20 King Milan's Abdication [1889 



an intriguer.' The first hint her husband had of her designs was on 

 his return from his lost battle of Slivnitza in Bulgaria. He was dis- 

 pirited and thought of abdicating, and, when he told her, she was for 

 his doing it at once. This shocked him. Now she has gained half 

 her object and the other half she will gain soon by returning as Regent 

 to Servia." The battle of Slivnitza here referred to was one of the 

 earliest of the Balkan internecine fightings after the independence of 

 Servia and Bulgaria had been enforced upon the Sultan by European 

 pressure. It ended disastrously for the Servians who, without much 

 cause of quarrel, had invaded Bulgaria and were routed with heavy 

 loss. The Austrian Empire at that time was believed to be in a very 

 unstable position, held together only by the personal popularity of the 

 aged Emperor. We stayed ten days with the Hoyos' and while there 

 were shown experiments in torpedo practice by Whitehead, who had 

 his factory adjoining the villa. I find, however, nothing in my diary 

 worth transcribing here, unless it be a list of persons whose ac- 

 quaintance we made, belonging to Viennese society. This includes 

 Count Zichy, governor of the town, and his father, formerly Austrian 

 Ambassador at Constantinople ; Prince and Princess Sanguscko, cousins 

 of our friends the Potockis in Poland, and joint owner with them of 

 their famous Arabian stud; Count and Countess Breuner, Countess 

 Palffy and others. From Fiume we went on by Vienna and the 

 Orient Express to Paris, and so home to England, arriving there on 

 the 5th of April. 



Here there is a long gap in my diary and nothing of any public im- 

 portance, except the record of a second interview I had with Boulanger, 

 who had come to London with the idea of making friends there, and 

 had made an appointment with me to see him at a house he had taken 

 in Portland Place. I write: 



" igth May. — On Wednesday I saw General Boulanger by appoint- 

 ment at his house in Portland Place. He looks older and more worn 

 than when I saw him six months ago, but he talked cheerfully enough. 

 I told him I had been much taken to task by the leaders of the Liberal 

 Party for my avowal of sympathy with his cause (my letter to the 

 ' Times' of last year), and asked him to inform me on certain points 

 which might strengthen my position. The first point I put was whether 

 he intended to destroy liberty in France, to shut up the Chambers and 

 make himself Dictator? intentions commonly attributed to him. To 

 this he said that the idea was ridiculous. The French could never get on 

 without talking, and a Parliament in some form they must have. What 

 he wanted was to do away with the personal politics of the Chamber, 

 which he could effect by reforming it (the Revision). Frenchmen 

 must be united into a National Party instead of broken up into small 

 groups The power of the President must be strengthened, but within 



