The Young Turk revolution could only have been viewed by Ferdinand, and by his master, Franz Ferdinand, as a serious blow to their schemes of aggrandisement in the Balkans. Their whole pretext for interference was supplied by the oppression of the Christian nations in Thrace, Macedonia and Albania by the minions of the Red Sultan. And now the Red Sultan was no more a Sultan, and the new Sultan was put into power with the mission of remedying the grievances of these Christian subjects of Turkey.

Ferdinand was still a vassal Prince, and by the terms of the Treaty of Berlin bound to remain a vassal Prince. The Provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by the terms of the same treaty, only existed under the protection of the Austrian Empire. If the new Turkish administration should prove honest and successful, the schemers would be hard put to it for an excuse for the interference they had planned.

But excuses are easily found by men like Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The new Turkish Ministry gave a dinner in Constantinople to the representatives of the Great Powers. Naturally they left out M. Gueschoff, the Bulgarian political Agent in Constantinople, who was nothing but the servant of Turkey’s own vassal. But Ferdinand took offence at this slight, and seizing a section of the Orient Express railway, promptly proclaimed Bulgaria’s independence of Turkey.

In the same moment Austria took possession in full of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the breach of the Treaty of Berlin thus became a huge one. The full nature of the plot was revealed when Germany, which was bound like all the other Powers signing the treaty to insist on its observance, backed the position of Austria and Bulgaria. In the words of the Kaiser, Germany stood by “in shining armour.” The prospect of a world struggle, since realized, was afforded to a startled civilization. But it was averted, and the schemers carried out their plan successfully.

On October 5, 1908, Ferdinand rode into the ancient Bulgarian capital of Tirnovo, incidentally falling off his horse in the process, and was crowned Czar of Bulgaria, the regalia to which allusion has been made in the course of this narrative having been taken out of pawn and furbished up for the occasion. The happy peasantry danced the national dances once more, and the streets of the city afforded a spectacle seldom seen off the stage of the luxurious musical comedy theatres of the pre-war era.

The Coronation ceremony took place in the Church of the Forty Martyrs, and afterwards Ferdinand walked to the Hissar, or castle of the old Czars of Bulgaria. No more perilous riding for him that day! And there, in the hall where Czar Simeon and the rest of them used to feast—and plan to gouge out the eyes of the Byzantine Greeks—he read the following bombastic proclamation:—

“By the will of our never-to-be-forgotten Liberator and the great kindred Russian nation, aided by our good friends and neighbours the subjects of the King of Rumania, by the Bulgarian heroes on February 18, 1878, chains of slavery were broken by which for so many centuries Bulgaria, once a great and glorious Power, was bound. From that time till to-day, for full thirty years, the Bulgarian nation, preserving the memory of those who had laboured for its freedom and inspired by their tradition, has worked incessantly for the development of its beautiful country, and under my guidance and that of the departed Prince Alexander, has made it a nation fit to take an equal place in the family of civilized peoples, and endowed with gifts of cultural and economic progress.

“While proceeding on this path nothing should arrest the progress of Bulgaria, nothing should hinder her success. Such is the desire of the nation, such its will.

“Let that desire be fulfilled! The Bulgarian nation and its chief can have but one sentiment, one desire.

“Practically independent, the nation was impeded in its normal and peaceful development by certain illusions and formal limitations, which resulted in a coldness of relations between Turkey and Bulgaria. I and the nation desire to rejoice in the political development of Turkey. Turkey and Bulgaria, free and independent of each other, may exist under conditions which will allow them to strengthen their friendly relations and to devote themselves to peaceful internal development.

“Inspired by the sacred purpose of satisfying national requirements and fulfilling the national desire, I proclaim, with the blessing of the Almighty, Bulgaria—united since September 6, 1885—an independent kingdom. Together with the nation I firmly believe that this act will meet with the approbation of the Great Powers.”

Then Ferdinand gave the signal and the beauty chorus obliged once more with the national dances. At last he was Czar of the Bulgarians.

It must have been disheartening to such a whole-souled friend of liberty and progress to find “the great kindred Russian nation” was very angry at his duplicity, and accused him of an arrangement with Austria. This he denied most emphatically, as I have told, and in an amazing Press interview explained what a misunderstood man he was. He said:—

“The mission which I am fulfilling here in the Balkans must be thoroughly understood. I have devoted myself entirely to the people which I adopted twenty-two years ago. It possesses wonderful virtues. It is sober, hard-working, proud, jealous of its independence and freedom. A nation from which is recruited the admirable and large army that you have seen, and which cheerfully bears the military burdens imposed upon it by necessity, is one of the strong nations, with a fine future before it.

“But the Bulgarian, after so many years of servitude, barely liberated as he is from the Mussulman yoke, still remains concentrated in himself. He has not learned to look outside his country. All his universe is contained between his mountains, the Black Sea, and the Danube. It is I who do duty for him as the watchman, who is incessantly scanning the distant horizon. It is I who pick up for him rumours from abroad, who communicate his aspirations, his desires, and legitimate claims to the foreigner. I am like the lung which breathes the outside air for him, and which assimilates for him the refreshing breezes which come from the rest of the world. Owing, above all, to its Sovereign, Bulgaria does not remain isolated and shut up in herself, and she constitutes a portion of the European family.”

This was Ferdinand’s way of conveying to the Liberator nation of Russia that, having got all he could expect from that source, he had taken up with new friends. The Watchman “scanning the distant horizon” had discerned the effort that the German nations were preparing to snatch the mastery of Europe, and had thrown in the lot of the people he had so kindly adopted with the pirates. But Russia, then and for long afterwards, was unable to believe that his perfidy was as complete as recent events have proved it.

Russia continued to exert itself for the freedom of the Slav peoples from the Turk; for the Young Turk proved to be still the same old Turk, and the bitter cry of Macedonia was not stilled by the departure of Abdul the Damned into exile.

The theft of Bosnia and Herzegovina had brought the Austrians right down on to the border of poor little Serbia, which needed immediate protection from the ambitious schemes of the heir to the throne, as much as the Serbians outside Serbia itself needed help against the persecuting Turk. In such circumstances it was the task of Russia to unite the Balkan nations by a treaty which would make them mutually defensive against their foes, and it was such a treaty that Ferdinand was presently called upon by his Ministers to sign.