Читать книгу The Lands of the Tamed Turk; or, the Balkan States of to-day онлайн

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His action galled the Servians beyond endurance, and immediately plans were set on foot to dispose of the Queen, and the King also, should he persist in the validity of his proclamation. It is said that a woman was sent to Geneva to propose to Peter Karageorgevitch that he come to Belgrade and be proclaimed King by the army, it being understood that he accept the liberal constitution previously annulled by Alexander.

Everything now pointed to the murder of the King and Queen, but the former, although warned by word and by letter many times, seemed oblivious to all danger. He went so far as to augment the bitter feeling by issuing an order transferring a number of officers, who were known to have conspired against him, to garrisons in the interior of the country. All Servia was aware that a royal tragedy was pending. Even Draga realized it for, on the very day before her assassination, she wrote pathetically in a letter to a friend: “I am haunted by a dreadful presentiment, and often at night I seem to see a terrifying picture of Michaelssss1 in his death agony, stretching his blood-stained hand toward his murderers and crying, ‘Stop! My brothers! It is enough!’”