The tragedy of the second Balkan war had bitten deep into the hearts of most Bulgarians. As I have already related, the terrible disaster which that war brought upon Bulgaria produced a controversy which only died down when the Bulgarian Army was once more mobilized to fight for the Turk against the nation which liberated Bulgaria from Turkish bondage.

In the course of that controversy the argument was elaborated that by the Treaty of Bucarest Bulgaria had liquidated its old debt to Russia, and was free to turn and rend its whilom benefactor upon the first favourable occasion. As Nikoff, one of the foremost controversialists, put it:

“In 1878 Russia liberated 3,000,000 of our population after having shed the blood of 150,000 of her sons. In the year 1913 Bulgaria liberated, at great sacrifices also, 3,000,000 of her population in Macedonia and Thrace, which Russia took and distributed among her new protÉgÉs, Rumania, Serbia and Greece. And to-day Bulgaria and Russia are quits. We have paid all our debt to Russia. To-day we can say: We have secured our own liberty by our own arms.”

The argument is an ingenious one, but it quite overlooks the point that the Bulgarian Czar, and not Russia, was the instrument of Bulgaria’s undoing. But the Bulgarians desired to free themselves not only from the obligation for their liberty, but from the claims of kinship with Russia. And here German Kultur came to their aid by an elaborate demonstration that they were not Slavs at all, but a predominant semi-Teutonic and Tartar race which had organized the meek Slavs of 500 years ago into a victorious nation, and had persisted long after the Slav race that lived with them had perished.

For Slav unity this new Bulgarian school therefore proposed to substitute the theory of German Kultur. As Dr. Ghenadieff writes, “Slavism is a fatal barrier to our national power and enthusiasm. It is high time that we emerge from that error and discontinue preaching that falsehood.”

And Dr. Petroff, of the Bulgarian University, writes, “At this moment the culturally degenerated and outcast France has, in her struggle against the powerful German Kultur, barbaric and idiotic Russia for her ally.”

And the most celebrated of Bulgarian poets, the Tartaro-Bulgar Kyril Christoff, sings a song of vengeance against Ferdinand’s France—

Such a state of mind, of course, was diligently fostered in Bulgaria by Austrians and Germans alike. Soon there were accounts from credible sources of the massing in Bulgaria of huge stores of German munitions, and even of German uniforms. Some of these munitions were undoubtedly intended for the beleaguered Turk, and Bulgaria became notorious for the ease with which these warlike stores could be smuggled through a neutral country. Indeed, so openly was the passage made that the word smuggled is wildly inappropriate.

At this period Bulgaria entertained a new guest, Prince Henry of Reuss. He had not always been as friendly to his brother-in-law, the Czar of Bulgaria, as that potentate considered compatible with his own dignity and peculiar merits. But now he had to complain of no lack of friendliness on the part of the Lutheran Prince, or of his royal master who had dispatched him to Sofia.

The Germans at this period were good customers of Bulgaria. The wheat crop had been a bountiful one, and never had the Bulgarian farmers received such prices for their harvest. They found that a European war spelled prosperity for them, though there were signs that the garnering of the wheat would be followed by one of those grim harvests with which Bulgaria has recently been only too familiar.

Then German officers appeared in the streets of Sofia in increasing numbers. They were discernible everywhere, though they made as little display as possible of their uniforms; and when a German officer appears in civil garb there must be some deep reason for the self-denial.

The other signs of German Kultur in Bulgaria were the persistent anti-Russian campaigns carried on by the chief newspapers, especially the Government organs.

“If our national duty demands that we should join ourselves to the enemies of the Russian policy,” wrote Dr. Ghenadieff, “it would be criminal and treasonable were we to hesitate to do so because of a souvenir of our liberation, or if, following the example of the Bohemians, Poles, Croatians, and other pure-blooded Slavs, we delayed too long before turning our arms against the Russians.... May an end be finally put to the question of Bulgarian gratitude to Russia.”

Thus the corruption of Bulgaria went on. German money, German officers, and German arms were poured into the country. The sufferings of Poland, devastated as the result of its fidelity to Russia, were magnified in the Bulgarian Press, and the moral for Bulgarians was emphasized with daily increasing vehemence.

Ferdinand’s part in these proceedings was a characteristic one. He undertook to conceal from the Powers of the Entente the treachery that was preparing, and of which he was the chief instigator. At this period—the middle of August, 1915—he wrote to a correspondent in Paris, through his political secretary Dobrovitch:—

“The Russians have recently sustained serious defeats, but I am not of opinion that these will affect the general situation. They now require time to recuperate, and then, I hope, they will be able to resume the offensive.

“Bulgaria maintains its neutrality. Will it continue to do so? I think not. But in any case Bulgaria will not move until Greece and Rumania have done so. The catastrophes of the last war have taught us to be prudent, and not to trust to promises.

“I have conveyed your messages to His Majesty the King, who has been much touched by them, and has charged me to convey his appreciation.”

That letter was written a month after the treaty with Germany had been signed. In the middle of July the French Minister at Sofia was secretly informed that Ferdinand had gone on a visit to Berlin. He at once attempted to get into touch with the King, and was informed that he was not very well, and was resting at his Vrana estate. He made persistent attempts to communicate with Ferdinand by telephone, a method always possible when Ferdinand was professing to be more French than the French themselves. His every attempt was met with the reply that His Majesty was indisposed and could not answer the calls.

Photographs have since been obtained which prove beyond all doubt that Ferdinand was at that time in Berlin, where he had gone to confirm with the Kaiser the hard and fast arrangement which had been effected through the agency of the Prince of Reuss.

And now the German officers swarmed openly in the streets of Sofia and took up their quarters at the Bulgarian war office. The meaning of the signs and portents could not be mistaken by anybody but a simpleton. It was common knowledge throughout Bulgaria that their Czar was about to throw in his lot with the Huns.