104 



BULGARIA. 



ment, with the exception of one drushina, or 

 battalion, of the regiment of Philippopolis, 

 which, on some pretext, postponed the cere- 

 mony. The commander of the drmhina, Capt. 

 Veltsheff, was a devoted admirer of the Bat- 

 tenberg prince. When the list of ministers 

 appeared without Karavelotf' s name, that offi- 

 cer spoke with Col. Mutkuroff, the commander 

 of the troops in Eastern Roumelia, and was re- 

 quested by him to secretly ascertain the senti- 

 ments of the officers. Veltsheff soon con- 

 vinced himself that all the officers of his regi- 

 ment were faithful to their sovereign, and that 

 the soldiers were ready to rise on behalf of the 

 soldier-prince. Some civilians were taken into 

 the secret, and instructed to gather quietly at 

 the palace in the evening. Veltsheff marched 

 his battalion there under the pretext of taking 

 the oath, seized the palace and the telegraph- 

 office, and then entered the city and announced 

 the revolt at the foreign consulates amid the 

 hurrahs of the people. Through the telegraph 

 it was learned that the Varna regiment had 

 risen about the same time. Capt. Nikisoroff, 

 commander of the Rhodope regiment, was in- 

 formed of what had occurred, and answered 

 over the wire that he would consult with his 

 subordinates. After a long pause, the message 

 came that the Rhodope regiment had risen. 

 Capt. Petreff, who commanded the Balkan 

 regiment, who was a stranger to the Philip- 

 popolis officers, was cautiously sounded, but 

 showed by his answer that he was in sympathy 

 with the movement, and, when informed of 

 the state of affairs, sent back word that he and 

 his command were prepared to fight for the 

 prince. Finally, a dispatch was sent to Stam- 

 buloff at Tirnova, and, when he returned an 

 encouraging answer, the success of the count- 

 er-revolution was assured. 



While Karaveloff and Nikisoroff, who was 

 his close political ally, remained in Sofia, and 

 made ineffectual attempts to exercise the au- 

 thority of the Government, Stambuloff traveled 

 through the country, visiting the military camps 

 and organizing the counter-revolution. The 

 officers were unwilling to trust the Karaveloff 

 Government. Its chief was strongly suspected 

 of complicity in the conspiracy to depose Prince 

 Alexander, although he had refused to join the 

 leaders of the revolution, and had denounced 

 them in vigorous terms. Stambuloff, who pos- 

 sessed the full confidence of the officers, shared 

 their distrust of Karaveloff, and refused to act 

 with his colleagues in the provisional govern- 

 ment. The officers requested Stambuloff to 

 assume the direction of affairs, and he and Ra- 

 doslavoff, with the co-operation of Col. Mutku- 

 roff in Eastern Roumelia, formed a rival pro- 

 visional government in the interest of Prince 

 Alexander, which was recognized by the aimy 

 and the population in the west, in the Danubian 

 towns, and in Roumelia. He sent appeals to 

 the prince to return to his throne, assuring him 

 of the fidelity of the regiments and of the pop- 

 ulation in Rustchuk, Tirnova, Sistova, and 



throughout Eastern Roumelia. Col. Nikolaieff, 

 chief commander in the late war, returned 

 from Germany, and assumed command of the 

 troops. Stambuloff telegraphed to Natchevich, 

 the Bulgarian diplomatic agent in Bucharest 

 and Minister for Foreign Affairs, instructing 

 him to inform the representatives of the pow- 

 ers of his assumption, at the request of the 

 army and the people, of the extraordinary 

 powers granted him as President of the So- 

 branje by the Constitution, until the return of 

 the lawful sovereign. 



The Prince's Restoration. As soon as Alexan- 

 der reached Polish ground, he was greeted 

 with enthusiastic popular demonstrations. 

 When be arrived in Lemberg, he learned that 

 he had been driven out of the principality by 

 a band of conspirators, and that only a small 

 party in Bulgaria were hostile to him. In 

 Bulgaria a counter-revolution was in progress, 

 and his party assured him of a favorable recep- 

 tion. From England he was encouraged to 

 return. He perceived that the popular feeling 

 in Germany, in Hungary, and throughout West- 

 ern Europe, was in his favor. Without being 

 able to calculate how far the Governments of 

 Germany and Austria-Hungary might be in- 

 fluenced by popular impulses, or whether the 

 sympathies of England were purely platonic, 

 or to what extent the Czar would countenance 

 the palace revolution and insult Bulgarian pa- 

 triotism, he determined to return to Bulgaria. 

 In Sofia the Alexander regiment stood guard 

 in the streets, but the rebellious Kustendil regi- 

 ment refused to leave the city for the station 

 to which it had been ordered. Fatal duels took 

 place between the officers of the rival regi- 

 ments, and there was danger of a sanguinary 

 collision at any moment. 



Alexander started to return to Bulgaria on 

 August 28, and traveled through Roumania, 

 where the Government and people manifested 

 a cordial and sympathetic interest. Entering 

 his principality, he was met by Stambuloff and 

 other devoted friends. He nominated a new 

 ministry, and, in company with its members, 

 made a tour through the country, where he 

 was everywhere received with enthusiasm. In 

 Sofia the members of the first provisional gov- 

 ernment were imprisoned, and those of the 

 second were placed under guard. The Shumla 

 regiment left Sofia, and united with the other 

 mutinous regiment a few miles from the city. 

 They were surrounded by Roumeliote troops 

 and the Alexander regiment, and at length 

 surrendered at discretion. 



Abdication of Alexander. As soon as Alexan- 

 der again found himself on Bulgarian soil, at 

 the head of his troops, surrounded by a consti- 

 tutionally appointed ministry, and in the full 

 exercise of his sovereign powers, he made a 

 last attempt to conciliate the Czar, sending 

 from Rustchuk, on Aug. 30, a submissive and 

 humble message, in which he stated that his 

 object in returning to Bulgaria was to avert 

 civil conflicts and bloodshed, restore constitu- 



