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io 100
INTRIGUES AT SOFIA [chap.viii.
myself to be drawn into a game which might have ended
in cruel disappointments for Russia!"
Goutchkoff’s opinion that we often reaped success
in spite of our perpetual unpreparedness was shared by
our military agent, and it often led him, in his interviews
with the Bulgarian military, into making assertions
which I should have wished to be less encouraging and
less enthusiastic.
From Sofia Goutchkoff went to Belgrade, where he
was received with even more cordiality than in Sofia,
there was even an official tinge in the reception given
in his honour. A few days after I had taken leave of
him, I left to meet Sverbeieff in Vienna, and at the
Belgrade station I was an incognito witness of the
almost triumphal departure of Goutchkoff, who got into
my train. The royal waiting-rooms were brilliantly lit
up, a soft red carpet was laid down up to the door
of the wagon-lit; and after a somewhat long wait, I
perceived the excellent M. Goutchkoff, dressed for
travelling, accompanied by all the Serbian Ministers
headed by M. Pachitch, M. Hartwig, the Mayor of
Belgrade, and other political personages; most of these
gentlemen were in evening clothes, for they had just
come from a grand banquet given to the eminent Russian
guest. At last all the good-byes were said, there was
much shaking of hands, some friendly tapping on the
back, cries of "jivio," and the train slowly steamed out
of the station, while Goutchkoff, touched by so much
cordiality, stood at the open window of his coupe waving
to his Serbian friends. He was slightly abashed when
I suddenly emerged out of the darkness of the corridor
and asked him: " Well, my dear Goutchkoff, and what
have you been doing in Belgrade?" The following
morning, before we reached Vienna, he told me that the
public mind was much excited in Serbia, and that
Macedonian events were looked on as most serious ; he
omitted to tell me what he himself had said and preached
to the Serbians.
Three days after, on my return from Vienna, 1 was a
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