — 

 yet I heard enough to sympathize with them even 

 if it was out of my power to help them. I heard 

 tales of peaceful Montenegrin peasants being shot 

 dead while ploughing in their own fields by some 

 bloodthirsty Albanian across the frontier, out of 

 mere sport, and blood-curdling accounts of how 

 their girls and women are constantly seized and 

 carried over the border, never to be seen again by 

 their friends, parents, or husbands, sometimes to be 

 butchered by being knocked on the head with an 

 axe when their captors have tired of them. 



All this was very painful, and though perhaps 

 some of these tales were slightly coloured by 

 national prejudice, still I knew enough to realize 

 that in the main these terrible accounts were true, 

 and also that it has only been through great 

 difficulty and constant fighting that Montenegro 

 has until now preserved her independence. But 

 whether the protection of England is really desired 

 by the people I am not in a position to say. I 

 know that England is still regarded with gratitude 

 and affection ever since the British fleet made a 



