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19X2] "IT IS WAR" 103
eyes, tears coursing down the cheeks of aged men . . .
and all of a sudden from the precincts of the cathedral,
where an enormous crowd was collected, a formidable
" hurrah ! " resounded, but a " hurrah ! " the like of which
I have not heard since my childhood, when in the large
square of the Kremlin in Moscow the crowd cheered the
Tsar-Liberator Alexander II. What can this mean ? I
inwardly wondered. Is the King arriving at the
cathedral, and would they give him such an ovation ?
At this moment the doors of the church were thrown
open, and there appeared : first the flag of Samara, then
theold colours of the militia, and then Macedonian colours
entwined in crepe. But all eyes were bent on the flag
of Samara; the veterans gathered round it; with tears in
their eyes they kissed the staff, the drapery, the St.
George streamers. A thought flashed like lightning
through my mind : it is war, I thought. Certainly and
undoubtedly, it is war !
The review passed off with every one still in the
same frame of mind, and when I drove to the Legation
I was cheered with cries of "hurrah!" and "Russia
for ever!"
Soon after Gueshov informed me of the agreement
concluded with Montenegro. In all my interviews with
Bulgarian Ministers I always tried to restrain the
warlike tendencies of some amongst them, by proving to
them the undoubted dangers to which Bulgaria and
Serbia would expose themselves if they allowed
themselves to be drawn into a war with Turkey, even if they
were supported by Greece and Montenegro. I quoted
the excellent state of the Turkish Army reformed and
commanded by German generals, the possibility of an
attack on the Serbians from behind by Austria and the
utter impossibility of our doing anything to prevent
this; I did not conceal my doubts of the Balkan allies
maintaining close solidarity up to the end; but my
principal argument was that Russia was afraid of
bloodshed which might finally spread all over Europe—which
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