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Ethel Greening Pantazzi
ROUMANIA
YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
A WOMAN IN THE BALKANS
A WAYFARER'S WALLET
A BOOK OF DAYS
ROUMANIA
YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
BY MRS. WILL. GORDON, F.R.G.S.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND TWO
CHAPTERS BY H.M. THE QUEEN OF
ROUMANIA, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Over thy creation of beauty there is a mist of tears."
Tagop
LONDON : JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK : JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVIII
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PRINTBD BY VV. aRENDON AND SON. LTD., PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND.
TO
HER MAJESTY QUEEN MARIE
WHOSE SELF-SACRIFICE AND UNFLINCHING COURAGE
HAVE BEEN AN INSPIRATION.
TO ROUMANIA'S HERQ*IC ARMY
HER PATIENT INDOMITABLE PEOPLE
WHOSE VALOUR AND FORTITUDE
UNDER UNSPEAKABLE TRAGEDY AND SUFFERING
HAVE EARNED THEM UNDYING RESPECT
AND ADMIRATION
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
ROUMANIAN PROVERBS
" Do not dip your spoon into the pot that does
not boil for you."
" One crow never pecks out another's eyes."
" Work is a golden bracelet."
" Better an egg to-day than an ox to-morrow."
" Money is round and rolls easily."
" Blessed are the hands that knead the bread."
" Protect me, Lord, from my friends ; as for my
enemies, I shall take care of them myself."
" Where the head does not work the legs suffer."
" Life is a dream of youth, realized as age
ripens."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
EUROPE is in convulsion. Like as it were a
great melting-pot, all are being tested in the
stern crucible of fire, and history is being forged
from hour to hour. But amid the carnage and
horror of battle the souls of the mutilated little nations
shine out, haggard and crucified, but with a spirit inex-
tinguishable and superbly serene in honour and faith
unquenchable.
Of the terrible fate meted out to Belgium, Serbia,
Roumania, and Montenegro, Roumania seems to me the
supreme tragedy, for she was brought into the conflict
by treachery and the same Power has remorselessly
abandoned her to her fate.
This book has been written in the hope of bringing
a sympathetic interest, a closer understanding of our
heroic Ally to the great English-speaking race, who
though fighting with the vast width of Europe between
them are suffering and dying for the same ideals. Many
of the illustrations are from photographs graciously sent
by Her Majesty Queen Marie, who has also contributed
two chapters and the touching and wonderfully pathetic
introduction. It stands in the forefront of the book,
chronologically incorrect perhaps, but it is where it
should be. It is a poignant and inspiring human docu-
ment that will not fail to awaken the tenderest com-
passion in all those who read of the sufferings of our
desolated Ally, forced by a bitter fate to a hated peace,
but whose national soul and faith are un vanquished.
The royalties on its sale will be devoted to Roumanian
Rehef Funds. Winifred Gordon.
March y 1918.
CONTENTS
PART I
YESTERDAY
INTRODUCTION
BY H.M. THE QUEEN OF ROUMANIA
PAGE
Bucharest — Hospital in the Palace — Sufferings of the winter —
Retreat of the Army — Jassy, difificulties of organization —
Want of supplies — Heartrending distress— Arrival of English
and French help — The Queen's memories — High hopes — The
gathering clouds — Flight — Jassy — Organizing hospitals —
Uphill work — Some splendid examples of devotion — A
wonderful French doctor — Help from the Grand Duchess Cyril
— Terrible winter conditions — Difficulties of communication —
Army quartered on the miserable starving villages — Death
and misery stalking hand in hand — Gratitude for help —
Faith in the Allies ........ xix
CHAPTER I
A LAND OF BEAUTY
The beauty of the Carpathian ranges — A pastoral scene — Wal-
lachia, the great granary of Eastern Europe — Belgium of
the East — Vivid contrasts — Gipsies — An outcast race — The
music of the land — Harvest-time — The " guardians of the
babes " — Papes or priests — A Bishop must divorce — Peasant
homes — Early weddings — Abduction — The marriage chest —
Beautiful clothes — Fine needlewomen — The close of the day
— An evening scene — The prayer — National type — Striking
and interesting — Devotion to the land — Agrarian system —
Leprosy of Turkish rule — Unscrupulous Jews — Religious
observances — Fasting two hundred days in the year —
Village festivities — Pagan customs ..... 3
CHAPTER II
A LATIN OASIS
The gay capital — A city of pleasure — Luxurious palaces — The
Royal abodes — Cotroceni — Sinaia — The King's collection of
xi
xii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
PAGE
Old Masters — Intellectual development — Byzantine influence
— Riches and treasure from the convents and moneisteries —
Old crosses at Cotroceni Palace — Modern intellectual growth
— Entertaining in the social world — A Latin race — French
and English, the two influences most desired — The Aristocracy
— Conversational activity — National traits of character —
Roumanian women of the upper classes — Their vivacity and
grace — Well appreciated freedom on marriage — Influence of
the Queen — The peasant woman — The soul of Roumania —
Roumanian intellectual culture — Some of her poets and men
of letters ........< 23
CHAPTER III
THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION
A Roumanian proverb — Early history — Sixteen centuries of
bloodshed — A Latin country but a Balkan Power — Origin of
the race — Dacian period — Decebalus — The reflections of
Herodotus and Ovid on the people — Trajan's conquest —
Becomes a Roman province — Wise rule — Progress and size
of the country — Abandonment by the Romans — Successive
waves of conquering barbarians — Founding of the Princi-
palities by Radou Negrou and Dragosch — Evolution by war
— Some of the great rulers of the past — Princes Mircea —
Stefan — Michael the Brave — Vassalage under Turkey — Greek
influence — Bassarab and Vasile — Rude justice — Terrible
penalties — Sherban Cantacuzene's reign — Phanariot rdgime —
A land sweating blood — Seventy Hospodars in one hundred
and five years — Vicious and luxurious life of these rulers —
Their consorts' jealousy and extravagance — Divorce — A few
good ones — Looking to Russia for help, but vainly — Hope
from the French Revolution — Treaty of Paris — Union of the
Principalities — Grant of a Constitution — First National
Prince — Couza — Noteworthy reforms — Irregular private life
— Abdication — Offer of throne to Count of Flanders —
Acceptance by Prince Carol of Hohenzollern — Deplorable
condition of the country — Good progress — Marriage of Prince
Carol to Princess Elizabeth of Wied — Carmen Sylva — Her
beauty, character and literary attainments — Story of the
Cathedral of Curtea de Arges — Death of the Princess Marie —
Prince Ferdinand's marriage to Princess Marie of Edinburgh
— Great progress of the country — The Army — Russo-
Turkish War — Loss of Bessarabia — Agrarian problem —
Industrial and commercial riches — Roumanian finances — The
Senate and Chamber of Deputies — M. Bratiano — M. Tak6
Jonesco — Roumania proclaimed a Kingdom — King Carol's
political miscalculation . , . . . . .46
PAGE
CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER IV
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA
Early travellers in Roumania — William Harebone — The pictur-
esque beauty of the country — Line of the Danube — Aspect
of the country — Sinaia — Campulung — The Dobrudja — No
man's land — Queer peoples — Sunken waters — Curious am-
phibious life in the Delta — The floods — Bond between
Roumanian and the soil — Paganism — Spirits of the air, earth
and water — Psychology of the Roumanian — Four influences
which have affected him — Dacian strain — Slav blood — Greek
— And its four grades — Hellenic — Byzantine — Phanariot —
Grecoteiul — Phanariot as active agent for the French culture
— Women of this period — France as a model — Wallachs —
Gypsies — Jews of Kazan breed — Attitude of the peasantry
to Jews .......... 75
CHAPTER V
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY
The Near Eastern question — A whirlpool of contending forces —
First seeds of Prussian influence in Roumania — Lack of
confidence in Russia — King Carol's policy — German penetra-
tion of finance and industry — Germany's bid for Drang nach
Osten policy — Roumania's attitude in the Balkan War —
Ferdinand of Bulgaria — The jackal of the Teuton and the
Turk — Wooing of the Turk by the Kaiser — A poisonous diet —
German policy — Austrian intrigues in the Balkans — A fossil
in the modern world — " No Austrian nation " — The Balkans
as Austrian Federal States — The Emperor's Secret Service
Agent — Some disclosures — The award of Salonica a bitter pill
for the Teutonic Powers — A Diplomatic success — John Bull's
apathy — Serbia the guardian of the gate — Our debt to
Roumania — Roumania's position, politically and geographi-
cally — Transylvania — Roumanian Irridenta — The great
question — To be, or not to be — Exiled brothers — Oppression
— Take Jonesco and Cogalniceanus' words of hope and faith
— Attitude to Roumania's exiled peoples — National aims . io8
CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT DECISION
A momentous time — King Carol's secret treaty — Sidelights into
secret history of the period — Count Czernin's famous Austrian
Red Book — The ultimatum to Serbia — Austria and Rou-
mania's neutrality — Crown Council at Sinaia, August, 1914 —
Opposition of the Roumanian Government to the King's
policy — The King's chagrin — Appeal to the Army — Czernin
and Baron Burian — King Carol's unhappiness — Decision for
xiv ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
PAGH
neutrality — Unpreparedness for war — German propaganda
and intrigue in Roumania — The Press — Marghiloman — Take
Jonesco — Filipesco — Baron von dem Bussche, German
Minister at Bucharest — Distinguished Teutonic Diplomats —
Nursing the country — Death of King Carol — King Ferdinand's
succession — Bratiano, the sphinx of the East — Negotiations
with Petrograd — Offer from the Central Powers — Necessary
caution — Bulgaria's equivocal attitude — Her " pedlar " King
— Fall of Belgrade — Excitement in Bucharest, demonstration
for intervention — Promise of support from the Entente
demanded — Events moving rapidly — The German Minister's
dramatic interviews with the King — The Crown Council at
Cotroceni Palace — Memorable scene — War declared — King
appeals to the nation and Army — The Rubicon crossed 129
PART 11
TO-DAY
CHAPTER VII
FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS
Departure of the soldiers for the front — Offerings of flowers —
Loyal devotion — Among the wounded — Enthusiasm and hope
— A dying wish — For those beyond the shadows . . . 149
CHAPTER VIII
ACROSS THE BARRIER
Sinaia on the outbreak of war — Excitement in the gay world
there — Hurried departure — Feverish conversion of villas into
Red Cross hospitals — The first brilliant successes in the
Carpathians of the Roumanian Army — The plan of campaign
— A difficult decision — Bulgarian treachery of character —
Roumania's armies well over the ranges and into Transylvania
— A deadly counter-stroke — Bulgaria attacks — Murder of
General Jostoff — Mackensen's advance in the Dobrudja —
Fall of Turtukai — Silistria — Roumanian front of one thousand
miles too great a strain on her small army — Size of army —
None of the promised Russian assistance arrives — Machina-
tions and holding of supplies by the Petrograd Stuermer
Government — Roumania's splendid fight against overwhelm-
ing odds — Death of Prince Henry of Bavaria — Fall of the
Cernavoda Bridge — Port of Constanza — Retreat from the
Carpathians — Desperate fighting in the Passes — Bavarian
rout — Fall of Craiova. " the millionaire town " — Enemy
advancing on the capital on three sides — Heroic devotion of
CONTENTS XV
the Orsova group — Detachment under General Anastasiu, and
their surrender — Wanton Bulgarian savagery at Giurgevo —
General Averescu in supreme command — Arrival of two
divisions of Russian troops — Battle of the Arg6s — General
Socescu's treachery — Line pierced — Road to the capital open 159
CHAPTER IX
WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH
The great oil fields — Falkenhayn's hungry sweep towards them —
A terrible decision — British mission of advice under Col. Sir
John Norton Griffiths, k.c.b., d.s.c, m.p. — Evacuation of the
valleys and factories — Destruction of the factories and wells
— A dangerous work — A panorama of horror — Cost of financial
destruction — Money invested — A black pall over the land —
Working against time — The Boche's welcome . . .176
CHAPTER X
THE VIA DOLOROSA
Anxiety in the capital — Terrified peasantry — Preparations for
departure — German intrigues — Deletion of inefficient officers
in the army — Daily Zeppelin visits — Isolation and great diffi-
culties in sending help — Sweden's German Queen — Part played
by Boy Scouts — Letter from a hospital nurse — French and
British " birds " from Salonica to the rescue — Scarcity of
food — Martial law — Bucharest not a fortress — Arrival of
French military mission — Treachery from Petrograd — Pro-
German Premier Stuermer — Austrian Red Book disclosures —
A diabolical plot — General Iliesco's statement — The betrayal
— Queen Marie's work — A noble example — German slanders —
Illness of Prince Mircea — Touching scenes with the dying
child — Constant raids over the Palace — The Queen's despair —
Death of the Prince — Murder of the Painter Romani by
bombs — Faith in the Allies — Roumania at bay — The arsenal
blown up — Evacuation of the city — A terrible winter —
Roads blocked with fugitives — The country's crucifixion 184
CHAPTER XI
A yUEEN AND HER PEOPLE
BY H.M. QUEEN MARIK
Queen Marie's anguish over her people's sufferings — The death
of her child — Every woman's sacrifice — The Queen's birthday
— Visits to the hospitals — The passing of the little Prince —
All Souls' Day — Burial of the child — The soul of suffering —
Good-bye to Bucharest — The Queen's message to her people —
Pictures of the past — Scenes at Cotroceni — A last visit to the
xvi ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
PAGE
little grave — A sacrifice — Surely a return some day — The
laden trains of soldiers — Bidding them farewell — Their
devotion — Stoic endurance of the wounded — A dying message
of patriotism and love — Consolation — The arrival of spring —
Eternal hope in the trenches — Plague and suffering in the
villages — Faith and hope prevail ..... 208
CHAPTER XII
TO THE FROZEN NORTH
The retreat — Jassy — Stupendous difficulties of the roads — Lack
of everything — Plague, pestilence and famine — No supplies,
soap or fuel — Fine work of Royal Family — Cholera — Winter
in the Carpathians — Three hundred roubles for a bottle of
scent — Great cold — General Averescu — Reorganization of the
Army — General Presan — Changes in command — Colonel
Buchan's tribute — Admiration — Battles of Targul Jui —
Torzburg — Rothen Turm— The splendid Roumanian soldier 219
CHAPTER XIII
AT BAY
The Great Adventure over — Success of the " Pincers " offensive —
Russian help too late — Fall of Tulcea and Braila — The
Roumanian Army's stand on the Sereth Line — Holding the
enemy — Spirit of the troops — Reorganization of the exhausted
Army — French and British help — General Averescu — The
French military mission and its work — Grave risks to
Roumania from the anarchy in Russia — Demonstration by
Transylvanian exiles on joining up with the national colours
— Paris and the presentation of Stephen the Great's banner —
Brilliant summer offensive by the reorganized Roumanian
Army — Superb fighting powers of the young officers and
troops — Torture and tyranny in the conquered Roumanian
territory — Bulgar Hymn of Hate — Huge enemy levies —
Relentless savagery of the enemy . . . . .230
CHAPTER XIV
AND AFTER ?
Collapse of Russia — Lenin and the negotiations — Kerensky's
loyalty — General Tcherbatscheff and the Russian troops —
Anarchy and chaos — Roumanian discipline and their alle-
giance to the cause — A second betrayal — Vows of the Allies —
Roumanians' splendid tenacity — Insolent summons from the
Central Powers — Faced by overwhelming odds — Stranded and
alone Roumania is forced to accept peace terms — Her inex-
tinguishable spirit — Dauntless ajid trusting in her Allies to
the end .......... 257
ILLUSTRATIONS
ROUMANIA AT BaY ......
Music and Rkst at Sundown ....
Filling thk Water Jars ....
Golden Hours Spent in Beautiful Old Convent
Cloisters ......
Curious Wayside Crosses of Painted Wood .
Very Old and Magnificent Carved Stone Cross
The " Stina," or Shepherd Boy's Dug-out
A Dear Old Grannie Spinning
Peaceful Lives in Old Monasteries
Shepherd Boy in Winter Coat
Wild and Beautiful Scenery of the Buzeu Valley
A Roumanian Church .....
A Peasant's Cottage .....
Shepherd Boy in Summer Pastures
A Proud Moment ......
Noon : Draught Oxen in Market Place
Peace Babies — but all Boys ....
Infantry Marching in the Carpathians.
The King and Queen Decorating Soldiers .
H.M. King Ferdinand .....
H.M. Queen Marie in Hospital Dress .
Soldier with Violin at Head of his Company
Priests outside an Old Monastery
Cross on a Lonely Wind-swept Height .
Characteristic Roumanian Peasant Transport
b xvii
. Frontispiece
Facing fage 8
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9
T
• 1 »
26
.
27
• f 1
27
50
50
51
51
Y
76
7?
77
100
100
101
lOI
120
121
138
139
162
163
163
17a
xviii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
The Rest Camp .....
Last Rites of the Church to Spies
Bullock Transport of Cannon
The Queen and Prince Mircea
The King Reviewing Troops .
The King Bestowing Decorations .
In the Trenches — Winter Bound .
Funeral of an Officer in the Mountains
Digging Mountain Trenches .
The Queen in one of the Hospitals at Jassy
Blessing the Fallen .....
Facing page 173
194
195
212
213
226
227
242
243
258
259
INTRODUCTION
BY HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF ROUMANIA
IN these days of adversity when my country is
passing through the greatest crisis of its history,
it is an immense satisfaction to me to encourage
any effort tendered for its aid ; it is therefore a
real pleasure to me to write a few words for Mrs, Will.
Gordon's book.
Distances are so great and communication so difficult,
that very few details of our troubles and trials reach
other countries. We are completely isolated from all our
AUies, except Russia, and have had to stand unheard of
hardships because relief could only be offered us from
one side, and that side needed all its resources for itself.
The winter that lies behind us is as one of the most
fearful nightmares man ever dreamed. There is no
suffering that my people have not been called upon to
endure, no fear, no sorrow, no pain — every misery, both
moral and physical, had to be borne at once.
And I, their Queen, suffered with them, struggled with
them, wept with them, shared and understood their
every grief.
I too had to leave a home I loved, I too had to flee
before the invading foe, had to forsake the new-made
grave of the little one who was torn from me whilst the
enemy was flooding my land on every side.
xix
XX ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
All have I known of mortal anguish, of days when
hope became less and less, till the last shred had to
be surrendered — my child and my country both at
once.
The remembrance I keep of those days is of a suffering
so great that it almost blinded me ; I was as one wander-
ing in fearful darkness wondering how much anguish one
single heart can bear ; black waves seemed to be rushing
in upon me threatening to drown me, yet I was quite
calm and continued living and working as though my
heart had not been torn from my breast.
Strong ties of sympathy had always bound me to my
people, but since the extraordinary misfortunes we have
undergone together, our mutual affection has turned into
deep and comprehensive love.
The grief that God sent me whilst so many were
mourning rendered me strangely dear to their hearts ; I
had suddenly come quite close to them — they felt in me
a comprehension of their own woes that had not been
mine before.
An immense tide of sympathy flowed from their souls
to mine, giving me strength to bear bravely every sacri-
fice, and not to give way to selfish despair. Tragedy had
come upon us, recrimination would but weaken us, com-
plaint lessen our courage — nothing was left to us but
dumbly to bear our Fate.
Winter came and with it retreat ; hunger came and
sickness and death in every form.
One town after another had to be surrendered, ever
smaller became our country, a cruel exodus encumbered
the remaining provinces ; our riches, our pride, our
hopes had been torn from us, and like a troop of emigrants
INTRODUCTION xxi
we had to try and find place for our weary bodies and for
our sorrowful hearts.
Each thing we thought we could count upon crumbled
before the inflow of an enemy ten times too strong for
us, who knew all about war whilst we were ignorant and
had everything to learn. Nowhere were we safe ; all the
help that had been promised us was not forthcoming, we
had nowhere to turn to in our agony, and the deadliest
of winters was closing in upon us before we knew if we
could remain there where we had pitched our tents !
Amidst this constant fear of further invasion we had
to gather our courage and our wits so as to improvise
hospitals, house refugees, feed and clothe our retreating
troops, all this with the feeling that next day perhaps
our efforts would be in vain, that the work so painfully
accomplished would fall into the enemy's hand !
All our stores, our hoarded treasures, our food, corn
and oil had been torn from us by the rapid advance of
the foe ; all that remained to us of our once blooming
country were but a few provinces, the poorest, those
upon which in the days of abundance we had counted
least.
That was but the material side of our distress, and to
that must be added every anguish, every grief of departure
and separation, the leaving of loved homes, the haunting
pictures of devastation, fire and ruin, of abandoned
graves and of dying heroes who could not be saved.
With a fresh wound in my own heart I stood amidst
the turmoil. I myself empty-handed — I myself a refugee !
What had been mine lay behind the line of fire — also the
lonely little grave lay there, belonged now to the enemy,
and with it all the torturing remembrance of my child's
xxii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
illness and death. He was my youngest, my baby, and
just the most helpless had I to forsake !
But there was no time to cry over a personal grief, in
the hour of disaster so much depends upon the leaders
not losing their heads.
To piece together that which is broken is no easy task ;
if your house falls down around you, at first your only
wish is to sit on its ruins and weep. It is then that those
whose love and courage are greatest must come forward
and help. Those too grievously smitten cannot immedi-
ately lift up their heads, and very gentle must be the
hand that endeavours to lead them back from darkness
to light.
For a while I thought that the effort would be beyond
my strength, such was the hopeless discouragement that
had taken possession of every heart. No good news
came to gladden our spirits, only tidings of defeat,
disaster and distress, and winter lay over everything like
a pall of despair.
Then little by little hands were stretched out to help.
French and English doctors offered their assistance and
with them many nurses and sisters whose devotion has
no name.
Little by little we began building up what had fallen ;
at first only those whom adversity cannot crush showed
the way, then others joined in — ^till imperceptibly a
great new effort was born, and with that effort, new
courage and new hope.
It were too long to relate all the weary work of this
past winter, a whole volume of want and suffering, of
devotion and charity would not suffice. So many single
INTRODUCTION xxiii
incidents rise before me, so many faces, so many efforts,
and alas ! so many death-beds that I hesitate which to
describe.
This is but a preface, yet there is so much to say ! It
is a preface to a book about my country which the
author has seen in days of prosperity, days that with
God's help we hope to see again ; but if to-day I speak of
tears and sufferings, it is because, alas, they are upper-
most in our minds.
There is too much to tell, too many pictures haunt me,
pictures of what was, what is, and of what we hope one
day will be.
I look back and see visions of my country as for twenty-
three years I have known it, peaceful, blooming, full of
abundance, its vast plain an ocean of waving com
amongst which diligent peasants move to and fro gather-
ing in the harvest, the land's dearest pride. I see its
humble villages hidden amongst fruit trees, I see the
autumn splendour of its forests, I see the grand solitude
of its mountain summits, I see its noble convents, corners
of hidden beauty, treasures of ancient art, I hear the
sound of the shepherd's horn, the sweet complaint of his
ditties. I see long roads with clouds of dust rising from
them, many carts in a file, I see gaily clad peasants
flocking to market. I see naked plains and long stretches
of sand by the sea.
I also see our broad proud Danube rolling its many
waters past quaint little villages and boroughs inhabited
by motley crowds of different nationalities, past towns
of which the rising industries are a promise of future
wealth. I see our port of Constanza with its bustle,
its noise and its hopes.
xxiv ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Then on the 27th August, 1916, the call to arms —
War!
I see the ardent faces of my young soldiers going off
gaily to battle — I see the trains leaving, the flowers that
decorate the cannons, horses and men — I hear the
tramping of passing regiments, shouts of enthusiasm,
words of exultation.
I see the first wounded in the hospitals of Bucharest,
white beds, many faces all turned towards me, eager
hands helping ; I inspect everything, go everywhere. I
have my own hospital in our palace, I too am full of
hope.
For a while, a very short while, the news received
from our armies is good, awakes wild enthusiasm, awakes
dreams of glory in many a breast. Then the first ill
tidings, a shadow on the expectant faces — a shadow
over the town in spite of the blue sky above !
After that there are still days of hope and confidence,
days when the first illusions seem to take form once
more, but through it all I have the strange presentiment,
that my country will have to drink to the dregs the
bitterest of cups.
Airships and Zeppelins become a haunting dread by
night and by day ; our country being narrow, the ground
is good for such cruel sport. Death is poured down from
the skies into the streets, women and children are
slaughtered without number, and as though in defiance
of the laws of God, the days they choose for their death-
raids are the days when heaven is bluest and the sun
shines most brightly.
Having been designed by the enemy as principal
culprit, it is the house out of town where I live with my
INTRODUCTION xxv
children that they single out for special punishment, and
on a glorious autumn morning they throw seventy-two
bombs upon dwelling and garden where it is known that
my little ones are usually to be found. But on that day,
God did not wish another crime to be added to their
lists !
Ever darker are the clouds gathering around our heads,
with anxiety we look for the help that was promised us ;
Sarrail's advance in the south ? The Russians' offensive
in Galicia ? Russian reinforcements in the Dobrugea ?
But we wait in vain ; no good tidings from any side, and
the Germans have not yet straft enough !
Surely this proud little country who had defied her,
must learn its lesson and be laid low in the dust. And as
in the time of the great flood, our small struggling
country is threatened from all sides at once. Our
frontiers are endless, without reinforcements our own re-
sources are too small, we begin to realize the inevitable
results if help does not come soon enough.
But my cup is not yet full — amidst all the turmoil and
growing anxiety, my youngest child sickens and all our
efforts cannot save his life. During three mortal weeks
we struggle to keep him, but Death rules supreme over
the world. It is not to be. On All Souls' Day, my last
bom, my little j\Iircea, passes away — and the voice of
the cannon sounds closer every day.
After that, for a while all becomes dark. I grope about
as one who has lost her way. Only one thing remains to
me, the intense desire to alleviate suffering around me,
to go there where despair is greatest, to drown my own
grief in the grief of others, to move in places where my
own tears can be shed without shame.
xxvi ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
So I begin wandering about in all parts of the country
that have remained to us. On all sides I hear the dreaded
voice of the cannon calHng out its message of death and
destruction.
I penetrate as far as they will allow me to go, I hunt
up those freshly brought in from battle, as in a ghastly
dream, I move from bed to bed.
Every form of suffering do I see ; the last look of name-
less dying do I carry away in my heart, and all the while
I have the absolute certainty that my country is be-
coming smaller and smaller — I am in a hurry, I want to
go everywhere — everywhere before it is too late. But
in a sort of frenzy of grief I know, that all my love,
all my devotion cannot hold back the advancing feet of
Fate.
Then comes flight ! The cruel hour of parting from
our capital, of parting from our home, our hospitals,
from the little grave so freshly dug — flight !
For weeks we live in the train, not sure how far we
must go to be safe ; but one only thought moves me ;
put the living out of danger, then return once more, only
once more to the grave of the dead !
But it is not to be — even that consolation is denied
me — Bucharest falls, I can no more return to my
dead.
• • • • • • •
Dearly would I like to relate about all those who helped
me in my arduous task, but so complex, so many-sided
was that task, my efforts had to extend over so large a
field, that too many faces rise before me, when I want
gratefully to acknowledge those who have worked with
me hand in hand.
INTRODUCTION xxvii
The English Red Cross sent me aid and material in
every form — the wife of our EngHsh Minister displayed
an indefatigable energy I cannot too highly praise, she is
one of those whom adversity cannot crush.
At first we had dreamed of running a big English
hospital at Bucharest, founded upon the Miners' generous
gift — the hospital was to have borne the name of the
dearly beloved child I had just lost. All was decided,
the house had been offered us by the officers of the
capital — it would have been a beautiful hospital, run
under perfect conditions — but like many others, that
dream had to be given up. Bucharest fell, and with its
fall and the fall of many other important towns our
difficulties grew a thousandfold, and all the more in-
tensely grateful am I to those who did not lose courage
under such adverse circumstances, but endured every
hardship, overcame every difficulty so as not to forsake
my soldiers, who more than ever needed succour and
aid.
I have had heroic English doctors helping me, with
patient brave nurses, overcoming every obstacle, en-
during cold and hunger with those they were nursing so
as not to forsake their post. It is a long story of devo-
tion and abnegation, which cannot be told in a day.
Towards the end of winter a bad epidemic of typhus
broke out, rendering the doctors' task most dangerous.
Many of our Roumanian doctors died, faithful to the
end — their duties redoubled, for many flee contagion, it
is not given to everyone to face such a crisis without
giving way.
I lost a great friend — a friend of recent date, but whom
I had learnt to admire because of his wonderful \\'ork.
xxviii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
He was a French doctor who from the very beginning
had taken upon himself to run the contagious hospital
out of town.
I saw him work with an ardour and courage I shall
never forget. He created that hospital under almost
impossible conditions, everything was wanting, but
nothing could dishearten him, no danger, no difficulty
lessen his enthusiasm. He was a continual example to
me ; when my own spirits were low, I would go to see
that man work and would give him all my help, so much
did I admire his selfless devotion ; but he had to die
before the trees were green — had to die whilst the snow
was melting, when his efforts were beginning to bear
fruit ! He had to die of the same illness of which he had
cured so many — had to die in the distant land, leaving
amongst strangers a quite young wife.
My people know that I am absolutely unafraid of
contagion, therefore more than ever was I claimed
amongst them during this cruel epidemic. I penetrated
into the most infected corners, giving everywhere, trying
to carry a little hope and help into the most forsaken
holes of misery.
I think that few Queens have had the privilege to get
so near their people. I have really gone amongst them,
there where very few go. I have both health and good-
will and an inexhaustible desire to console them, to
sustain them and to awake hope in their hearts.
Certainly there were days when everything seemed
impossible, when the material difficulties were such that
the most energetic spirit quailed before the morrow. At
those hours it was to me as though I must stand awhile
quite still, squaring my shoulders, concentrating all my
INTRODUCTION xxix
strength so as to lift a weight almost beyond what a
single man can carry. Thus we struggled on from day
to day, from hour to hour — " Faith removeth moun-
tains " — I had Faith !
Twice my sister came from Russia.* We had not seen
each other since the great war's outbreak. The help she
brought cannot be told in words ; to have her beside me
at those most tragic hours of my life was almost beyond
the blessings of this earth.
And she came with full hands, at a moment when my
resources had quite run out.
All ! Indeed it is in the time of trouble that one learns
what is of gold ! In war it is only that which is real that
can stand ; all that is sham, all that which pretends,
crumbles and falls away. But nothing was spared me,
because of the great changes in Russia, even my sister
can come to me no more — she was my only neighbour —
I have lost her ! And am anxious about what her future
is to be.
How often here in Jassy — when going from hospital
to hospital, trying to overcome always new difficulties,
trying to supply ever new wants, did my thoughts turn
to my own hospital in Bucharest, in the large roomy
halls of the palace where I had everything I could want
— I remember the w^hite beds, the good food, the many
helpful hands, eager ladies, books in plenty, music,
flowers — a lost paradise indeed !
Here I had no house of my own to turn into a hospital.
It was more useful to divide my material and energies,
sustaining those already existing. It is a harder way of
doing good, less personal, less satisfactory, needs greater
' The Grand Duchess Cyril.
XXX ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
abnegation, brings less comfort to one's soul, but in this
case I knew it was best.
My ear had to be open for each cry of distress, my
hand always ready to succour or to give, all my energies
strained so as to encourage the efforts others were making.
I had to go everywhere, see everything myself.
I was almost a stranger to the town of Jassy, thus I
gained their confidence, by the way I worked with them.
I by degrees stole into their hearts.
Those who have never seen them, have no notion of
what Roumanian roads can become in winter, of how
difficult is all circulation, how communication becomes
an effort almost beyond human strength — and this
winter was a winter of terrible snow and frost.
Part of our army had to be quartered in small, miser-
able villages, cut off from everything, buried in snow,
transports were almost impossible, untold of hardships
had to be borne. All my energy and goodwill could not
take me to places where neither motor, sledge, nor
carriage could go — I knew that there was want and sick-
ness in those villages, but it was only towards spring-
time that I could reach them with infinite difficulty,
often having to quit my motor and doing the rest of the
road on foot.
That was the hardest work of all, that going about in
those fever-stricken hamlets, where the patient troops
were herded together in wretched mud-huts alongside
of the few remaining peasants.
Food was scarce, hardly any wood for heating, soap
was a thing almost not to be found, linen was a luxury of
better days — illness in every form broke out amongst the
soldiers and many died before we could give sufficient aid !
INTRODUCTION xxxi
Ah ! Indeed I have seen death and misery very near
— I have moved about amongst them, have felt the
despair of my helplessness, have tried with insufficient
means to do wonders, but alas ! against sickness, cold
and hunger goodwill alone did not suffice — not to be
numbered were the graves that overfilled the cemeteries ;
like a wood, the rough crosses grew up side by side.
And yet how much more ghastly is the fate of those in
the invaded part of the country, where no help can pene-
trate.
Here I can at least get to my people — visit them or
send them food, aid, comforts — but there in the dear
regions we have lost, what may their sufferings be ?
WTio succours them ? Who consoles them ? Who helps
them to hope ?
The enemy must have taken everything from them,
forcing them to work against their own brothers, and
probably he scoffs at their misery, trying to make them
doubt the love of those who had to leave them to so cruel
a fate !
That thought is the hardest of all ! And to be so
helpless — to have no news, no details, to be entirely cut
off!
I feel it is a rambling tale, the tale I have told — it is
as though I had written in a trance — maybe I have often
repeated myself, yet I have only said half of what I had
to say. One day perhaps when this period of suffering
will be a little more distant I will more clearly be able to
write the history of these days of distress.
WTiat can I still add ? Only this : I thank all those
who have helped me and all those who are still ready to
help, and I want to declare that in spite of the calamity
xxxii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
that has come over her, Roumania does not regret having
thrown in her lot with those fighting for a holy cause !
Does it not also mean for her the liberation of her brothers
in Transylvania, suffering under foreign sway ?
Roumania is proud of her Allies, confident in their
noble sense of justice ; she knows that she will not be
forsaken and that when the great hour of Victory strikes,
those for whom she bled so sorely will not forget that she
also has won her right to live !
The blessed day of return to our homes, of reunion
with those groaning 'neath the enemy's sway may yet be
distant ; I know not how much blood, how many tears
are still to be shed, but this I know : On that day of
thanksgiving, on that great day of joy when my people
will be singing songs of praise because they are free once
more — on that day I, their Queen, will gratefully re-
member all those who did not forsake me and my
country, in my hour of sorrow and distress !
MARIE
1917
PART I
YESTERDAY
ROUMANIA
YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
CHAPTER I
A LAND OF BEAUTY
The region, nor bright nor sombre wholly,
But mingled up ; a gleaming melancholy.
A dusky empire and its diadems ;
One faint eternal eventide of gems.
Keats.
ROUMANIA ! what scenes of beauty the soft
Latin name conveys !
A land of vast horizons, winding rivers,
mountains, and valleys rich in the luxuriant
verdure of oak, beech and fir ; plains carrying on their
broad bosom grain in overflowing measure — nature's
priceless gift to man.
Under the splendour of an Eastern sun, such as we in
the little grey Isle of the West but rarely see, broods a
calm, a tranquilUty that lies like a caress on a land, fair
and prosperous now, but drenched through centuries in
blood and tears.
Was it but yesterday that Roumania was at peace ?
Yesteryear the great peaks of the Carpathians front-
ing the realms of their implacable and savage neighbour
Hungary, were silhouetted against an azure sky ; the
4 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
stillness of the mountains held no menace, no warning
of the bloody massacre and devastation to come.
High in the blue dome overhead the eagles wheel and
circle. With regal strokes they swoop " on pinions
strong," then swiftly rising, disappear into the dazzling
radiance of the sun. Above us, among these rocky spurs
which rise so sheerly from the green mantle of pine and
beech woods that clothe their feet, are the thrones where
the king of birds shares his solitude with the wolf, the
bear and the chamois.
Tiny shepherds' huts — little dug-outs made of earth
with roofs of turf — cling to the lesser heights, and big
fierce dogs rush out and bay fiercely as we pass. All
over the slopes, the black, brown and white sheep are
lazily browsing in the warm golden light. The bees are
droning drowsily as they gather their harvest of honey,
so plentiful in this land of flowers, of " wandering voices
in the air and murmurs in the wold."
Listen a moment !
Through the clear, still air the wind is whispering.
Softly it brings the faint notes of a plaintive melody ;
an old Roumanian love song perhaps — or is it a dirge ?
The music of Roumania, even the gayest, is threaded
with melancholy, full of the sadness of a tortured past,
the passion and tears of the bitter ages, when even the
rapture of youth and love could not conceal a measure
of foreboding.
The tender melody with its sweet pleading, the longing
of the man for the maid, is surely changing. The thin,
clear notes are falling into a minor key. What is it that
comes across the warm sun-scented spaces ?
The tragic chords — a lament, the doina, so full of
A LAND OF BEAUTY 5
restless sombre sorrow — flute strangely Ihrougli the
brilliant sunshine.
O Land of Beauty ! under the gay sparkle and laughter
of your children, the slow tears lie very close. Within
the indomitable heart of the race that has struggled
through the centuries, deep thoughts are stirring !
The notes come clearer : the shepherd boy, the lonely
pastor of the tranquil hills, comes into sight, a solitary
figure amongst those quiet uplands.
What is the dark shadow behind him, following so
close ?
What are those whispers borne on the breeze ?
The spirits of the past are surely astir, the sun is sink-
ing — the air is chill.
Play up, little pastor ! something merry, something
gay.
Only sixteen ? — why, what a child !
Where will he be in two years' time ? Will the slender
fingers playing so deftly on the pipes of Pan among the
peaceful hills be playing a fiercer, sterner game ?
But to-morrow broods eternally in to-day and only
God and the silent stars know what the future holds.
* * * *
Leaving the wild beauty and loneliness of the Car-
pathian ranges, we descend into the lush valleys and
plains of Roumania's richest province, Wallachia — the
wide granary and great oil fields which have brought her
prosperity, and earned for her the title of " the Belgium
of the East."
It is a country of vivid contrasts and endless interest,
and Nature has used the colours on her palette with
lavish hand. Spring, so rich in promise, so riotous in a
6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO DAY
foam, a frenzy of blossom, has passed already on the
upper hills, and Nature, that great artist, her brush full
of the reds, yellows and purples of early autumn, is
touching the woods and bracken. But summer, like a
contented guest with his hopes fulfilled, still lingers in
the valleys, plains and near the streams, whose banks
are yet ablaze with wild flowers and waving grasses.
On the outskirts of a little village some gipsies have
pitched their camp. Dirty, ragged, unkempt, living like
animals, these nomads are still inconceivably picturesque.
The naked elf -like children, screeching and clamouring
for alms, the wrinkled old crones, the Mira or Sooth-
sayer, pipe in mouth, and wearing as a girdle the cord
and shell, symbol of necromancy and fortune-telling,
crouch over the fire, snoozing, or stirring mysterious
messes in steaming pots. The wild upright grace of the
young girls, beautiful creatures, scantily clad in gaudy
rags, is striking ; with flashing eyes, teeth of pearl and
figures as lissome as young palm trees, they sway as they
dance, heads thrown back, necks bared and arms akimbo.
Long braids of blue-black hair glittering with a magpie
collection of old coins, glass and tinsel, stream out behind
them in the sultry air.
Squatting on the grass are the youths and men, bare-
footed, slender, uncannily handsome with twisted curls
hanging round their sun-browned sombre faces. Some
are thrumming out a lively tune for the girls to dance.
The violin, the cobza—a. strange-shaped lute — and the
classical flute of ancient days being the inseparable com-
panion of these ragged Lauteri, the wandering gipsy
troubadours of Roumania.
A despised and outcast race ! Yet their life is indis-
A LAND OF BEAUTY 7
solubly linked with the superstitious peasantry of these
Eastern lands, who call them in on all occasions. Charms
for an ailing child, for their cattle, for a good harvest, for
rain ; spells to ward off the evil spirits — so profoundly
believed in — and philtres for the sick or love-stricken are
eagerly sought from these wild children of nature, so
skilled in her secret lore. They are bidden to their feasts,
to provide the wild, sweet music for the hora, their
national dance ; to the births, weddings and deaths,
when, playing their tragic soul-stirring dirges, they head
the procession of wailing women to the graveside. The
unmeasured yearning and sadness of their music — the
nostalgia of far-off lands — thrills out like an envoi to the
soul setting out on its mysterious journey.
« * « «
Harvest is in progress, and the burnished plains of
ripened corn stretch to the far horizon in a misty golden
glow, such as one sees on distant Canadian prairies —
none but the very, very old and sick are left in the
picturesque little houses ; all are at work in the fields,
from the tiny tot of three or four to the grand-peres and
grand' meres of nearly seventy ; youth and age alike are
gathering in the precious grain.
Near the roadside, lie the great grey or dun-coloured
oxen, beautiful, patient, strong, with their branching
horns and soft human eyes. Beneath the shade of the
carts — scarcely different from those of early Roman
days — lie the babies, cradled on an old sack or skirt,
with only the dogs — so fierce to strangers, so gentle to
their masters — to safeguard them. When the little
mites grow fractious and use their lusty lungs or beat
the air frantically with dimpled fists, the " friend of
8 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
man " will creep up and gently nose the disgusted and
indignant youngster, as if to reassure him.
Each nation looks upon the dog in a different way, but
the dogs of war and the dogs of peace (of a pastoral and
agricultural people like the Roumanians) are beyond
doubt the intelligentzia of their kind. A little further
East he was sometimes held in fear, and an old Baby-
lonian prayer runs thus : " From the dog, the snake,
the scorpion, and whatever is baleful, may Merodach
preserve us." Perhaps the dogs who inspired this fear
in this ancient maker of prayers, had shown an unwise
over-hasty zest, and predilection for the flavour of the
ankles of his reverence !
On the other hand, on some of the wonderful bas-
reliefs of that period, our four-footed friends have been
gratefully immortalized, and their names remain written
thereon to this day — " He who ran and barked." " The
biter of his foes." "The seizer of his enemies." But
here in Roumania " slayer of the wolf," " the friend
of sheep," betoken a less disinterested path in life, and a
strict attention to his daily duty, rather than to the
pleasurable excitements of a doggy existence. One
might perhaps add " guardian of the babes " without his
losing in canine prestige.
* * * *
The close of the long day comes ; the hard task
is finished ; the carts creak slowly homewards. A
popa, or priest in black garments, with straggling
beard that scissors have never been allowed to touch,
and long hair tucked under a high black hat, blesses
the women and children as they kiss his hand in
passing.
A LAND OF BEAUTY 9
These papas or secular priests are of simple origin and
live homely lives among the people they teach. They
draw but a small stipend and arc bound to marry before
taking Holy Orders. The faith of the country is that of
the Greek Orthodox, which differs in the following
essential points from the Roman Catholic Church :
(i) the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father only ;
(2) the administration of the Eucharist in both kinds to
the laity ; and (3) the substitution of icons and pictures
for the images of the Holy Virgin and Saints. The higher
clergy are generally drawn from the upper classes, and
celibacy is required of them. If a popa rises to be a
Bishop he must divorce his wife before assuming office,
and she generally retires into a convent ; while the
Bishop goes into a monastery for a few months' retreat
before his consecration.
The sinking sun is sending long slanting shafts of
golden light over the plain, as one after another the
carts wind along the dusty road to the village with its
tiny dwellings, so small one wonders how they can house
so prolific a brood as the good wife mothers in the two
rooms in which the chickens and dogs are also welcomed.
The houses are like the drawings of our childhood — a
little square whitewashed box with rough designs in
colour painted on the walls, a door like a mouth, and a
window like a stolid unwinking eye on either side. The
heavy thatch, like the forelock of a shaggy Skye terrier,
branches well over the face of the little abode. They
stand in gardens gay with flowers and many fruit trees ;
and contrast favourably with those of the Bulgarian,
who cares for nothing but the purely utilitarian side of
life, and whose homestead is bare and unadorned. There
10 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
are two types of dwellings in the rural districts, the
house built of wood in the mountain and hill districts
where the thatch is replaced by tiled roofs that shine
brightly in the sun, a more comfortable and substantial
structure than those of beaten earth which are the home-
steads of the poorer peasantry on the Danubian plains.
There are also the squat semi-underground mud hovels
of the gipsies and fishermen with roofs of wattle or reeds,
infinitely picturesque in appearance but often breeding
places of disease and vermin.
The houses of the wealthier peasants and those of the
nobles are curious and very picturesquely built. Some
of the old ones are like primitive strongholds, half castle,
half house, called koula. They are built in a square
form with blind walls immensely thick, that show nothing
but a massive door, and narrow barred peep-holes.
Inside, a stairway leads to the top, where close to the
roof which overhangs, runs a wide gallery or loggia,
supported by pillars where the family live in the torrid
days of summer. Some of the old houses have bells in
the turret that tinkle when the wind blows boisterously,
and which are rung with great vigour on joyful occa-
sions.
Within the Roumanian home, though poor and often
bare, will be found a bright rug or two, woven on the
simple loom called Resboin by these industrious and
wonderful peasant mothers of Roumania. Working
from morning till night, in the fields, tending the animals,
cooking, spinning, weaving, rearing her numerous pro-
geny, her life is one long round of toil, patiently and
cheerfully borne. Wedded very young, often at fifteen
or sixteen, and frequently abducted by the man she
A LAND OF BEAUTY ii
marries, her beauty soon fades, but the dignity, the
tenderness and gentle humour are enduring.
In the big painted chest she brings to her new home
lies her outfit, the bright rugs and her slender dowry ;
her bridal gown, the dress of her wifehood and the last
dress of all — in which she lies in the red-lined coffin, the
busy hands folded quietly, and ready for the long
journey. All are woven and embroidered by her deft
fingers and dainty fancy ; the fine stitchery, delicate
design and sparkling beauty of tiny glittering sequins,
the clear, silver transparency of the veil — such as the
ancient Roman matrons wore — and the fota or petti-
coat, richly embroidered in gold, silver and many
colours.
Outside, the night has fallen. In the courtyard, the
lively, squealing pigs, the greedy hens forever hunting
the wily grub and crumb, the oxen, ponies and the geese,
are slowly going to rest. The romping children — the
puicu (little ones) — have been drawn within, the hungry
mouths are filled, the little voices murmur the evening
prayer. Tenderly the mother kisses each curly head,
murmuring a blessing as she lays them side by side on
the long, low, shelf-like bed. The last little one lying
close to her warm breast is soothed to slumber.
The room is quiet — her man asleep. Her thoughts fly
forth to the twin sons of her heart, the firstborn, Vasile
and Mihail, doing their military service in the army far
away. Crossing herself she kneels before the icon, the
Panaghia, the " All Holy Virgin Mother," illuminated
by the tiny lamp that is never extinguished. " Shield
them from temptation, Holy Mother of God, keep them
fit and noble sons of Roumania. Guard them from evil
12 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
spirits, and send them in Thy good time a wife, a little
land and children."
The never idle hands take up the distaff — eight little
bodies have to be clothed, fed, cherished. Life is a
weary round, but the mother's heart is content. Her
man, her sturdy children, the little bit of land. God's
good sun and the simple daily round. Home and
peace !
* * * *
Outside, the eyes of the little house are twinkling
brightly now. Lit by the lamp, they gleam athwart the
darkening path, seeming to say, " We house and shelter
souls of men and angels who keep guard within, with-
out."
In the west the sun, like a gorgeous orange moth, has
royally sunk to rest. Only a dying flicker trembles
across the gathering clouds of night. Across the vivid
shaft of light, cuts the dark line of the Carpathians — like
brooding sentinels they stand — guarding a nation — at
peace.
*■ * * *
The change in type the moment one crosses the frontier
is striking and very interesting. The crafty impetuous
Hungarian, the imperturbable slow-moving Serb, the
stolid Bulgar, might be perhaps mistaken for brothers if
dressed alike, for in physique and some facial traits they
resemble one another, but never could one mistake the
Latin origin of the Roumanian. Slender, with dark eyes
in which a sombre fire mingles with much latent fun and
good humour, graceful figures and courteous ways, they
are Latin through and through — a Western power in an
Eastern setting. Isolated between the Slav and Turkish
A LAND OF BEAUTY ij
races the original strain has persistently remained
through the centuries, and any influence imported by
their Turkish or other rulers has been only minor in
degree and ephemeral.
Eighty per cent of the population is agricultural, and
the peasants love the land with a devotion born of the
many generations who under the ban of oppression have
watered it with their blood and tears. Hard-working
and frugal, whether they are the kilted highlander of the
Carpathians, the lone shepherd of the hills or the agri-
culturist on the great plains, they are one and all imbued
with the traditions of the past, and the valorous deeds
of their forefathers, immortalized in ballad and folk-lore,
are as real to them as the religion which influences them
so powerfully.
Deep in his patient heart lies the age-old craving for
the little piece of land — the bit of Mother Earth that he
may call his own — the tiny pasture, the brown soil
that yields the grain his toil-worn hands have sown and
reaped so industriously, and on which his tiny homestead
stands. This is indeed his heart's desire, his beacon and
his hope.
For the present agrarian system, though much im-
proved in the last few years, is still largely a legacy from
mediaeval days, the land having hardly yet recovered
from the leprosy of the Turkish rule. The great domains
belonging to the absentee aristocracy were let out to
middlemen, who were peculiarly oppressive and kept a
large proportion of the peasantry — the bone and sinew of
the nation — in a condition of dependence, on a starv^a-
tion wage and in such continual toil for their masters
that they had hardly time to cultivate their own small
14 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
holding, which frequently fell into the hands of un-
scrupulous Jews.
Unlike the upper classes the peasantry are religious.
Their church — the Greek Orthodox — and its observances
are strictly adhered to, the law of the Church and the
law of the land having equal weight with the rural
population. Fasting especially has a strong hold upon
the people. Their food at all times is simple and sparing.
Consisting principally of the mamaliga or maize porridge,
which the lusty little brood of children share with their
elders, it is the more astonishing to see the great number
of fast days imposed on them by the order of the Church,
amounting to at least two hundred days in the year, and
this obligation they follow most submissively.
The women and girls especially keep their fasts most
rigorously and it seems almost to be accounted a greater
sin to break the fast than to break the Ten Command-
ments. During Lent, onions, bread, and thin vegetable
soup and the mamaliga are all they will take. Even when
very ill it seems the patient would rather " fast and die
than eat and sin."
Their costume is thoroughly characteristic of this
beauty-loving race and is worn with an inherent grace.
In many respects it closely resembles the dress of the
Dacian period, indeed the opinca or sandals worn by the
men are exactly like those worn by the Dacian captives on
Trajan's column at Rome. The people are a handsome
race and look extraordinarily well in their national dress.
The men, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, slender and
well-proportioned, wear a loose white shirt over tight-
fitting trousers of white cotton tucked into handsome
stockings embroidered in black and white. Round his
A LAND OF BEAUTY 15
waist — for he only possesses one, the women have dis-
carded theirs — he wears some splendidly coloured scarf
swathed round and round him very tightly, accentuating
his slender build. The women wear loose white blouses
open at the throat, of cotton or soft butter musUn,
beautifully embroidered and a glitter with tiny sequins
and gold thread. The fota or apron has panels back and
front of rich dark colours or is made of wonderful gold
tissue shot with gold. Their embroidery and colour
scheme though Slavonic is far finer, more delicate and
sumptuous than the Bulgarian or Serbian, and shows
very distinctly the Byzantine influence, and in the trans-
parent beauty of the long veils, the headkerchiefs, and
conca or lovely glittering tiara, all express the artistic
personality of the people.
Notwithstanding Roumania's close proximity to the
Orient and the long Turkish domination she had to
endure the position of the women here is an extra-
ordinarily free and independent one, and their influence
in the family and social life is very marked. As an
instance, it is related that in ancient times a Prince of
Moldavia, being beaten by the enemy, retired to his
fortress. Arriving there he was met by his mother who
adjured him to return and continue the fight, and finally
told him she would never allow him to enter the citadel
except as a victor. So inspired was he by her martial
courage and advice that he gathered together his scat-
tered forces, gave battle and won a great victory.
The Roumanians, like the Serbs, are a poetic people
with many ideals, and among them the respect and kind-
ness they show to their women is a charming and very
attractive trait. It is a contrast to Hungary, where a
i6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
woman thinks she has lost the love of her husband unless
she is beaten regularly — a proof of matrimonial affection
the Roumanian woman would not stand ! Or in Bulgaria,
where she is the servant of her man, and the honeymoon
over, her freshness gone, life becomes hard and ugly in
its purely material aims.
The proverb : " Blessed are the hands that knead the
bread," show very truly the position and affection she is
held in. The relation between her and her husband is
based on mutual respect and kindness, she is the keeper
of the purse, her advice is always sought and her position
and influence in the family is one of trust and love. The
peasants are of a proud and independent nature and all
prefer to till the soil to being servants in the town.
They are an extraordinarily dignified race of la heaute
calme that travellers and French writers have noticed so
much, and when they advance in years the men especially
look exceedingly patriarchal. A wide gulf divides their
mentality from those of the town dwellers, and they have
a reserve, though a kindly gracious one, a certain un-
approachability, a fear that you may want to exploit
them, a distrust as to any action being a disinterested
one, that is born perhaps of long years of oppression. If
you talk to them and assert some fact, or ask their opinion,
they will make a deprecating movement with their hands
saying, " fi boerule ! — perhaps, it might be so, sir ! "
* * * *
Their lives are spent in an unremitting round of toil ;
simple, hardy and abstemious, they cling to traditional
customs and dress. Their pleasures are few and simple.
The winter evenings round a big fire the women and girls
assemble spinning, and the old legends and stories
A LAND OF BEAUTY 17
povesta are recited, and the popular ballads doine are
sung in turn. The feasts of the Church, weddings, funerals,
baptisms, elections, or the visit of a prejet, are among
their simple pleasures. On Sundays and feast-days in
the summer, their workaday clothes will be discarded
and their picturesque festal attire donned. Round the
village green they gather, and, joining hands in an enor-
mous circle, will dance the graceful hora to the strains of
the gipsy musicians. Though gay they are never rowdy,
and threaded through the natural vivacity of their virile
temperament runs a strain of melancholy, bred from the
long years of oppression, and the stoic acceptance of a
destiny that the Turk forced them to accept for so long.
At Easter or St. George's Day, which is celebrated as
the arrival of spring, branches of greenery are hung over
their doorways in welcome. This is also the day when
the young men choose their brides. The girls dressed in
their best sit around the village green. The young men
saunter round in groups, laughing and joking with the
blushing girls. When they have decided on the one they
like, she is taken by the hand and asked to dance. This
is tantamount to a declaration : if she dances twice with
him it signifies her consent. Sometimes the parents
object and forbid the marriage, and then, as the peasants
say, " the lover just goes and steals her ! "
Weddings, like the funerals, are equally influenced by
many of the classical observances of the ancient Roman
as well as the Greek pagan rites. The bread broken over
the bride's head, the anointing of the threshold with
butter or honey, the brad or branch of the fir tree that
the best man holds over her, symbolical of vigour, fecun-
dity and health, are only a few of the interesting customs
c
i8 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
followed on these occasions, which date from ancient
times.
One of the first things a newly wed wife will do is to go
to the well and throw in a coin to propitiate the genii
loci dwelling there, and always a few drops from the
pitcher when filled will be sprinkled on the ground as an
offering to the Wodna Zena or water spirit. To arrive in
rain is lucky, and when the villagers want to honour
someone greatly, water is sprinkled before their feet ; a
wooden pail also filled with water is put outside the door
on festive occasions. Roumania being a dry country,
and an agricultural one, with a terribly hot summer, rain
means everything to these people, who regard it as the
symbol of life, bringing them fertility, abundance, and a
good harvest. The line from the Koran, " By water
everything lives," bequeathed to them from the Turkish
occupation, has a very real meaning for them.
The heart of the nation — its peasantry — differs but
little to-day from what it was in the time of its Roman
ancestors. The legends, customs, habits, dress of olden
time have been preserved here as in no other Latin
country. Terpsichore brought them their Cahisare, a.
national dance, undoubtedly a reproduction of the Rape
of the Sabines, while the festivals for invoking rain are
identical with those held for that purpose in ancient
Rome.
Another ancient custom from Greek and Roman times
is the employment of professional women mourners, the
Bocitoare, who wail over the departed as in days long
gone. The tile on which the priest will draw the mystic
sign of the pentacle or the words " Christ has conquered *
is placed over the heart to prevent their return to earth
A LAND OF BEAUTY 19
as a vampire. The stick that is laid in the wrinkled
hands of their dead ; the little silver coin — the navlon
or charm — placed on their brow, is the continuation of
the ancient classical custom that was meant to help the
pilgiim across the dark, unfathomable waters :
" Beyond the shores of Styx and Acheron,
In unexplored realms of night to hide."
In some parts of the country when a death occurs all
the pots and pans are turned upside down to prevent the
escaping soul seeking refuge there and haunting the
family. 1 Dressed in its best the body lies, its head rest-
ing on a pillow filled with earth by the relatives, who
each put in a handful, murmuring, "God rest his soul."
Plates containing cakes and flowers are placed beside the
body by friends, who think they are able by this means
to send messages to those long dead. The house is not
swept for two days after a death, and when it is the
broom is burnt. The widow eats no meat and must visit
the grave daily for forty days, leaving water by the
graveside in case the departed should be suffering
from thirst. Another pagan custom called Rusalu, the
festival of the dead, is held in summer, when tributes and
flowers are laid on the graves of the departed. The
people are extremely superstitious and many oblations
are offered to the elemental deities. At birth, if the baby
is a son, the " Dealer of destinies " has to be placated by
coins, to ensure the little one being endowed with courage
and good fortune ; while if it is a girl, fecundity and
good health are prayed for. The first-born son in every
family has an earring put in his right ear to keep away
' This custom is also followed in fai distant Korea.
20 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
the evil eye. Red wool or ribbon in the girls' hair is also
a charm for this.
Those men who cannot grow moustaches are also con-
sidered to possess this evil influence ; blue or grey eyes
and red hair are also shunned for this reason. To meet a
priest on great occasions is bad luck. The women and
children will kiss his hand in passing, but the men, if
they can do it without offence, will turn their backs and
walk away ; if they can't, they will make a little cross of
two small twigs or bits of straw and lay it on the road.
* * * ♦
Roumanian folk-lore is incontestably one of the richest
in the world and is full of a poetic grace, a deep undying
love for the nature mother which is a striking character-
istic of this people. It shows itself very markedly in the
rich and very beautiful collection of popular ballads,
fairy tales, legends, proverbs, magic formulas and
charms ; songs, games, dances, mystery, morality and
folly plays, which embody in verse and prose the
romantic and mystical characteristics of the race and which
have been handed down to them through the centuries.
The doinas, ballads sung all over the land, are as real
an expression of the heart and soul of this people to-day
as in the past, when they were wrung from natures sur-
charged with deep emotion and devotion to their violated
soil. They came to birth under storm and stress, and no
one knows who voiced these words of tragedy, passion or
of happiness, who write the haunting melodies so ex-
pressive of the love, joy or grief of this people.
Many of their ballads are of pagan mythological origin,
such as that of the Sun and Moon. The Sun fell in love
with his sister and wished to take her to wife, but Jove
A LAND OF BEAUTY 21
interposing at the altar against the sacrilege lifted her
up and cast her into the sea, where she changed into an
eel. The Sun following her sunk into the sea in the West,
but Jove caught the eel from among the waves and flung
her into the clouds, where she changed into the Moon —
and the Sun still chases her, exhausting his horses in his
fruitless attempt to catch his beloved.
The little verses, the Collindes (Kalendae), that the
children sing from house to house at Christmas and the
New Year carrying an icon surrounded by flowers :
" A long time ago
Brother Trajan arose,"
have a distinct Roman influence, while the pipes of Pan
which are frequently seen on the Gallo-Roman or Roman
sculptures are the same as those on which the shepherd,
the pastor, flutes his plaintive melody as he passes
endless, lonely vigils with his dogs and sheep among the
voiceless slopes of the uplands, or whose music filters
thinly through the golden haze of svmmer, the misty
veil of autumn.
The shepherd's life is a simple and solitary one. Rising
before the dawn from his bed of bracken in the primitive
little hut or stina on the mountain-side, he will eat an
onion, a little cold mamaliga or maize porridge ; throwing
his great rough sheepskin over his shoulders, which leaves
little to show above but the bright black eyes and a
conical cap of fur — he will call his dogs and lead his sheep
from the dew-drenched slopes to the higher pasture — for
a long and lonely day. The autumn sees them descend-
ing with their flocks into the valleys for the winter. This
is the loveliest season of all the year in Roumania, with
its gorgeous sunsets, the brilliant colours of the changing
22 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
woods, and the cool breeze following on the parched heat
of summer. I think the Roumanian peasant would
endorse old William Warlock's dictum of that season did
he know it !
" I do love October," said William Warlock. " Don't 'ee
love no other month, Mr. Warlock ? " said Mrs. Mutton.
" Iss, I do love all the months, but when I zed I did love
October I did mean it did zeem to I zo zweet and beautiful.
It do zeem the picture of the year. We do goo vrom
month to month, auver and auver, with zomething good
in each ; but when October do come in, so be it be a
good October, then the picture avore un of every colour,
gold and red and green and lovely brown with the apple
skies, I do zay, zo many, many times to I, 'I do love
October.' "
The life and customs of the Roumanian people date
back to immemorial times, and in all these Eastern lands
of Europe Roumania seems to stand out pre-eminently as
the descendant and guardian of the ancient pastoral
dwellers of the Carpathian lands.
The departure of the shepherds in the spring for the
mountains, their return before the winter, follows a date
that has been adhered to through the centuries. In-
accessible to alien influence in their mountains and
valleys they have been the steadfast preservers of the
ancient Daco-Roman traditions and blood of the original
pastoral ancestors of the Roumanian people.
CHAPTER II
A LATIN OASIS
ONE emerges rather abruptly and suddenly from
the wide tranquiUity of the country into the
noisy gaiety of the capital Bucharest. The
streets, crowded in the bright sunshine and
dancing with colour, seemed to be the rendezvous for
multitudinous trysts. All the young men sauntering
along looked as if they were waiting for some one, and
eyed eagerly every girl that passed ! Midinettes, with
slim ankles, well-dressed hair, and the sure Latin instinct
for coquetry and flirtation, vied with the comely peasant
girls in the gaiety of the moment, and jest and laughter
was bandied about with typical Southern vivacity and
verve.
All over the world one will find proud citizens claiming
for their town the ambitious title of a " Paris," but their
illusion is generally destroyed when travel makes them
acquainted with the illustrious reality. With regard to
Bucharest, however, the claim is no unworthy one, and
this little capital lying on the very fringe of the Orient,
surrounded by the slow melancholy of the Slav nations,
is the gayest, brightest, lightest-hearted little sister to
the elder Paris it is possible to imagine, and, as
Biicuresci — meaning " city of pleasure " — amply lives up
to its title.
An old legend relates that the city was founded by a
24 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
shepherd called Bucur who built a little church on the
right bank of the river Dimbovitza, which still exists
and is venerated as the shrine of the patron saint.
Formerly a very primitively built town of ancient boyar
dwelhngs, and the huts of the shepherds and poor, it was
completely rebuilt after the great fire in 1847, and is now
a handsome spacious city. Its geographical position on
the great high road since the fourteenth century of the
traffic between the East and West was also exceptionally
favourable to its development. Its formation, which is
far more extended in proportion to its inhabitants than
most other towns, is very pleasing, and the many wide
avenues of trees, fine gardens surrounding the beautiful
houses, and wide open spaces planted with shrubs make
it a veritable garden city.
Fine boulevards — the Galea Victoria Caroli, Galea
Elizabeth, Strada Lipsicani — laid out in French style,
broad and well paved, run the whole length of the town
to the Ghaussee Kissilef, a big open space bordered with
woods which leads out of the city. Magnificent villas or
palaces, the abode of the wealthy princes and merchants,
stand in gardens of bright green shrubbery.
Enormous sums of money have been spent in building
and beautifying these abodes, which are furnished with
every luxury. The richer owners favour the English
style for the furnishing of the big square hall, dining-
room and library, the Jacobean and William and Mary
period being le dernier cri. The salon is nearly always
French, Louis-Ouinze, in style. These mansions are
separated from the road by magnificent black iron rail-
ings and imposing gates lavishly decorated with gold,
giving a very decorative note to the town.
A LATIN OASIS 25
The public buildings are equally imposing, indeed the
post office with its stately entrance and wide echoing
marble halls is Olympian in its grandeur. One can
hardly imagine the humble washing or grocery bill pass-
ing through these stately portals ! Only the missives of
the gods or emperors, and postcards — those brilliant
winged messages from Cupid, Mars, and Venus — seem
worthy of a passage here !
The Royal Palace, on the other hand, is most modest.
Composed of three wings, the one to the left is the oldest
part, being the ancient town abode of Prince Ghika
and later Prince Couza. It is a comfortable, long, low
building. A narrow courtyard, less than a quarter the
width of that in front of Buckingham Palace, separates it
from the road, and one can almost see into the Royal
apartments. In the interior, a superb marble staircase
leads to the throne-room, and the state apartments as
well as the private apartments are furnished with great
taste, containing many ohjets d'art, while some of the
rooms are embellished with beautiful carving.
Here, as well as at the Palace of Cotroceni and the
beautiful castle at Sinaia in the Carpathians, there are
many treasures of pictorial and decorative art and a
very considerable and interesting library. Here, also,
the student of the Spanish school of painting will find an
interesting collection : nine of the canvases of that re-
markable artist El Greco, including the splendid portrait
of Don Diego Covarubias ; three of Velazquez, one a
striking portrait of Cardinal Galli, and some of Zur-
barran ; a flagellation of Alonzo Cano and some examples
of Murillo, Ribeiro, Tristan, Alonzo Coello, Antonio del
Rin9on and others.
26 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Some examples of the Italian school also adorn the
walls : Tiepolo, Correggio, Tintoretto, Paulo Veronese,
and Palma Vecchio. A very rare canvas of Squarcione,
head of the earlier Paduan school, a Botticelli, a Mantegna,
a fine Rembrandt which appeared at the great Rembrandt
exhibition at Amsterdam, and a Rubens, are only some
of the great masters which this collection of interest and
importance comprises. The nation is also rich in some
private collections, rarely found in these Eastern coun-
tries.
The Palace of Cotroceni, situated to the west of
Bucharest, was originally an old monastery, and is the
favourite town residence of the King and Queen. Here
were spent the early years of their married life, here the
beautiful Royal children were born, and grew up, lovely
and happy, romping among the woods and gardens, the
big corridors and the more extensive rooms that the
older palace in town did not possess.
Entirely rebuilt some years ago, it stands in beautiful
wooded grounds. In the park is found the mausoleum
of the little Princess Marie, the only child of King Carol
and Queen Elizabeth, and among the woods and gardens,
ending their days in quiet sylvan retreat, stand the
curious old stone crosses which Queen Marie has col-
lected. Many of them are carved and of the Byzantine
period and are most ancient and interesting.
These extraordinary old crosses possess a great interest
for the Queen, and she has created out of her original and
inventive mind a very interesting one. It seems to be of
purel}^ Aryan origin, appearing for the first time in
Vedic form as two bars crossed by their centre, the points
turning sharply backwards to represent the solar rays.
2
PL,
a
CO
w
O
u
a
o
c
>
o
<
>
>
A LATIN OASIS 27
According to M. Burnouff it is the Swastika or primitive
cross of the Zoroastrians, or worshippers of fire. This is
sometimes found in Scandinavian countries under the
name oi filot.
The interior of the palace is distinguished by the
artistic arrangement of the apartments, and above all by
the great taste and wonderful decorative talents of
Queen Marie. Here in these beautiful rooms her inspira-
tion and ability have produced a charming and most
original effect, the predominant motif being the mys-
terious intermingling of the rich colouring and design of
the wonderful Byzantine period with the old Roumanian
style. It forms a fitting background for one of the most
beautiful women of her day.
The Fates were indeed generous to this Princess at
birth. Gifted in an exceptional degree, and endowed with
that most precious possession of all a rare and wonderful
personality, she has a magnetic charm and graciousness of
manner, a wide and generous-hearted interest that draws
the best from everyone and the devotion of all. At her
marriage at Sigmaringen at the age of seventeen she was
so lovely that she was called the " angel without wings."
When she came to the throne in October, 1916, she declared
that " We hope that during our reign Roumania may grow
in greatness and happiness ... to consecrate all my efforts
to the alleviation of misery and pain is the mission which,
as with all other great-hearted women of the past, I will
devote myself, unfailingly true to the cause and welfare
of the Roumanian people." And her word has been most
nobly kept.
Her life up till now had been an absolutely happy one,
surrounded by every luxury, blessed with good health
28 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
and the most beautiful children — three boys and three
girls, to whom she is absolutely devoted — fate seemed to
have poured every good and perfect gift into her lap.
Artistic and accomplished, beloved and adored by all,
her great beauty and charm, her energetic high-spirited
nature seemed to have wonderfully fitted her to be the
queen of a country with a great future before it, and of a
people so aesthetically responsive to her warm-hearted
radiant personality. From the day of her entry into her
adopted country she has endeared herself to the people
by her generosity and kindness, and has thrown herself
heart and soul into their interests and plans for their
welfare and advancement.
Beauty and tenderness of heart ! What better gifts
can the gods bestow on one ?
The nation that has not the Soleil des morts, as Balzac
has called it, that does not possess in some measure the
glory of past traditions of poetry or art, is a nation with-
out a soul. It is not material success, the wealth, com-
merce that counts in the higher civilization, it is the im-
perishable little flame of genius in sculpture, painting,
music or verse, which it hands on to its descendants that
is the true criterion of the inner spirit of a race.
In folk-song, proverbs and legends Roumania is very
rich, but in the higher arts, the incessant barbarian
invasions, the vicissitudes the country experienced stood
in the way of development ; the ruthless conquerors plun-
dering or destroying all they could lay their hands upon,
though fortunately some very interesting Roman records
and remains escaped extinction and still exist.
One of the earliest sources of art in ancient days
A LATIN OASIS 29
emanated from the great religious houses and churches.
In mediaeval Roumania the plastic arts never broke away
from the circle of religious formula ; their manifestations
were invariably ecclesiastical in form and idea, and in
the countries which professed the Greek Orthodox faith
the Byzantine influence was naturally predominant.
The beautiful, the pleasing and especially the nude were
rigidly eschewed as a snare of the Evil One, and every-
thing was sacrificed in order to attain a concentration of
devotional piety in the arrangement and expression of
the figure. The frescoes in the Roumanian churches and
monasteries show this influence very characteristically,
and it is only in architecture that there is an occasional
departure from the hieratic and dogmatic style of
Byzantine art.
A conventional monotony in the figures and poses, a
lack of plasticity, an accentuated symbolism, a piety and
ecstasy, an attenuation of all material beauty are the
rules of Byzantine art as laid down by the monk Denys
in his celebrated guide, and accurately interpreted by
his disciple the painter Manuel Panselinos.
This manual found at Mount Athos in 1839 was the
catechism and artistic guide that governed the artists of
the Church throughout these Eastern lands. It was
an art essentially dominated by the Church, and which
allowed little liberty of execution or caprice to the
artists. Nevertheless what it loses in inspiration it gains
in richness and symbolism, and as an expression of a
marvellously decorative and mystically religious craft,
it is extraordinarily impressive.
Not only in painting and in mosaics but in the civil as
well as the ecclesiastical architecture this symbolical
30 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
intention was apparent, and various well-known authori-
ties have shown that in construction, nearly every part of
the sacred edifice had its profound mystic signification.
In the frescoes of some of the churches and monasteries
in Roumania all the horrors of the damned are portrayed
with terrible morbid minutiae of detail. Many of these
paintings belong, however, to the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries and constitute probably a departure from
the true Byzantine art, which emphasizes only the mys-
tery, the immutability, the presence of the Supreme
Being, the hierarchy of Heaven, the holy saints, virgins,
and ecclesiastics, and the portrait-like presentments of
devout emperors and empresses in their archaic but
superbly sumptuous attire.
This art lost something of its wonderful richness and
its extreme rigidity of convention in its transplanting
to other provinces and lands, but this loss may be
said to be balanced by a naivete, a simpler charm born
of the pious rustic soul of the Roumanian people.
The early literature of Roumania consisted of old
chronicles, lives of the saints, legends and translations
from the Slavonic and Greek literature.
In 1864, when the great monasteries and convents of
Roumania were secularized, their precious relics of gold
and silver, chalice, plates, reliquaries, crucifixes and
missals were installed in the museum at Bucharest. Here
also were placed the elaborate sacerdotal vestments of
sumptuous design and colour, splendid in fairy stitchery
of gold, pearls and precious stones exhibiting the perfect
craftsmanship so characteristic of the magnificent period
of Byzantine culture. The unique treasure of Petrossa
called by the Roumanians the " Hen and Chickens,"
A LATIN OASIS 31
consisting of a great platter and twelve magnificent
pieces of gold plate, richly embossed and encrusted with
jewels, is also in the museum of the Roumanian capital.
It was found by a peasant in Buzeu in 1837 ^vhile plough-
ing his field, and is attributed to the period of Athanaric,
King of the Visigoths. Twenty-two pieces were found, but
many of them were broken, and only twelve perfect
specimens are now shown. Some splendid gold crowns
and barbaric jewellery were found at the same time, and
these have been pronounced unique specimens of the art
of the Goths.
The Byzantine was not the only art that influenced
mediaeval Roumanian life and culture. The Venetians
who came to the country in the seventeenth century to
paint the portraits of the boyars influenced the Rou-
manian artists in form and colour, as well as in the design
and modelhng of jewellery and plate, icons, tapestry and
the dress of the period.
Perhaps the most distinctly national type of Roumanian
architectural art is to be seen in the old fortress houses or
koulas which I have described elsewhere. They are very
original in structure and as far as I know are not often
found in any other European country.
The many monasteries and convents are built on
beautiful hill sites or beside streams ; the earlier ones are
of the Byzantine type and are often surrounded by deep
walls behind which the people from the plains and villages
retired when the enemy were overrunning the land.
They have huge gates called Clopnitza and a Fundank
or guest-house where travellers are lodged, and their
peculiarly shaped cupolas of burnished copper or gilt
metal shine for miles around.
32 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
All over the country one finds numbers of beautiful
old stone crosses and tombstones, enriched with carving
and inscriptions of great interest. They were placed
near every well, to bless and protect the precious fluid,
in the meadows, among the leafy woods, by the road-
side — sometimes alone, arrestingly beautiful, standing
deep in the wild flowers and waving grasses — or else in
groups made of wood with crudely painted figures of
saints adorning them. Some are high and very old with
the names of those who erected this simple testimony of
their faith carved on them — others have little roofs to
keep the snow and rain from weathering their gnarled
time-worn heads. Almost all are quaint, many are very
beautiful.
Roumanian intellectual culture is of very recent
development, retarded as it has been by centuries of
strife. Nevertheless during the short space of seventy
odd years — which represents the period of modern
Roumania's existence — in the upper classes the national
temperament with its enthusiastic and mental endow-
ment has developed at a much greater rate than that of
any of the other Balkan Powers, and has produced artists,
writers, and scientific men of acknowledged ability. But
it must be noted that her art is not so much a complete
national growth as a reflection of Occidental influences.
Since the Phanariot days the French influence has been
paramount, and in recent times the ^cole des Beaux- Arts
at Paris has been the nursery for the national artistic
development. The late Queen Elizabeth, better known
as Carmen S37lva, greatly fostered the intellectual inspira-
tion of the nation, and Oueen Marie, who has also much
artistic and poetic perception, has worthily followed her
A LATIN OASIS 33
example, and at her palace has welcomed the various
poets, artists, writers and musicians, affording them
every encouragement and opportunity to develop their
gifts.
* * * *
Life in Bucharest for those who have the leisure and
the wherewithal is an exciting and amusing pastime.
There are endless distractions for the gay and pleasure
loving — music, beauty, joie de vivre, and money to burn !
Wliat potent lures for the light-hearted youth of a
nation !
And the city, how it hums ! Like a brilliant top
spinning merrily. The day is not long enough to crowd
in the many interests and delights, and there is hardly
time to sleep !
Much entertaining is done in their beautiful houses
but far more at the cafes, Enescu and Capsa being the
prime favourites and always crowded. The prices, like
the shops, vie with those of Monte Carlo. The chef
is a master artist summoning the wares of Autolycus
from the distant marts of France, while the owners
one might surely suppose could give points to the
" rake-the-dollar-in-quick " specialist of New York or
Chicago.
Bucharest, though a city of opulence and gaiety, so
close to the East, shows no sign of the " Kef " of the
Turk, that indolent lethargic outlook of the Oriental
which has always been such a barrier to their progress,
nor yet of the fatalist "Nichevo" (it doesn't matter) of
the Slav !
No, everyone seems alert, ready for anything ; business,
yes, but always and decidedly pleasure ! But Rou mania
D
34 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
is full of contrasts, and when one finds a really busy hard-
working man he is abnormally so, though never coming
quite up to the standard of extreme concentration shown
by the American and some Englishmen of affairs, who
often, in the frenzied pursuit of wealth, have forgotten
what pleasure is, how to play, and that the music of our
lives depends upon the rests as much as on the notes.
Like the American, however, they take the same eager
interest in strangers, their news and opinions, and show
a lively curiosity as to what is thought of their country
and customs.
Though Slavs and Turks have invaded the country in
the past, the former has left the greater influence on the
national character, and this is but slight ; the presence
of a considerable number of Slav words in their vocabulary
being perhaps the most outstanding effect of that in-
fluence.
The Latin strain is even more marked and obvious
among the Roumanians in the remoter villages of
Transylvania, and their language is an indisputable
proof of their origin.
The whole of their political and social bias is towards
the Latin rather than the Slav nations. The language of
France, that dear but distant sister, is spoken by the
upper classes ; Russian, that of their nearest neighbour,
rarely. All who can afford it have English nurses and
governesses for their children, and the babies often
babble English before they can speak a word of Rou-
manian.
Whether for good or evil, French influence and teach-
ing have moulded the life of the upper classes consider-
ably. Apart from the strong ties of sympathy between
A LATIN OASIS 35
the nations, it undoubtedly owes some of its early origin
to the Phanariot Princes, whose families living amidst
the squalid and barbarous atmosphere of Stamboul
endeavoured to seek enlightenment and culture from
Paris and in a study of the French literature and language.
This slender coating of civilization followed them when
they became Princes of the Principalities.
Roumania, unlike the neighbouring states of Serbia,
Greece and Bulgaria, is the only one which has preserved
an aristocracy. The boyars or nobles were the great
feudal landlords of the past, and though their property
and rights have been greatly curtailed they still survive,
a fairly powerful class. They have their faults as well as
their virtues. Some of them are disfigured by devoting
themselves to a ceaseless pursuit of pleasure, an existence
given up to luxury, living out of their country and
spending their fortunes in a luxurious life at Monte
Carlo and Paris. Others happily with a higher sense of
national duty have taken up the interests of their
estates and tenants, and aided by their natural gifts as a
Latin race, have proved themselves patriots of marked
political ability, as well as diplomats of acknowledged
ability and acumen.
They are inveterate talkers ; warm-hearted, inquisitive
and loquacious. At their parties they pass long hours at
a time — and well into the morning — listening to the
Lautari or gipsy musicians occasionally, but principally
talking, laughing, eating and drinking light wines, cakes
or sweet champagne. Climate may undoubtedly have
something to do with this pronounced zest for midnight
conversational activity, but I do not think any house in
England except perhaps the House of Commons could
36 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
support such an orgy of talk, and talk, and yet more
talk as this gay light-hearted people maintain without a
sense of exhaustion.
The music is not listened to seriously, and inter-
ruptions are constant, the melodies being frequently and
suddenly changed to another at some one's wish.
In appearance the men of the upper class are very like
the Italians, dark, slender and well-proportioned. The
dark type predominates over the blonde. Of medium
height, they have wide foreheads, clear-cut features,
small ears, hands and feet, and quick intelligent eyes.
With an unusually keenly developed olfactory sense
they have also a quick ear for musical intonation,
although not remarkable for any special musical en-
dowment.
The men of the upper class have charming manners,
lively and courteous, but their gaiety is often only skin
deep and conceals a strain of morbid melancholy.
Generous to prodigality, ambitious and eager ; capricious
often and sometimes cruel, they are yet rarely revengeful
and are a curious mixture of dreaming and action, weak-
ness and vigour that shows the various influences that
have affected their race.
The standard of intellectual culture will be a revela-
tion to those who know little of Roumania and imagine
her as a lower civilization than our own. The education
and mental equipment of the young man or girl of the
leisured classes is higher than our own, and they are in
general far wider read, expressing themselves easily,
gracefully and fluently in at least three languages. They
are interesting and delightful companions with a wit and
quickness of thought that tosses the ball of repartee
A LATIN OASIS 37
lightly from one to another. In politics they are versatile
and impassioned speakers, and are keen travellers, often
journeying far afield.
Gay, witty, amusing, who can deny that the Latins
above all races know how to squeeze the juice out of the
fruit of life, and with their brilliant lournure d'esprit and
subtle intellect they are one of the most delightful people
to mix among.
Perhaps in our staid, more serious way we might
consider them frivolous, perhaps they promise more
than they perform and certainly conjugal fidelity is not
one of their conspicuous qualities. They do not follow
Richardson's advice that in choosing a wife one must be
careful not to choose any one else's !
Ardent, impulsive, susceptible and adventurous in
love, their jealousy is soon roused and they quarrel
quickly ; but another pleasing face will soon oust the
erstwhile adored one, and in love, as some one has said,
the Roumanian galant finds the word " always " generally
but means goodwill towards the future and confidence in
himself.
It has been said that a woman, to be beautiful, should
be English as to her head, French to her waist and Arab
for her limbs and feet. Though not conforming to this
standard, yet the women both of the peasantry and
upper classes have as a rule more than the usual share
of good looks. Like the men they are dark, of medium
height, with a grace and vivacity of speech that contrast
strikingly with the soft, semi-Oriental expression of their
eyes and indolent charm of movement. Proud of their
Latin blood, of French influence, and friendships made in
school days spent in Paris, they are intensely Western in
38 ROUMANIA ; YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
ideas and mode of life and are as removed and different
from their neighbours in Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria as
if the whole width of Europe divided them.
Brought up in the same strict conventions as the
French girl, the Roumanian girl, as soon as she marries,
takes every advantage of her new-found freedom, dis-
cards restraints and dips into a whirl of flirtation and
social distraction of every sort. If it is true that men
retire into marriage, women emerge from it, then the
young Roumanian mondaine, gay, high-spirited and
amusing, with much elegance in dress, zest in life, a
temperament and a wide quest for emotional experience,
tries her wings pretty freely, and in general leads a
lively existence.
Of late years the rigorous supervision and strictness
with which the debutante was guarded has been some-
what relaxed, and has given way to a more wholesome
and liberal standard, and a goodly number of the younger
generation are copying the freer life of the English girl.
It is a considerable gain, both physically and mentally,
the widened horizon carrying with it more varied interests
and a less self-conscious outlook.
She is generally well educated and though not intel-
lectual she has much natural facility. Her reading is
light but ranges over the novels and works of the English,
French and Italian writers, and it is not unusual to find
her conversant and able to hold her own in discussing the
literature of our country.
The influence and example of their beloved and
beautiful English-born Queen, with her passion for out-
of-door life and healthy exercise, her keen interest in
country life and interests, the welfare and development
A LATIN OASIS J9
of the peasants' industries, has largely influenced and
widened their outlook and extended the sphere of what
used to be but a gay little butterfly existence. The last
two years of suspense, while all Europe was battUng
against " Thuggism in Europe," has deepened her nature
somewhat and roused the finer qualities dormant under
the light exterior. A change, subtle and slight perhaps,
but nevertheless foreshadowing the part she may be
called upon to play in the stem tests and trials of the
future.
* ♦ ♦ *
To the stranger it is perhaps the picture of the
simple, hard-working peasant mother or wife that leaps
to one's memory when thinking of the women of Rou-
mania. The gay cosmopolitanism of the aristocracy, the
comfortable independence and prosperity of the middle
classes are more or less similar and familiar to the
peoples of the West. But the peasant woman, whether
she be building a house, working as hard as any man in
the fields or farmyard, or rearing her large family with
tireless love and devotion, is the real heart that feeds the
nation's arteries. With
" Kindly eyes ; lips grown softly sweet
With murmured blessings over sleeping babes,
A knowledge in their deep unfaltering eyes
That far outreaches all philosophy."
Her toil is ceaseless, her pleasures few. Her faith in
Divine protection is illimitable and she patiently accepts
all that comes to her in weal or woe as destiny — a fate
unalterable.
At her loom the winter nights she sings the ballads of
her country, keeping alight the ancient fighting tradi-
40 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
tions of her race, instilling the fire of patriotism into the
hearts of her children.
Her sons are indeed the future swords of Roumania,
but she is the soul of that land !
Before closing these brief glimpses of Roumanian Ufe
and customs and dipping into the past history of her
people, I must include a short summary of those who by
their genius and patriotic ardour have helped to mould
the intellectual development of the country.
Among the most prominent of her poets are Vasile
Alexandri and Michael Eminesco. The former, born of
good family, had a gracious sonorous muse, through which
he sang of the beauties of his pastoral land, the grandeur
of the mountain ranges, nature in her many phases.
Like the Heiducks, the heroes of old, he sang to the
"... Forest the wonders I see in my dreams,
And the forest loves to hear the tale of my dreaming,
More than the song of birds,
More than the murmur of leaves."
The best of these nature poems are included in his
charming Pastels.
He devoted much of his life and great talent to collect-
ing the very beautiful collection of folk-poems which the
country is so rich in. He was the inspirer and mouth-
piece for the dreams and aspirations of his awakening
country, and in the easy flowing music of his verse
vibrates the very heart and soul of his country people.
Towards the end of his life he wrote some fine epic poems
under the title of Legends.
Eminesco was of quite another strain. His was a
fragile spirit which floated out, pale, mysterious and
A LATIN OASIS 41
tragic from the golden wake of Alexandri's tranquil
dignity, and whom he thus described : " This king of
poetry for ever young and happy." Eminesco's verse was
of a dehcate poignant beauty, reflecting as it were the
lonely silver beauty of moonlight, the dark storm-driven
clouds racing athwart her face, the deep-cut sombre
shadows she casts on the world below and the subtle
mourn fuhiess of the cripuscide that heralds her approach.
His form struck across the more conventional declama-
tory style of the nation's verse with a strange elusive
harmony, profound, ironic, mournful. His work in com-
parison with Alexandri's is of a higher artistic quality
and haunts one by its deep philosophy and melancholy
charm. His sonnets are very beautiful, and his Satires
vibrate with a verbal force and magnificence unequalled
by other Roumanian singers. He was the first writer to
emerge from the peasant world, for until his appearance,
poetry, letters and art had been considered rather as an
appanage of the aristocracy alone. But his life was a
tragic one passed in a fierce struggle for material existence,
amid trouble, poverty and ill-health, until exhausted by
sickness and sorrow he died insane.
Cema, a poet who died some years ago at Leipzig, was
of great promise, and his death while quite young has
been a great loss to Roumanian literature. His verse
was very beautiful and full of philosophic optimism.
He sang in ardent strain of the joy of hfe, of the wonder-
ful moments of love, those moments which though
transient represent the only approach to immortality
granted us by the gods : —
'• If IcH-e is sin, then glory to Him who created it.
He made the sin so exceedingly beautiful,"
42 ROUMANIA ; YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
are lines he wrote in a poem regarding the fall of our
first parents in Paradise.
As dramatists and writers Caragiale and Jon Creanga
are well known. The former wrote delightful comedies,
while Creanga — who was of peasant birth — has produced
some very fine prose and is a writer who has published
many interesting stories depicting the true mentality of
the Moldavian peasantry.
Negrutzi and Zamphiresco are fine novelists — the
former rather in the style of Sir Walter Scott — writing
with literary and artistic value, while Sadoveanu and
B. Voinesti are among representatives of the younger
generation.
Titu Maiorescu's name as a critic is well known and he
was the founder of the first serious literary review of
Roumania, the Convokbiri Liter are, which holds a de-
servedly high position, uniting under its banner the lead-
ing intellectual spirits of the generation.
In painting, Grigoresco is an artist of much merit,
while Enesco as a musician and composer is well known
to the elite of the musical world of Europe.
In the domain of history Xenopol holds an eminent
position. He has written the Istoria Romanilor in six
volumes, and several works in French. Some years ago
he was elected a member of the Societe de Sociologie in
Paris in succession to the late Lord Avebury.
lorga is one of the country's most distinguished and
prominent writers. He has published a history of the
Roumanian people, a history of the Ottoman Empire,
and one on the Byzantine which has been translated
into EngUsh. But it is not only as an historian that
he can claim the proud position he holds in the eyes of
A LATIN OASIS 43
his countrymen, but also as the leading spirit in his
country's intellectual development. His inspiring in-
fluence, his warm enthusiasm, his fine critical judgment,
his astounding capacity for work and prolific creative
faculty have been a great force in developing
Roumania's literary Hfe, and imparting to it its tnily
national character, and under his influence Roumanian
literature has re-found its true path.
M. Beza the Vlach poet and prose writer has a wide
knowledge of history and a deep sympathetic under-
standing of his nomadic Macedonian kinsmen. His
collection of stories, Pe Drumuri (on the road), are
somewhat in the style of Turguenev's A Sportsman's
Sketches. He was the first writer to translate into prose
with a concentration of expression, a discretion of feeling,
as the well-known critic of Convorbiri, S, Mehedintz,
has said, the soul of the wandering Vlach. He has
depicted the roving hfe of this very interesting people,
their long caravans that creep over the road winding
towards the melancholy stillness of the hills, and their
mysterious old-world rites and customs. A great admirer
of English literature, he has written essays on Shake-
speare, Carlyle, Ruskin, from De Quincey, Keats, some
of which he has translated into Roumanian as well as
Oscar Wilde's De Profundis.
Transylvania — the lost province — has contributed much
to Roumania's intellectual development, and her exiled
sons have shown how deep a bond of national union,
Latin culture and undying devotion unites them to the
motherland.
Among the poets from Transylvania Cosbuc, though
never a great singer like Eminesco, stands very high in
44 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
the esteem of his countrymen. He combated to some
extent the rather morbid atmosphere created by
Emine.co's muse, and sang of Transylvania with a
wealth of diction, a variety of expression and cadence
that has placed him higher than any other Transylvanian
poet. In a poem bearing the title " The Poet," he begins :
" I am a soul in my people's soul,
And I . . . sing its joys and sorrows.''
Octavian Goga and St. losif were also poets of Tran-
sylvanian birth — " brothers from the Ardeal." Goga
launched forth his soul and brain with flaming ardour
towards the cause of his martyred and oppressed kinsmen
under Magyar tyranny. To his stirring verse and
prose is partly ascribed the influence exercised on the
Roumanian people in declaring war on the Central j
Powers. He represents in poetry the last note in irre-
dentism, but in artistic quality he is inferior to Cosbuc or
even to St. losif.
losif is best known for his Patriarhale and his Croyances
which are full of a pure and delicate lyrical beauty. His
poem " To Arms ! " was sung by the troops on the first
day of mobihzation (1913) as they marched beneath the
windows of his room where he lay, dehrious and dying.
He has translated Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's
Dream, also Shelley's To a Skylark.
A curious and tragic fate seems to have haunted the
lives of several of Roumania's sweetest singers. Angeel,
a collaborator of losif, a poet of delicately passionate
vein, committed suicide ; while Corina, losif's adored
little daughter, to whom he had dedicated the most
lovely of his poems, was blown to pieces by a Zeppelin
bomb while playing in a garden in Bucharest. Chendi,
A LATIN OASIS 45
losif's friend and compatriot, a critic of no mean
calibre, fell a victim to the same dread malady as
his friend. Unable to face the pitiless, slow agony of
disease he threw himself from the window and met a
brutal but quicker end on the stones below. ^
Again, Garleano and Ion Adam were other fine poetic
spirits that an implacable destiny seemed to track
and who finished their lives in suffering, in the
full plenitude of their talent and before their fortieth
year ! The best part of a literary generation — not count-
ing the victims that may fall in war — have been wiped
out, but the legendary vitality and endowment of the
race will persist and new stars will surely shine forth to
lighten a shadowed land.
*■ La Revue, 1917. Victor Eftimiu;
CHAPTER III
THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION
The Roumanian never dies. — Old Proverb.
ROUMANIA has a proverb, " Water flows, the
rocks remain." To reahze the truth of this
and understand the Roumanians of to-day,
one has only to glance back over the pages of
their early history, and note the incessant waves of
conquest, oppression and cruelty that swept over the
country during sixteen centuries, and note too how
every conqueror, in turn, tried to crush and submerge
this Latin people under a welter of anarchy and chaos.
But like rocks these storms only imbedded them the more
deeply in the soil ; and the torrent of barbarians enslaved
and tortured, but never succeeded in annihilating them.
Roumania is by racial affinity a Latin country. There
are, therefore, a few who affirm that neither geographic-
ally, ethnologically nor politically is she one of the Balkan
Powers. Yet it can be safely asserted that in spite of a
certain justification for this pose or position she is, never-
theless, by reason of her political and social evolution as
historically developed, by her folk-lore, literature, art,
and much of her national mentality undoubtedly a
Balkan state.
With reference to the views of the minority, Mr. Seton
Watson has said : " This is a pose which has its good and
46
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 47
its bad sides, and which, indeed, is true or false very much
according to the way in which it is apphed. But no
serious student of history can accept this pose, and it is a
satisfactory sign of the times that the most distinguished
historian of modern Roumania, Professor Jorga, is devot-
ing much of his energy to making Bucharest a centre of
Balkan historical studies, and is never tired of emphasiz-
ing the solidarity of Roumania and the other Balkan
States. He is perfectly justified in arguing that the
Roumanian element has always been one of the chief
' cultural ' elements in the history of the Peninsula, and
that history and geography have combined to assure to
Roumania a still more prominent role in the future." ^
The Balkans lie south of the Danube — Roumania to
the north of it. But proud though she may be of her
Latin blood and tradition, which have made her the chief
centre of culture in the Peninsula, much of her future
development is indissolubly linked up with the Balkan
States adjoining her, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece.
The origin of the Roumanian race, though much dis-
puted, is clear on the main points. The earliest in-
habitants of the Roumania of to-day were the Getae, or
Dacians, who inhabited the shore of the Euxine south
of the Danube, now called the Dobrudja. The Roman
geographer Pliny tells us the former was the Greek and
the latter the Latin name for this people.
Herodotus speaks of them in these early days as " the
bravest and most honourable of all the Thracian tribes."
They were very warlike, constantly fighting with the
Greek colonies settled on the west coast of the Black
Sea, and they even endeavoured to check the advance
' Koumauia and the Great War,
48 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
of King Darius of Persia. About the year 390 b.c. they
crossed the Danube, settling in the country north of it
and increasing greatly in numbers as they acquired the
rudiments of civilization. About iii B.C. the Romans,
advancing through Macedonia, came into conflict with
them. The succeeding years constantly saw them cross-
ing the Danube to harry the Roman province of Moesia,
now Bulgaria ; and in the fortified towns of the Black
Sea, the inhabitants closed their gates at sunset, so fearful
were they of these stern warriors.
Ovid, who was sent here in exile, describes the natives
as having " rough voices, savage features ; and a striking
image of the god Mars." That Mars was a good god to
reflect in those early days is obvious, since Hfe was one
long fight for existence and the sword was a vital instru-
ment of justice. But notwithstanding their rough
exterior traits, this people were not invariably uncouth
in thought or mind, and had worked out for themselves
a philosophy of no mean standard. They believed in the
migration of souls, and an immortality that regarded
death as a prelude only to a greater world. Their sage
and teacher, Zamolxis, taught them that submission of
the body to the will was the true discipline, virtue the
supreme good, and vice the only evil. Herodotus called
them the " Immortals," for they never spoke of " dying."
The natural martial courage of the race proved a fine
foundation for the superimposed layer of civilization
introduced by the great Roman Emperor Trajan, w^ho
conquered the Dacians in a.d. 106. Their last King,
Decebalus — a great chieftain, whose name, " Strength of
the Dacians," speaks for his renown — was victorious over
the Roman legions in the early part of his reign, exacting
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 49
an annual tribute from the Emperor Domitian. On the
accession of Trajan in 98 B.C., a determined effort, in
which no vigour was spared, was made to conquer this
nation described by Phny as an " invincible enemy."
After desperate battles Decebalus had to surrender ;
but no sooner was Trajan back in Rome than revolt
broke out again. The revolt was crushed, no quarter
being given on either side ; Decebalus, fighting to the
jast and seeing the fortunes of his side waning, com-
mitted suicide. Thus in 106 Dacia became a Roman
province.
All who have ever been to Rome will remember the
incidents of this great conquest, which have been im-
mortalized by Apollodorus, the great Damascene archi-
tect, in the bas-relief of Trajan's column. Here stands a
priceless commentary, in marble, on the history of the
Dacians. It is a marvellous memorial of a great struggle
between warring races, and part of this extraordinarily
vivid picture in stone shows 2500 Dacian and Roman
warriors locked in a deadly combat.
The great Trajan brought prosperity and wisdom, as
well as the sword, to this martial race ; and fewer nations
absorbed more quickly and less reluctantly the benevolent
influence of a conqueror. So just was his rule, so judicious
was the conduct of the Roman legions planted in the
country to stem the rush of barbarians from the north,
that the Dacians soon fraternized and actually inter-
married freely with their \^anquishers. The characteristics
of the two races, the courageous and Spartan-Uke virtues
of the ancient Dacians, and the equally martial but more
highly developed qualities of Trajan's famous legions,
were thus perpetuated in their offspring.
K
50 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
It is an astonishing phenomenon and a striking example
of the mysterious and virile influence of race, to see a
nation after a lapse of sixteen centuries showing so
unequivocally to-day its Latin strain, in its language — a
" soft bastard Latin " — its physique, customs, habits
and dress, and yet separated from its parent strain by
half the width of a continent.
Under Trajan's rule schools were founded, cities and
aqueducts built — the remains of w^hich can still be seen ;
also the wonderful Roman roads, so celebrated in many
lands, were made, and exist in many places to this day.
Of these, the best known, called by Trajan's name, cuts
through the depths of the Carpathians at the celebrated
Tumu Rosu or Red Tower Pass.
It is interesting to note that in the records of the allot-
ment of the land to the inhabitants, the word "paternally"
constantly appears ; denoting the politic and just ad-
ministration of the great Emperor ; while the world-
renowned Edict of CaracuUas — giving to every inhabitant
of the Empire the privilege of calling himself a true-bom
Roman, a nomenclature upheld by the law — reconciled
the conquered to the loss of their independence.
Dacia at this time was considerably larger than the
Roumania of to-day, comprising Transylvania and Buko-
vina, now under Austrian rule ; Moldavia, the northern
portion of the country ; Bessarabia, taken by Russia in
1878 ; and Wallachia, or Muntenia, as the Dacians or
early inhabitants of Roumania called it. The country
rapidly settled down under the Roman occupation, and
became a flourishing province, its capital being Apulam,
now Karlsburg. During the reign of the Emperor
Aurelian, in 270, Dacia was abandoned by the Romans,
y.
y,
z
o
H
P
o
I
o
Q
o
a
■ji
o
<
H
CO
■ji
rKACEFUL LIVES IN THE OLD MONASTERIES.
PASTOR" OR SHEPHERD BOY IN WINTER COAT.
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 51
and the next thousand years saw this rich and beautiful
land invaded and oppressed in turn by Huns, Goths,
Slavs, and a wild, sa\ago and debauched Turkish tiihc.
the A\'ars. The Goths and Slavs scuttled down in Hungary,
Slavonia, Bosnia, etc., thus separating the Roumanians
from the Latin race of their early origin.
These waves of tyrannical oppression, when horde
after horde of savage tribes succeeded each other, are
lost in the remote obscurity of the past, and only dim
records of anarchy and chaos remain. But, strong and
enduring, the Latin element in this race persisted, the
one permanent feature in these dark ages of barbarism
and conquest. Isolated and afar, on the outskirts of
Europe, with Turks, Tartars and Huns sweeping con-
stantly over them, their unquenchable spirit was nevei
submerged, never extinguished and was even strong
enough to filter through the savagery of the Gothic
influence to a shght degree.
In the thirteenth century light slow)y began to illumine
these tragic days of the country's birth. The terrible
tides of savagery gradually receded, and the inextinguish-
able spirit of the Roumanians — Daco-Romans, as some
call the early Roumanians — gradually crept forth once
more. In 1290, Radou Negrou or Rudolph the Black, a
wild mountain chief, came forth with many of the
original colonists, who had fled with him to the caves and
great forests in the mountain heights. With desperate
courage this band of cave-dwellers gave battle to their
foes, inllicting serious defeat upon them, and the Princi-
pahty of Wallachia was created soon afterwards. Firt-d
by this success Dragosch, another chieftain, successfully
attacked and defeated the foe. An old legend tells u
52 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
that as Dragosch emerged from the Passes he came to the
banks of a charming stream in a fertile land where much
game abounded. Resting here, he called the stream
Moldava and the land Moldavia, after his faithful hound
and constant companion, Molda. Conquering the country,
he created the principality of Moldavia, and so from the
welter and stress of the past, the kernel of present-day
Roumania struggled slowly and painfully to life,
♦ * * *
The course of Roumania's evolution was destined to
be by the bloody path of war, and the succeeding cen-
turies were passed in a veritable vortex of turmoil, an
eternal, interminable fight to resist the savage domination
of the Turk.
It must never be forgotten that Roumania and the
neighbouring nations, unconquerable in spirit, unceasing
in sacrifice, stemmed the tide of vandalism during five
ghastly centuries of cruelty and national abasement.
Their heroism contributed in large measure to the general
cause of civilization by enabling the nations of Western
Europe to develop and pursue in peace their natural
work of advancement and progress. History ever repeats
itself ; and again, in the twentieth century, these " little "
nations, Serbia, Montenegro and now Roumania, have
risen and heroically endeavoured to stem the advance of
the reincarnated Hun, bestial and remorseless in his lust
for conquest and blood.
In the glimpses we have of these far-off days the
treachery and brutality of the conqueror alternate with
examples of the stubborn tenacity, courage and vigour of
a race that, fighting through centuries, refused to be
exterminated, and many stirring episodes strike like
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 53
gleams of sunshine through the gloom and despair of
these pages of distant history. Only one or two of the
rulers of the Principalities can be mentioned in this
bird's-eye view of the past. Mircea, the first great Prince
of Wallachia — the rich grain-growing district stretching
from the Carpathians along the banks of the Danube to
the ri\'cr Buzau — was a man of great intelligence and
power. His reign extended from 1380-1418, and Xcnopol
describes him as " one of the most remarkable figures in
the history of the Roumanian principalities."
During his thirty-eight years' reign he fought incessantly
against the Turk, ever striving to free his Christian land.
He summoned his army to the help of Serbia, ready to
strike with her a blow for freedom against the infidel and
tyrant, and although the Serbs were defeated and almost
swept out of existence at the bloody field of Kossovo, his
action prevented in some degree their complete extinc-
tion.
Few people realize that it was the Roumanian race
that gave the two greatest heroes of the fifteenth century
to history : John Hunyady, who led the Hungarian
armies so victoriously against Islam ; and Stefan-cel-
Mare, or Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia. The
latter was one of the great outstanding figures of these
turbulent early days, earning with Sobieski, Eugene and
Hunyady a proud place as one of the four bulwarks of
Christendom against the infidel invasion. Pope Sixtus IV
called him the " Athlete of Christ," and wrote to him .
" The high deeds which thou hast accomplished against
the infidel Turks have rendered thy name so glorious that
all of one accord sing thy praises." He not only repelled
the Turks, who outnumbered his forces by three to one,
54 ROUMANIA ; YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
but also the Poles who invaded his territory. He made
his capital at Bukovina ; and during his long reign of
fifty years his country prospered greatly. A statue has
been erected to him in Jassy, the old capital of Moldavia,
to commemorate his efforts to realize the high ideals of
the nation's destiny. After his death the country again
fell under the bitter yoke of Islam, the people were
oppressed beyond endurance, and every revolt was sup-
pressed with the utmost cruelty.
In 1593 Michael the Brave was chosen Prince. His
reign is one of the most brilliant episodes in the history
of the country, and his name as a great national hero is
enshrined in the heart of his countrymen. He struggled
so heroically against Magyars, Poles and Turks that for
a brief space his kingdom again reverted to its original
size, and included Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia,
Bessarabia and the Bukovina — " The Greater Roumania "
dreamed of by the patriots of to-day. He was a great
leader of men, and the country acknowledged his genius
with pride and devotion. He was extraordinarily success-
ful in welding together the different clans, overcoming
their jealousy of each other, and training them into an
army that achieved great and successful victories over
the Turks and Hungarians. Again and again the Sultan
sent his armies, led by his ablest generals, to subjugate
his powerful young neighbour and bring him to heel, but
once across the Danube, few of his legions ever lived to
return.
Michael was betrayed by Austrian treachery at the
height of his power. Austria, hard pressed and in diffi-
culties, had appealed to him for help. Consentmg to do
so, he, at the head of his army, joined the Austrian
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 55
forces. Basta, the Austrian General, begged an audience
of him on pretext of consulting him as to the disposition
of the forces, then foully attacked and murdered him in
his tent.
Into the brief period of his briUiant reign — only eight
years — he compressed the arduous work and aims of a
lifetime, and with his death the heroic period of Rou-
manian history comes to an end. His statue in Bucharest
is, to the Roumanian citizen, what Nelson's Column in
Trafalgar Square is to us — the great patriotic rallying
centre for the heartfelt desires and aims of the people.
A curious and very interesting point connected with
his appointment to the throne lies in the fact that it was
Edward Barton, the English Ambassador at the Porte,
who used his influence with the Sultan in getting him
chosen Prince. It is good to know in these present days
of Roumania's agony, when her eyes are turned towards
England, the land of freedom, that m these far-off times
it was an Englishman who realized the genius of this
great Prince and was instrumental in helping him towards
the regeneration of his country. His reign, however,
was but a " brilHant intermezzo," for thus a distinguished
Roumanian historian describes this splendid but alas !
too short, revival of the national spirit.
After his death the principalities again lapsed into a
state of vassalage under the Turk. And yet they never
succumbed so completely to the Turkish conqueror's rule
as did their neighbours of Serbia, Bulgaria and even
Hungary.
The Turkish conquerors did not dare to place their
Pashas as administrators on the Moldavian or Wallachian
thrones, even when Buda (now Buda-Pesth) was the
56 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
capital of a Turkish pasha. They contented themselves
with other forms of oppression, and the exaction of a
heavy annual tribute. Thus, though the native aristo-
cracy of Serbia and Bulgaria was exterminated, the
nobles or boyars of Roumania, though oppressed and
powerless shadows, still fought for liberty and escaped
extinction.
During the seventeenth century the principalities were
at the mercy of inefficient native rulers, impotent and
servile under the Greek influence which was asserting
itself in the country. Many of these people had been
attracted from Stamboul to a land where riches, in the
shape of extortion, could be quickly exacted from a
hopeless and voiceless peasantry. For in the words of an
Italian envoy " the land sweated blood." There was no
stability ; the boyars or nobles were always fighting and
intriguing against each other, each striving for his own
advantage with a complete disregard for the welfare of
the people in general, their only bond in common being
that they solidly united against the Greek aspirants for
the thrones of the two PrincipaHties.
Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries only
three of these native rulers stand out with any distinc-
tion. Bassarab and Vasile Lupu or Basil the Wolf are
noteworthy as introducing a new era of law reform, and
the development of a system of general culture. Bassarab
started the first printing machine in Bucharest, and the
first book printed was his collection of canon laws.
Others quickly followed, and were printed in the Rou-
manian vernacular, displacing the Slav, which had up to
then been the language of literature. Basil's criminal
code, of an eye for an eye, though savage, was probably
BIRTH AND DJi:VELOPMENT OF A NATION 57
a necessary prelude to any system of law and order.
The punishments meted out were terrible.
He who committed arson was burnt alive.
He who seduced had boiling lead poured down his
throat.
He who committed bigamy was strapped naked on a
horse, and whipped through the streets of the town.
Sherban Cantacuzene, who reigned in 1679, continued
the work of general culture and enlightenment. He
fostered the dawning spirit of national independence
that flickered up for a moment, translated the Bible, and
greatly aided by the help of a wonderfully clever and
beautiful wife, established friendly and diplomatic
relations with Russia, for the first time in the country's
history.
But this flickering little flame of the nation's progress
was soon extinguished, and for the next hundred years
the Porte shamelessly sold the thrones of Moldavia and
W^allachia to the highest bidder, the claimants to these
precarious places being wealthy " Greeks of the Phanar
who had been the lowest and most corrupt servants of
the Porte." These Greeks, owing to their administrative
ability, their astuteness, their gift of languages, French
in particular, made themselves indispensable to the
Porte. They amassed great riches and lived in the midst
of luxury. In 1666 Paniotachus Nikussis was appointed
Interpreter to the Divan. From this time until 182 1
this offtce was continually held by the Greeks as a family
privilege.
Competition was keen among these ambitious Phana-
riots — called so because of the proximity of their district
to the great Phanar or lighthouse — and they enriched
58 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
themselves, repaying the vast sums of money they had
spent in bribing the Porte, by extortionate taxation and
levies on the unhappy country Roumania. The wily
Turk, on the other hand, found this so sure a means of
gratifying his inordinate cupidity, that the rulers were
perpetually changing, and in the short space of 105 years
no less than 70 Hospodars occupied the thrones of
Wallachia and Moldavia !
As soon as one Governor or Hospodar retired another
arrived with a fresh swarm of greedy retainers eager to
squeeze the unhappy people. One of the Court physicians
early in the present century describes the lives of these
rulers and their Court as of Asiatic luxury, incompetence
and extortion. They out-turked the Turk in their
rapacity and ingenious devices for despoihng and taxing
the wretched peasantry. Their lives v/ere spent in an
orgy of pleasure and ease. The noble Hospodar was
almost too noble for the slightest exertion. Their bread
and food were cut up for them. Some of them were
indeed so indolent that they never walked but were
carried by slaves and lifted from their bed to chair.
Their siesta had to be ensured by the complete stoppage
of all traffic or business in the city ; no voice was heard,
no bells might sound !
The consorts of the Hospodars vied with their lords in
extravagance and display. The dresses of one of these
ladies cost ;^230o, a tremendous sum in those days. So
jealous were they of their rivals, that when one of these
amiable Princesses found a lady at Court dressing better
than herself, she would persuade her husband to banish
the sumptuously attired beauty until, her own wardrobe
replenished and resplendent, she could invite her disgraced
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 59
rival to appear again and discomfit and spite her by a
display of her own radiant apparel ! This extravagance
and ostentation naturally spread to the Roumanian
nobles, who beggared themselves and ground down the
peasantry in their desire to make a show. Divorce spread
rapidly, and marriages were contracted for financial
reasons, with resulting infidelity.
Some of these Phanariot rulers, however, were not all
bad ; there were indeed one or two who were good rulers,
who founded charitable institutions, built fine buildings,
and tried to check the extravagance of the feudal land-
lords, " sleeping dogs," as the peasants called them ; but
their reigns were short, their appearances few- and far
between. For the most part the princes and nobles were
corrupt, and the peasantry and people in a deplorable
condition.
It was during these dark days of the country's birth
that Turkey transferred the fair province of Bukovina
to the Austrians in 1777 ; and later, in 1812, Bessarabia,
the most northerly portion of Molda\-ia, was given to
Russia, notwithstanding the vigorous remonstrances of
the Phanariot ruler Gregory Ghika, Prince of Moldavia,
who took an heroic stand against the monstrous injustice
and robbery, but was assassinated in consequence, fall-
ing to the yataghans of the Turkish emissaries.
The name Bessarabia is derived from the Bassarab
dynasty who in the thirteenth century founded the first
VVallachian principality. It has been connected with
Roumania for centuries. In Northern Bessarabia the
population is ovei-whelmingly Roumanian by race and
speech, but in the southern corner, called Bugeacul —
from the Turkish word biijak, " an out-of-the-way
^
60 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
corner," German colonists were permitted by the Czars
to swarm into the country, and a medley of races, Bulgars
and Russian refugees, has resulted.
Russia's " theft " of Bessarabia poisoned good relations
between the countries for many years and left an in-
delible mark on the mind of the people, and the repressive
administration of the province only accentuates the
bitter feeling.
Pitiful scenes were enacted on the shores of the
" accursed river Pruth," a name that clings to it to this
day. This river was now the barrier dividing the well-
loved land ; separating homes and kinsmen on one side
from the other, and leaving a wound as deep as the
annexation of Alsace and Lorraine from France on the
heart of the nation.
In 1822 the demand of Roumania for rulers of her own
race was at last granted by the Porte ; the Phanariot
rule came to an end and the rule of native boyars or
Princes began. But the country was in a deplorable
state, and but little improvement was made, for the
nobles and Princes were constantly intriguing against
each other, and any ruler with popular principles was
denounced as a traitor to his caste.
Desperately the country turned her eyes to Russia for
help, but the great White Czar dreamed of conquest, not
aid. Roumania soon realized that no help could be
looked for from them, and that a " Muscovite Liberator
might be as harsh as a Greek Governor." It is from this
time that one can date the rise of a strong anti-Russian
policy, and the next fifty years were continually spent in
endeavouring to maintain Roumania's independence
against the stern autocracy of Russia, who, backed by
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 6i
the Convention of Akcrmann, had been permitted by the
Sultan to become the " predominant partner " over the
Principalities. Extreme oligarchical principles were the
feature of the Russian domination. The people had no
rights, the nobles no duties.
Roumania, lying between Russia, Austria and Turkey,
was ever a pawn in their envious designs ; and was
looked upon by each as a buffer acquisition, or as a hostage
to bargain with. It is astonishing that the national
spirit was not completely extinguished, and one can only
attribute the fact to the inherently hopeful and vigorous
Latin temperament of her people.
The advent of the French Revolution was the first
strong light that pierced through the darkness, and
encouraged the oppressed people to hope that deliverance
was near. The indomitable national spirit, notwith-
standing every repressive influence, had been slowly
developing. Their ancient history, which showed an
incessant struggle to maintain their national ideals, lan-
guage and racial affinity during centuries of oppression,
was a matter of just pride with this suffering people.
Contact with their Latin sister France was eagerly wel-
comed, cultured ideas and aims were quickly imbibed
through this Western friendship, which strengthened their
spirit amazingly, an influence which has never ceased.
The Serbs were the first to regain their liberty ; and
not long afterwards Roumania was successful in casting
out the Phanariot regime. In 1856, the Treaty of Paris
accorded her the restitution of the Delta of the Danube,
taken from her by Russia in 18 12. France supported
Roumania in her great desire to unite the two principali-
ties under one nile. In 1858 the union of the two princi-
62 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
palities, the election of a foreign Prince, hereditary suc-
cession, and a monarchical government were at last
granted.
Thus, after six centuries of incredible intrigue and
bloodshed, the brave tempest -ridden little country
secured her freedom, and Roumania as a nation was
born.
Alexander Cuza, the first Prince elected, had a difficult
role to fulfil, having to submit to a double investiture of
the two principalities, and the perplexity of maintaining
two separate ministries. In 1861, however, this was
simplified by the Porte granting the union of the two
Assemblies ; and on December 23rd of that year, the
Prince in a proclamation to his people was able to an-
nounce that " The Roumanian nation is founded."
During the eight years of his reign many reforms were
accomplished ; the most noteworthy being the founda-
tion of the two Roumanian Universities, one at Bucharest
and one at Jassy ; the severance of the Church from the
corrupt Greek Patriarchate ; the sequestration of the
monasteries, their lands and treasures ; and finally the
emancipation of the peasantry, the granting to them of
land, and their release from some of the most onerous of
their feudal obligations.
By the promulgation of this law freehold property in
lots varying from seven to fifteen acres was conferred on
each peasant according to the number of oxen he pos-
sessed. The man with two oxen got ten acres, of four
oxen, twelve to fifteen acres. As a result of this most of
the peasants have now their little holdings, but the small-
ness of them renders any scientific farming difficult ex-
cepting by co-operation, and many of the peasants can
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 63
live only by working for the proprietors of the big
estates, often get into difricuhies and fall into the hands
of the Jews. Thus the position is not very satisfactory.
Notwithstanding the extreme irregularities of his
private hfe and his despotic disregard of constitutional
forms, Cuza stands out as a Prince beloved — and even
adored by the peasants — whose hard lot he had done so
much to ameliorate.
His devotion to and too hasty adoption of French
ideals and institutions proved premature and unwise in a
country not yet prepared for such innovations. He had
also the misfortune to arouse the antagonism of the great
families by his suspension of the freedom of the Press —
then only in the early stages of its existence — and by the
excesses of his private hfe. The general dissatisfaction
culminated in February, 1866, when he w^as forced to
abdicate and disappeared from the country.
« » ♦ *
The Count of Flanders, father of the present heroic
King of the Belgians, was offered the throne but declined
it ; and Prince Charles of Hohenzollem, a connection of
the Prussian Kaiser, was appointed. " Accept it,"
advised Bismarck, " it will at any rate be an agreeable
souvenir for your old age." His election so dispkased
Austria that, disguised and tra\'ening second class in
order to avoid attention — with a small suite of two who
tra\'elled first class — and armed w ith a passport describing
him as one Charles Hettinger, he travelled through
Austrian territory to his new country. He alighted at
Turnu Severin, the frontier of his adopted land, on May 8th,
1866, at the very spot the great Trajan had entered in
A.D. 106.
64 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
The task Prince Charles had undertaken was one of
magnitude. The country had been bled white by long
centuries of oppression, " corruption and immorality in
high quarters, misery and subjection in the lower ; its
finance in an appalHng muddle, the army in a deplorable
state of administrative disorder."
The choice of their ruler, however, proved fortunate,
and the Prince showed himself fully capable of attacking
the urgent problems that faced him and building up the
Roumanian nation. The natural vigour and endurance
of this much-tried race proved them worthy of every
effort ; and endowed as they were with great advantages
in mind and character, the people quickly responded to
efforts on their behalf.
The heart of the people was aroused ; and running
strongly through their blood was the pride of race that
had so long escaped annihilation. They believed that the
genius which had ever confronted despair with courage,
and faith in the country's ultimate destiny, would enable
them to build up a worthy future. Prince Carol did not
disappoint their expectations. Shrewd and canny, he
guided his country rather than drove it.
The country was equally fortunate in the selection of
the Queen, for in 1869 Prince Carol married the gifted
Princess Elizabeth of Wied, so well known to the whole
world as Carmen Sylva. She proved a wonderful consort
and helper to the Prince in the development of her
adopted country.
A woman of much beauty of mind and character, she
threw herself heart and soul into promoting the welfare
of her people, and her devotion to the King provided an
unexampled picture of domestic happiness not often seen
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 65
in royal unions. Her simple innocent nature, the deep
interest and sympathy she extended to the poor and the
suffering, and her devoted nursing of the wounded during
the Russo-Roumanian-Turkish War, endeared her much
to the people. Indeed, the name they gave her, Mama
Regina — Mother Queen — proves the deep affection felt
for her by all classes. Even had she not been born in the
purple, her literary and poetical attainments would have
ranked high, and she was without question one of the
outstanding personalities of her time. She pubUshed
over fifty volumes, through all of which runs the spirit
of sincerity, sentiment and the appreciation of beauty
which was so characteristic of her poetical temperament.
Her Pensees d'tine Reine, decorated by the Acad(^mie
Fran9aise, shows a deep knowledge of life, a delicate wit
and satire, an understanding of humanity, love, happi-
ness and duty quite exceptional. The Pensees are so
well known that it is only necessary to mention a few of
them.
" A woman is stoned for an action a perfect gentleman
can do with impunity."
" The faults of your husband or your wife are in-
supportable only as long as you insist on correcting them ;
you should put up with them as you do the smell of your
dog, because you like him."
" Piety is the nostalgia of a lost paradise."
Among her plays the best known is Mesturel Manole,
which was performed in Vienna before the Emperor.
The story is such a touching one, and though dating
from the fifteenth century, is so characteristic of the
belief held to this day by the Roumanians of the rural
districts, that it is worth relating.
h
66 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
During the building of the great cathedral at Curtea
d'Arges, near the Carpathians, where the Royal family
are buried, the master builder Manole omitted to secure
its stability by burying a live human being within its
walls, in consequence of which the walls were always
crumbling. Finally it was decided to revert to the
ancient practice and immure the first person who passed
by.
It happened that the lovely young wife of Manole,
bringing him food and wine, passed that way, with the
result that the workmen seized her and built her within
the walls. Her husband was away on business, and to
his tragic despair arrived too late to save her. Her terri-
fied screams and sobbing gasps as she slowly suffocated
are said to be heard sometimes proceeding from the old
walls. Even to this day this ancient custom is followed
in part, and a builder will catch the shadow of a passer-by
on a length of wood which he will enclose in the wall of
the house he is building.
In Queen Elizabeth, Roumania possessed an influence
which fostered and encouraged the cause of national art
and letters with the full force of her enthusiastic nature
and keenly artistic mind. She delighted to call herself
the friend of the great poet Alexandri, he who collected
the priceless treasures of folk-lore, ballads and legends
composed by the people in the past and transmitted
orally to their descendants through generations, and
which have been deUghtfully translated into French.
Her hfe was greatly saddened by the death at the age of
four years of their only child, the lovely httle Princess
Marie, " I'enfant du soleil," as the devoted parents called
her. As no other children blessed their union Prince
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 67
Carol's nephew, Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzolleni, was
invited to the country as heir presiinipti\e ; and in
1893 he married Princess Marie, eldest daughter of the
Duke of Edinburgh, granddaughter of Queen Victoria
and the Czar Alexander I of Russia.
♦ ♦ ♦ *
The early years of Prince Carol's reign were devoted
to the advancement of the country in many directions.
Slowly, backed by the steadfast confidence of the people
in their future, reforms were accomplished and progress
made such as could not have been possible had he not
found the moment ripe, and the people determined to
support him, and sacrifice themselves for the advance-
ment and benefit of their country.
His chief efforts were directed towards the reorganiza-
tion and development of the Army, for which his early
training in a crack Prussian regiment had qualified him.
When he came to Roumania in i860 the Army consisted
chiefly of raw levies armed for the most part with old
rifles, sabres or pikes, lacking in all kinds of equipment.
But his training under the great Moltke had well fitted
the Prince for the organization necessary.
The Roumanian Army is principally a peasant one and
resembles in quality the Bulgarian and Serbian. Military
service is obligatory. Every male able to carry arms
must be incorporated from the age of twenty into one or
another branch of the service. Substitution is not per-
mitted, only the clergy and the infirm are exempt, and
in time of peace when an only son supports his family.
The army is divided into two elements : (i) the Active
Army and the Reserve ; (2) the Territorial Army. Ever}'
soldier serves seven years in the Active Army and twelve
68 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
years in the Reserve. The duration of actual active
service with the colours is two years for infantry, three
years for artillery, cavalry and engineers, four years for
the navy. The Active Army is divided into two parts —
the Permanent and the Territorial. The number needed
for each is decided every year by the Senate, and lots are
drawn which decide the entry into one or the other ; the
small numbers into the Territorial. The soldiers of the
Permanent Army are in garrison for two or three years.
The duration of service in the Territorial, where the men
enter at forty years old, lasts six years. The Active
Territorial Cavalry, which is a kind of peasant yeomanry,
each man furnishing his own horse, implies an active
service reduced to training periods and manoeuvres —
somewhat on the Swiss model — but lasting four years
instead of three. (The details of organization of the
army just before the war with figures supplied officially
by the Roumanian authorities are found in the Almanack
deGotha.y
This arrangement suits better an agricultural country
like Roumania ; it renders the upkeep of an army less
costly, and does not take from the soil so many important
workers.
Though the Territorials do not have so long a period
of military instruction as those of the Active Army they
are none the less extraordinarily good soldiers, and in the
war of 1877, when they composed two-thirds of the
infantry, fought with such tenacity and dash against the
Turks under Osman Pasha on the bloody field of Plevna
1 The organization in the present war and specially the actual
figures and details on the reorganized Roumanian Army which won
immortal fame at the battle of Marasesti can, for obvious reasons, not
be given now.
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 69
that they added a splendid page to Roumanian military
history.
Russia repaid Roumania's valuable military assistance
with base ingratitude. Bessarabia, the most fertile por-
tion of her Moldavian territory — which had been reunited
to her after the Crimean War — was arbitrarily annexed
by the Czar, and the only compensation Roumania got
for her help consisted of the barren marsh lands of the
Dobrudja — south of the Danube Delta. This territory
possessed no military frontier and contained a mixed
population of Turks, Bulgars and Roumanians. Even
the town of Silistria, in the ceded territory, was denied
her ; and the Powers, blind to the injustice of this treat-
ment, did not move in the matter. Small wonder that
the loss of Bessarabia — Roumania's from time imme-
morial — should rankle in the nation's heart and render
her attitude to Russia somewhat distrustful.
The agrarian position was in an exceedingly unsatis-
factory condition ^^•hen Prince Carol came to the throne.
The boyars or nobles held all the land, the peasants had
no land rights, and their days were mostly spent in toil
for their masters. The Tchnivnick, or petty official so
well known in Russia, was as much of a curse here as in
the Empire of the Czar. One of the Prince's first acts
was to reduce the power and tyranny of these officials by
providing the peasants with small holdings. This
naturally met with much opposition from the nobles ;
but nevertheless the act was passed.
The position of the simple hard-working Roumanian
peasant is not nearly so favourable as that of his fellows
in Serbia and Bulgaria, and more than one agrarian
revolt has broken out. Indeed in 1907 the capital was in
70 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
imminent danger of falling into the hands of the in-
furiated peasantry, who pillaged, burnt and destroyed
all they could lay hands on. Their greatest hatred was
directed against the Jewish middlemen, who by their un-
principled tyranny provoked the full force of the peasants'
wrath. Since then various reforms have been introduced
— village banks, cheap credit, with a healthier, simpler
system of contracts and land administration. The con-
ditions have undoubtedly greatly improved, but much
still remains to be done for the finest asset of Roumania's
strength and progress, her peasantry.
With regard to its commercial, industrial and agri-
cultural development, the country has made gigantic
strides. Agriculture is one of the great industries of the
country, three-quarters of the country being under
cultivation, while the production of maize nearly equals
that of America. Indeed, she can be considered as stand-
ing third among the great grain-producing countries of
the world, coming after the United States and Russia.
At Braila and Galatz, thriving towns on the mouth of
the Danube, with populations of 70,000 and 80,000, the
Government has built immense warehouses and elevators
for the export of the precious cereal.
The soil is very rich, being the celebrated " black
earth," and the country is well watered ; beet, sugar and
tobacco are easily grown. There are many vineyards,
and Roumania ranks fifth amongst the wine-growing
countries, producing excellent wines of a far better
flavour than the sour mixture found in Serbia and Bul-
garia.
The country possesses great natural resources and the
spirit of progress is there. It only awaits help and aid,
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 71
when it will undoubtedly develop extensively, for the
country, especially in the Carpathians, is rich in silver,
iron, copper, quicksilver, lead, tin, arsenic, cobalt, etc.
Relations between Roumania and Britain have hitherto
been slight, owing largely to ignorance and indifference.
Unfortunately though France dominates the social and
intellectual world the Germans and Austrians hold the
economic and have enriched themselves accordingly.
For fourteen millions of French exports Germany sends
a hundred milUons. Only thirty years ago France ex-
ported thirty-five millions of articles to five of German.
But the Boche is no favourite, and Roumania would
welcome closer economic and social relations with
England.
Salt is found in abundance and the mines at Okna are
worked by the convicts, who receive a small wage. Great
wealth exists in the vast forests of timber — seven million
acres of which are carefully preserved — comprising oak,
beech, walnut, pine, maple, which when felled are easily
drifted down the Danube to the various countries, or to
the Black Sea for export.
With the exception of grain, petroleum is perhaps the
richest of Roumanian products, over two million tons a
year being the output, and ov^er twenty miUioiis of foreign
money is invested in the wells. The petroleum is superior
to that of the Caucasus ; and at Kustendy, on the Black
Sea, large tanks and refineries have been erected whence
it can be shipped all over the world.
Prince Carol's instinct for financial transactions, and a
certain thrifty disposition inherited from his Teutonic
and French forbears— his mother was a connection of the
House of Bonaparte — have proved of ser\ice in guiding
72 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
the wise development of the country's resources. Indeed,
so ably were they conducted that in 1906 the Budget
reached the highest figure ever recorded in Roumanian
finance.
Roumania is unlike the countries that surround her in
that she possesses a regular system of party government,
a constitutional monarchy resembling in character that
of Great Britain more closely than any other European
state.
The Legislature is composed of a Parliament of two
Houses. The Senate consists of 120 members elected
for eight years, including the bishops and university
representatives. The Chamber of Deputies has 183
members elected for four years. They must not be under
twenty-five years of age, receive twenty francs a day for
actual attendance and free travel on the railways. There
are two poUtical parties : the Liberals, whose chief,
Bratiano, son of the well-known statesman who en-
couraged King Carol in his decision to fight with Russia
against Turkey in 1877, v/as Prime Minister for twelve
years. He is a man of intelhgence and agreeable person-
ality, and possesses the confidence of both King Carol
and his successor.
The leader of the opposition and head of the Liberal-
Conservative party is the brilliant and keenly pro-ally
statesman Take Jonescu, the true leader of the Roumanian
Irredentist party. His shrewd intellect, wide vision, and
great oratorical powers have gained him a great follow-
ing ; and his reputation in Western Europe stands
deservedly very high.
The last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed a
great leap forward of the nation's prosperity. Indeed,
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 73
so marked was the country's progress, so great the vigour
and mental elan of the people, able at last to develop on
free lines, so triumphant the success of the Roumanian
armies who went to the relief of the Russians in the
Russo-Turco War in 1877, that the just culmination of
the nation's efforts was reached in 1881, when Prince
Carol was proclaimed a King. He was crowned with an
iron crown, made from one of the cannon captured at
Plevna ; and the principality finally emerged among the
Powers a recognized kingdom.
When the Balkan War of 1913 broke out Serbia,
Bulgaria and Greece allied themselves together to cast
out the hated tyrant, the Turk, from Europe. Roumania
maintained an attitude of neutrality ; but when Bulgaria
turned traitor to her Allies in true Bulgarian spirit and
attacked them, Roumania intervened in order to main-
tain the right of small nations to exist.
In 1914 King Carol died. His reign, which lasted forty-
eight years, was undoubtedly the tuniing-point in Rou-
manian history, for the country was transformed from a
corrupt and oppressed vassal of the Turks, living in a
state of anarchy and chaos, into the first of the Balkan
Powers, and the seventh amongst the independent states
of Europe. She stands seventh in the way of population,
her territory exceeds in size that of Portugal, Switzerland,
Belgium, Denmark or Holland as well as any of the other
Balkan states. Her army takes rank immediately after
those of the six great Powers, and so greatly has her
trade increased that it very nearly equals the combined
amount of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece.
One cannot, howexer, overlook the fact that owing to
his origin King Carol made the political miscalculation
74 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
with regard to his people of beUeving that their future
development lay along Teutonic lines. Geraian capital
largely financed the country's economic progress, and
implicit faith in the star of Germany's power rendered
him blind to the organization of strategical railways,
factories for army equipment and arsenals, and finally
led him to conclude a secret treaty with the Central
Powers without the consent of his people.
CHAPTER IV
THE HEART OF ROU MANIA
LITTLE has been known of Roumania by the
general public, yet as far back as the fifteenth
J century English travellers penetrated into this
beautiful land of v\ ild romantic scenery. Beau-
mont and Fletcher in one of their plays mention the
palace of the King of Moldavia — the northern portion of
old Roumania — whose daughter Pomponia greets her
father's guest in these words :
" Welcome, Sir Knight, unto my father's court.
King of Moldavia ; unto me Pomponia, his daughter dear."
U'illiam Lithgow, an ancient traveller, describes in his
quaint Totale discourse of the Rare Adventures in 1656
that he found in Moldavia and Transylvania " a friendUe
people, the very vulgars speaking frequent Latine."
Perhaps the most interesting of these early records is
the description of one William Harebone, a merchant
sent by our shrewd, far-seeing, good Queen Bess as an
agent to open up commercial enterprise between Turkey
and the adjacent states, and the mention of " the earliest
treaty signed between England and Roumania " in 1582.
He relates how " I departed from Constantinople with
30 persons of my suit and family the 3 of August. Pass-
ing through the countries of Thraciao now called Rou-
mania, the Great Valachia and Moldavia where arriving
the 5 of September I was according to the Grand Signior
i 75
76 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
his commandement, very courteously interteined by
Peter, his positive prince, a Greeke by profession with
whom was concluded that her Maiesties subjects there
trafiguing should pay but three ; upon the hundreth
which as well as his owne subjects as all other nations
answere ; whose letters to her Maiestie be extant :
whence I proceeded into Poland, where the high chancelor
sent for me the 27 of the same moneth."^
One admires the spirit of this fine old EngUsh burgher
travelling with his "family" in those troublous far-off
times, through " savage " Eastern Europe. It is a
courageous spirit inherent in the race.
♦ « * «
For the sympathetic traveller, Roumania captivates
with an irresistible attraction. The clear beauty of the
sky, the limpidity of the atmosphere, the fertile plains,
the wooded hills sheltering the great white monasteries
with their shining cupolas hold a peculiar fascination
for those who can appreciate the gentle poetic charm of
the land.
From the picturesque point of view the country
presents beauties as varied as any to be found in the
Pyrenees, the Apennines and in many parts of Switzer-
land. The austerity of the great peaks, the beauty of
the forest-covered ranges, the sombre gorges, the rich
valleys, wide plains of waving grain, the strange melan-
choly of the lonely plateaux and the majestic sweep of
the great Danube have as yet drawn few travellers and
the world in general hardly knows of the beauties to be
found here.
The long line of the Danube which rises far away in
1 M. Beza, English Historical Review, No. 126, April, 1917.
WILD AM) liKAITIKUl, SCKNKRV OF THK IIUZKU VALl.KV.
By permission of the I'iints.
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THl-: HEART OF R0UMANIA| y^
the Black Forest totals in its entire length 3000 kilo-
metres. As it approaches Balkan lands it flows through
the Iron Gates, called thus by the Turks, not because of
any towering heights, for the hills have gradually de-
scended, but from the ragged rocks lying submerged in
the waterway. From here the north-western bank is
Serbian for fifty miles, while the southern one to the
Black Sea is Bulgarian — a distance of 290 miles.
The river enters Roumanian territory by Verciorova
or Kazan, the Cauldron, and debouches by three great
water-ways, the Kiha, the Sulinaand the St. George, into
the Black Sea. At Verciorova it resembles a great lake,
and towering abo\'e it are precipitous hills varying from
1000 to 2000 feet high, and like most of the mountains in
Roumania covered with forests of birch and pine. At
this spot the channel is not more than about 120 yards
wide and the depth about thirty fathoms, but as it flows
eastwards it widens and gains in depth also. There are
about three hundred islands between Verciorova and
the Black Sea, some are of sand and reeds, others have
good pasturage for flocks and are covered with willows.
Few towns are passed, here and there are thatched
villages with landing-stages for the steamers that ply up
and down, but as the mighty waterway rolls east the
greater part of the Roumanian shore is a desolate fen
country varied here and there by low hills and long
lagoons.
The Danube is to the country what the Nile is to Egypt,
the stream of Hfe, a gift precious and sustaining. It is
fed from the moment it passes Verciorova almost entirely
by Roumanian streams. On the Bulgarian side only the
Iskcr and the Yantra flow into it, and only one Serbian
78 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
river the Timok. The rains of autumn, the melting snows
in spring swell the streams that feed the great waterway
as it rolls broadly to the sea. It is therefore only just
and legitimate that the Delta — which is nothing less than
Roumanian soil torn from the land by the fret of the
river — should belong to Roumania.
* * * ♦
From the bird's-eye point of view Roumania can be
likened to a great amphitheatre, the highest points of
this semicircle being the Carpathian ranges, which
descend gradually by the lower hills and so to the interior
of the country, the great plains. Thus we have three
zones, alpine, forest and steppe. In the alpine regions of
the Carpathians the eastern sides are rent in gorge-like
seams, whose violently contorted strata form deep trans-
verse valleys inclining laterally towards the south-east.
The peaks, many of them 8000 to 10,000 feet high, are
bare and jagged with shoulder coverings of moss and
hchen ; their lower slopes rest in deep forests of pine,
birch and larch, while far below in the gorges tumble and
plunge and roar the noisy mountain streams.
Up in these lonely passes are many deep caves, now the
lairs of the wolf and bear, but in times long gone, the
sanctuaries to which the peasants fled when their lands
were devastated by the ferocious Tartars, Turks and Huns.
Near the old Saxon colony of Rosenau stands in inacces-
sible seclusion the Peasants' Stronghold, grimly fortified
by nature to protect her sons against the conqueror of
the lower lands ; close by is another natural fortress, the
Knight's Castle with its view of pinnacled crags and peaks
and the wide plain beyond.
Amongst the wild pathless mountains where foot-
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 79
tracks are known only by the shepherds, where the eagle
soars and screams, and the chamois bounds and leaps,
the peaks have been in\-ested by the peasants since
ancient times as sacred to the gods and analogous with
the human form.
Up their slopes go the processional pines, dark, motion-
less, mysterious. Deep prime\'al forests, they seem to
liold in silent keeping the memories of the heroic
struggles of the Roumanians throughout the centuries ;
the long fight to maintain the sacred traditions of their
race, the sonorous language of their forefathers and their
belief in Divine justice and faith in their destiny.
Far below the rugged rocks, gleams a quiet mountain
lake reflecting the opal and gold of the sky athwart the
clear-cut shadow of the peaks, and in between the maze
of heights are deep ravines with the crying of innumer-
able torrents breaking the solemn stillness as they hurtle
from rock to rock to the purple depths below.
Look eastward and the setting sun will catch with a
quiver of gold the cupolas of the great monastery and
cathedral of Curtea de Arges, built by Neagoe Bassarab
and his wife Despina of Serbia in 1518. For centuries
Molda\ia and Wallachia had been nothing more than
great roads over which the barbarian hosts had poured
on their way from the East westwards, and many of the
fine old monasteries and churches at Jassy, Horez,
Padule, Cozia, built by the Voivodes or princes, had
been pillaged or partially destroyed by the Turks and
others.
The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were a period of
considerable activity in what is now called Roumania,
and Bassarab and his consort were determined that
8o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Curtea de Arges should excel in beauty all that had gone
before. It is one of the most imposing churches in
Europe and a famous specimen of Byzantine art, a ming-
ling of the Arab and the Roman, eminently character-
istic of the Roumanian art of the fifteenth century, and
in the days of its early glory must have been very mag-
nificent. The cathedral was restored by King Carol in
1866 and is very rich in beauty of decoration, of frescoes,
mosaics, glorious bronzes and gleaming marble, and
stands like a " fragment of the sun " as the people call it,
in charming country surroundings facing the long range
of mountains. It has withstood fire, earthquakes and
the violence and fury of barbarian invasions. In the
interior are the tombs of the founder, his successors, and
here also is the Royal mausoleum of the present dynasty.
To the north and south of Azuga under the shadow of
Mont vSinaia among magnificent forests and flower-strewn
valleys lies Sinaia, one of the beauty spots of Europe,
with its old Greek Orthodox monastery, built by Michael
Cantacuzene in the fifteenth century. It is the summer
resort of the Roumanian beau moiide, and here on its
wooded heights stands the fine palace of the King, Castle
Peles, full of treasures of art both Oriental and European.
The Germans were so eager to possess this rich booty that
they refrained from bombarding it at the beginning of
the war.
The mountain tops sink one by one to lower levels till
they reach the second zone, the " district of vines " as it
is called, the lush, fertile undulating land where fruits
and flowers grow so abundantly. Far away to the east
may be caught a glimpse of the distant gilded domes of
the stately Byzantine monastery and cathedral at
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 8i
Camulung, the ancient city and residence in olden
times of Rudolph the Black, founder of the Bassarab
dynasty.
Beyond this the ground slopes to the \-ast plains — the
famous Russian " black earth " which carries such rich
yields of wheat and maize within its wide bosom.
As they approach the great waterway of the Danube
they merge into a monotonous level steppe of scant
grasses, weeds and stunted shrubs intersected with reed
beds and farther east long lagoons.
These great plains stretching to the far horizon remind
one of the prairies of Mexico and Canada, and reflect all
the soft shades of rose, mist grey, brown, green and
burnished gold. The sun blazes benevolently, ripening
royally the vast expanse of grain and maize. Water is
rare, and hardly a tree can stand the glacial winter blasts
that blow from the Siberian steppes, or the torrid heat
of summer. Flat as a bilUard table the boundless plain
stretches away and away, broken only by the little
hamlets, the colour of the soil itself, and the great up-
standing arms of the wells that point upwards Uke an
exclamation to the sky.
* * * ♦
South of the Danube lies the wild bare Dobrudja, a
tongue of the Balkan plateau. This debatable land, the
cradle of many fighting races since remote times, sprang
into the pubhc eye at the end of the Balkan War, when,
at the treaty of Bucharest, Roumania acquired an addi-
tional strip of it at the expense of Bulgaria in order to
balance her strategical frontier. It is an ancient high
road, unceasingly worn by the nations who swarmed and
fought for centuries to force their way from the bleak
82 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
steppes and mountains of the north, towards the sunny
promise of the Mgean Seas.
Towards the centre, the higher hilly tableland lies like
a saddle between the Balkans and Southern Russia, and
Baba Dagh (old mother), the highest of these hill ranges
(1700 feet), looms towards the broad Danube lying to the
north. The last spurs of this range lie close to Tulcea
and Braila, where a few crossings can be made over the
great river. These are the historic gates through which
the Northern hordes passed in ancient times, ravaging
and destroying, and against whom Trajan's mighty
forces were sent to stem that barbaric invasion that aimed
at the looting of the Eastern provinces of the Roman
Empire. Along this rude grey region, the great Emperor
constructed the historic Trajan's Wall, parts of which
are still in existence, with its triple consecutive barriers
of defence, its deep entrenchments, measuring from ten
to twenty fe«t wide, and fortified camps placed at
interva s.
Over the barren steppes of the Dobrudja, where hardly
a tree exists or running water is to be found, the Goths
and Slavs descended on the Byzantine Empire some
hundreds of years ago. Here also the Tartars swarmed
on their way to loot the wonders and riches of Constanti-
nople. Through the Danubian marshes and over this
desolate arid land of sand and limestone, Russia marched
in 1812 to fight against the infidel for the Greek Orthodox
Church and the liberation of her Slav sister Bulgaria.
Can history show a more despicable instance of a
nation's perfidy ! the deep ingrained treachery and in-
gratitude of the Bulgar nature !
The eagerly grasped thirty pieces of German silver
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 83
that bought her honour — her rukr tlie venal tool of his
Teutonic master — the snarling fury with which she cast
aside the Russian hand that brought her her freedom !
Could eyes of stone hurl glances — could Hps of stone form
speech, what thunderbolts of condemnation would the
great statue of the Czar Liberator standing in the heart
of Sofia — the shameless city — hurl forth at the traitors to
the Sla\- race !
« « « «
Here in this wild no man's land, useful only as a barrier
between the hostile nations, are collected the flotsam and
jetsam of neighbouring tribes, the debris of many nations,
fugitives persecuted or revolutionary, they seek in its
barren bleakness the sanctuary denied them in their own
country.
In the little settlements of low mud huts dwell Jews,
Armenians, Turks. " They are all the driftwood of the
storms of history." The Tartars in the Dobrudja are
fragments of the Golden Horde which withdrew from
Southern Russia when the country passed under Chris-
tian domination. Among the Little Russians, descendants
can be found of Cossack rebels, of the followers of Nekras-
soff, and of the even more famous Mazepa ; among the
Great Russians prevail all kinds of quaint rchgious
sects, who in the days of persecution had abandoned
their homes — Dukhobors and Old Believers, jMolokans
and Bezpapovtsi — " having no priests." The latter a
curious sect who slay their priests in order to ha\'e an
intermediary to plead for them when they enter paradise.
Of this lone land of many scattered races it has been
written, " On forlorn shores I have discovered humble
hamlets where Turks dwell in solitary aloofness. Near
84 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
the broad Danube I have strayed amongst tiny boroughs
inhabited by Russian fisher-folk, whose type is so
different from that of the Roumanian peasant. At first
sight one recognizes their nationahty — tall, fair-bearded
giants, with blue eyes, their red shirts visible from a
great way off. It is especially in the Dobrudja that these
different nationalities jostle together. Besides Rouma-
nians, Bulgarians, Turks, Tartars, Russians, in places even
Germans, live peacefully side by side."^ But the Rouma-
nian steadily gains ground on the other populations.
The villages are lonely, poor, scanty of tree shelter,
and often wind and sand swept. The houses and the
huts of the poorer are built of wattle and thatch with
queer hidden little courtyards, tiny gardens and the
shrouded windows of the harem quarters of the Turks.
The Mussulman women glide past us in their wide
gathered-in trousers, with long coats or mantles drawn
over their mouths ; the dim shapes in their garments of
soft sun-stained old colours pass leisurely along close to
the walls and down by the dusty whitewashed old
mosque with its faded carpets and rows of old shoes
lying in the sun. Far above the Muezzin is voicing his
midday cry to prayer :
" He turns around the parapet,
Black-robed against the marble tower ;
His singing gains or loses power
In pacing round the minaret.
A brother to the singing birds,
He never knew restraining walls,
But freely rises, freely falls
The rhythm of the sacred words." ^
1 My Country. H.M. the Queen of Roumania.
« The Hon. Mrs. Harold Nicolson.
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 85
Northward, on the vast swamps and marshes of the
delta an extraordinary and strangely interesting phase of
Hfe is found. In spring, between April and July, the
whole laiid — a distance of about 1500 square miles —
becomes a vast lake. Here and there are dotted little
islands struggling to keep their heads above the waste of
waters. In the summer the lake recedes and rich fields
emerge gay with briUiant flowers and lush grasses, inter-
sected by deep still pools and wandering streams. In
many parts the land is below the level of the Black Sea,
and therefore cannot be drained. Little is known about
this region beyond that it is considered to be a vast
inland lake.
Dr. Antipa, the Director of the Museum of Natural
History at Bucharest, tells us some interesting facts
about this queer, semi-amphibious world where there is
no firm footing for the sole of man, and only a few hardy
adventurous fishermen brave the uncertainties of the
aquatic life by building their slender huts of reeds on the
extraordinary floating islands made of matted weeds
called plaur. These grow together so thickly that they
form mats nearly three feet thick.
The whole delta abounds in animals who find here a
safe refuge from the snare of man, and whose principal
enemy is the sudden engulfing flood that rises from
below, sweeping all before it. The wolves, boars, the
foxes, wild oxen and thousands of swamp pigs all
know how to swim, and their histinct teaches them
the approach of this enemy. The mice and rats are
the tirst to convey the warning, and the wild cats, and
the hares, the only animals that can't s\\im, run for their
hves to the tree tops. On the shallow floating islands of
86 ROUMANIA ; YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
plaur are magnificent low willow trees whose spreading
branches form the arks that yearly carry thousands of
animals in safety through the floods.
One wonders how they live during these desperate
days ! gnawing the shoots, eating the bark, preying upon
their weaker kind, but often dying of starvation and
exhaustion.
The whole delta is a wonderful fishing ground and
well repays the hardy fisher who ventures there. It is
said that during the season of 1907 the Danube rose
twenty feet, and that more than thirteen million pounds
of fish were caught in the delta. Rarely does the latter
freeze sufficiently, even in the very severe winters pre-
valent there, to allow any movement across. Indeed in
this last severe and terrible winter of war, nature, in this
region at least, turned a pitying ear to the stricken and
staggering country and refused the foothold of ice that
would have enabled the enemy to cross the delta and
encircle Roumania.
» * * ♦
To many people the beauties of the mountains, forests
>
lakes, and plains of different countries all bear more or
less the same resemblance, though in differing degree.
There are others, more sensitive perhaps, who sense the
spirit of the people in the aspect of their land. Here in
Roumania there is an indefinable something that marks
it as distinct, a nobiUty mingled with a poetic simplicity
and gentle melancholy, that is totally different from the
harsher grandeur of Bulgaria, or the well advertised
beauty of Switzerland, with its bourgeois materiality
lying so close under the majestic peaks.
Few travellers have trodden this land or disturbed
THE HEART OF ROUxMAXIA by
the bond of occult sympathy existing between the
Roumanian peasant and his soil. One who knew the
country profoundly has said that :
" It would seem as if the reflections of the sufferings
and joys of the Roumanian people had coloured and
shadowed the hills and plains, an echo of the trials and
hopes of the race which has voiced its way through the
woods and across the mountain peaks. The soil has im-
pregnated the soul of the race with its perfume, while
the race has stamped on nature the seal of originality
of its soul. This originality clothes the landscape
with a character of hidden poetry, gentle dreaming,
and a tranquillity which makes the charm of this
nature a very picturesque, richly varied and endearing
one. ^
Through the whole of Roumania there lingers still that
deep close bond, a communion between the soil and the
spirit of him who tills it, which is only found amongst
those who have suffered, struggled and bled for their
land. For them it is a voice that through all vicissitudes
and trials speaks with a mute but unfailing understanding,
giving them a consolation, a patience, a steadfastness, to
support them in a life often hard and toilsome. Cen-
turies of oppression, of wa^'ward shifting rulers, have
developed this instinctive love, deep devotion and trust
in the eternal Mother who has ever been their hope, their
life, their work.
It is a profound and subtle link, and one that amongst
the peasants of the mountains, valleys and steppes has
tingfd tht^ir existence with a paganism, a paganism in
many ways beautiful, the belief in the great spirits of
' La terre et la race Roumaines, A. Sturdza.
88 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
nature that surround them, and of which their customs,
folk-lore and ballads show such convincing proof.
The nymphs of the pools and lake ; the dryads of the
woods ; the mama padurii, the gentle guardian of children
wandering in the forests ; the little elves that dance by
night ; the silent watching deities of the mountain crests;
the bounteous water spirit — a good and powerful spirit,
to be constantly propitiated in a land often threatened
with drought ; the madna zana, the evil water spirit
that lurks in the depths of the wells and pools, and lures
the maiden down by the witchery of his strange green
eyes and the magnetism of his glance ! But above them
all reigns Pan. The immortal, the great god Pan ! With
his fierce love of Hfe and his singing soul, he is enshrined
deeply in the heart and soul of the people !
Like Socrates they might say in their simple hearts,
" Beloved Pan, give me beauty in the inward soul, and
may the outer and inner man be at one. May I count the
wise man rich and may my store of gold be such as only
the good can bear."^
Listen all over the land and you will hear his pipes ;
by river, and mead, and wood ! Hark and you will
catch the rustle and movement of his strange half-animal
body as he follows you, whispering and laughing amongst
the sedges and streams, peeping with slanting eyes through
the tangle of undergrowth and bracken . . . and his note
"... Sweet, sweet, O Pan !
Piercing sweet by the river "
permeates all their legendar}^ lore from ancient time up
to the present day.
Here in these poetic old-world lands he roams
^ Phaedrus, 279.
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 89
royally — beloved, serene. In the new world Pan's
pipes are never heard. He is alien there. iinkno\\Ti,
unwanted. There is no dusky, dreamy comer in that
bright new hustling sphere where he can cut a reed, to
shape and tune it to a plaintive melody that will beguile
the worker from his toil, pipe he never so sweetly. The
pools and streams there are beautiful but never haunted
— Africa and Asia know him not. . . . The Teuton has
cast him out ; he is too subtle, too wildly sweet for their
beer-drinking ruralities. But in the glades, the romantic
woods of fair Italy and France, along the streams, the
sunny slopes of Greece, the cool, leafy depths of wonder-
ful England, where the deer seek the shade at noon, the
wood pigeon murmurs, the wondrous voice of the nightin-
gale pours forth its shower of silver melody to the star-
light, and in the lonely pathetic beauty of Roumanian
lands he pipes with his clear sweet note, and will pipe so
long as there is left one little wood of enchantment or a
tender heart to listen.
» * * •»
And perhaps tenderness, patience, fortitude are some
of the distinctive qualities that strike one as character-
istics of the Roumanian peasantry. Theirs is a character
in many ways complex. Psychologically they present
the fundamental traits of their ancient origin, with the
addition of superimposed influences, coloured and
effected through centuries by the diverse elements and
races that swept over the land. In outlining briefly those
influences one must not forget the political circumstances
that produced them, or that they were transfused only
through struggle and warfare, and never through the
channels of peace.
go ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
The Roumanian never knew peace or prosperity, and
it needed the most heroic efforts to prevent his being
engulfed during the long turmoil of the centuries. This
has in consequence impressed his character very dis-
tinctly. The four principal elements that have affected
this race are the Dacian, Latin, Slav and Greek. Others,
such as the Hungarian, Turkish, Italian or Germanic,
have been quite ephemeral.
The Roman occupation of the Carpatho-Balkan penin-
sula, which lasted 150 years, with its just military and
civil organization, and excellent colonizing influence,
stamped indefinably the Thrac-Illyrian peoples. The
well-known historians Xenopol, Hasdeu and Jorga have
demonstrated beyond doubt that, both from the point of
view of the race and the language, the original Daco-
Roman mixture produced the following groups : the
Daco-Roman in the Carpathians, the Meso-Latin of
Mcesia, or the Balkans, and the Arlmoni or Vlachs to-
wards the Adriatic and Greek peninsula.
Of the very earliest, the Dacian strain, the Emperor
Julian the Apostate reports that the great Emperor
Trajan had said of the race, " I have subjugated the
Dacian, the most warlike of nations, existing, not only
because of the strength of their bodies, but also by the
teaching of their sage Zamolxis, so venerated by them.
He inculcated that they were never called upon to die,
but only to pass from one abode to another, and that is
why they go more gaily towards death than on any other
journey." The Roman thus grafted on to the vigorous
Dacian stock proved a strong foundation of union and
sentiment, a conservation which proved of such resistance
that it needed some centuries of warfare before the bar-
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 91
bariaiis could settle on the lands once occupied by the
Roman legions.
From this early Daco-Roman union the Latin civiliza-
tion has been transmitted up to the present day on
Carpatho-Danubian soil, and has bequeathed the qualities
of resistance and tenacity, the marvellous instinct of
conservatism, and the genius of national tradition which
has saved the race from extinction and preserved, under
an endless line of shifting rulers, of complex influences,
the resiUence and pertinacity of the national character.
One is tempted to ask what is the especial fibre in
nations that conserves their racial individuality and
strength ? Why is it that Greece, so splendid and power-
ful in the past, should show such poverty in creative
faculty in modem times ?
She produces no warriors, poets, philosophers, sculptors
as in former days. The same natural influences that once
inspired them are there. Little has changed, except the
mind of her people. Professor Xenopol has propounded
the view that the infusion of the Slav blood was too much
for the Hellenic temperament, which could stand no
dilution, and so degenerated.
Other competent observers say that the Hellenic blood
has practically disappeared. In some of the isles,
notably Crete, parts of the Peloponnesus, in a few moun-
tain districts it may still exist, but the majority of the
modern Greek population, especially the Athenian, is
mainly an immigrant strain.
Ital}', on the contrary, who had received all her artistic
inspiration from Greece in her Roman days, her poetry,
painting, sculpture, and in some respects her architecture
being but an elargissemcnt of Greek art, and far less
92 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
naturally endowed than the Greeks, suddenly bloomed
during the Renaissance into a wonderful period of rich
and artistic fertility. Where the Romans were great was
in their military, civil, judicial, colonizing and adminis-
trative power — the practical side of existence and its
various activities. Here again the surroundings had not
changed, yet in this case the admixture of other blood, of
Germanic origin, had stimulated the mind as well as
changed the physiologically material substratum of the
people. But in this instance the admixture which had
enfeebled the genius of the Greeks had, in the case of the
more virile Romans, but unchained new forces.^
* * * *
Following on the Roman occupation of the Dacian
lands the barbaric hordes of Huns and Goths, ancestors
of the Boche of to-day, ravaged the country. These
savages, as in present times, were endowed with an in-
appeasable instinct for blood, conquest and ferocity.
They passed like a hurricane of destruction over the land
without in any way touching the ethnology of the people.
Like mighty storms they swayed back and forth destroy-
ing, torturing, living by rapine, fire and the sword, but
never getting at the heart or soul of the race. They only
succeeded in driving the Daco-Romans off the fertile
plains into the stern fastnesses of the mountain ranges,
where they could struggle better to maintain their security
and national traditions.
In the seventh century the Slavs forced by over-popula-
tion and the necessity for expansion migrated into the
land^and settled there. They never conquered the Daco-
Romans and were a peaceful and not a warlike race.
' Les Routnaints, Professor Xenopol.
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 93
They were good agriculturists and after the terrors of the
Hun and Avare invasions could almost be considered as
benefactors. Though the tendencies of the Slav and
Daco-Ronian character were diametrically opposed to
each other, yet their mutual desire for peace drew them
together politically and socially.
The Slav blood, dreamy, unpractical, somewhat
neurotic — and often rather a debilitating influence —
intermingled with that of these early Roumanians between
the seventh and eleventh centuries. Though the sturdy
warUke qualities of their Daco-Roman ancestors enabled
them to counteract its lethargic influence, still it mani-
fested itself in some minor points, and without taking
away from their sound native qualities, it may be said
to have coloured their natures. A certain indolence, a
sense of tolerance, of pity, a patience, a strain of
melancholy and a fatalism might have become weakness,
had it not been balanced by the natural and indomitable
persistence of the earlier strain. Many Slav words are
found in their tongue, but beyond this their influence
was only partial.
* * * *
The Greek influence, which lasted about three centuries,
was of far greater value than the Slav. In briefly noting
the former's effect on the national character one must
remember that there were four various sorts or
phases of Greeks — the Hellenic, the Byzantine, the
Phanariot and the Greek of to-day. The first, famous
for its world-reaching intellectual influence, splendour of
art and eloquence, its moral, physical and mental equi-
Hbrium, the "eurythemie" as Plato has called it, and all
that the world owes to this splendid period in the past.
94 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
was introduced by the Roman colonizers into ancient
Dacia, and the Roumanian of to-day looks back with
pride to this first faint yet subtle impress on their
civilization.
The second the Byzantine left its mark on some of the
social institutions and customs of the country. This
extraordinary period of culture, intellectuality, civiliza-
tion and art ; of pomp and a magnificence that the world
has ever seen ; of a great religion in which credulity and
mysticism warred with the instincts of duplicity, perfidy,
crime ; of a lust of blood and violence such as has rarely
moved the soul in the annals of history ! " Each of these
multiple faces of the Byzantine Sphinx has become a
powerful and typical characteristic, and each plays its part
in forming the most singular of psychological enigmas.
This multiplicity of the most important factors of Byzan-
tine civilization has puzzled the historian ; consequently
the evil elements have appeared to predominate over the
good and in the eyes of the Western mind, ill-informed,
prejudiced or simply horrified, Byzantium appeared as
the atrocious image of an undeveloped empire, the sink
of the world, and receptacle of all the crimes. To-day
we no longer believe these exaggerations. Historians of
repute have exhumed from the dust of the past the true
Byzantium, and have done justice to its errors by show-
ing Byzantium as a city of contrasts, where all the
civilizations of antiquity have met and been transformed."^
Its influence can be traced on the language, costumes
and traditions of the Orthodox Church, on the trend of
political judicial life and thought among the Princes
and boyars up to the last century, and the practice of
1 Alexandre Sturdza, La Terre et la Race Routnaine.
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 95
magic and superstitious rites amongst the peasantry.
Among the psychological effects are to be noted a diplo-
matic facihty, puhtical intrigue, intellectual curiosity,
courtesy and the insidious taint of bribery so prevalent
in Eastern Europe (with its facsimile in the Boloism of
Western nations), but in Roumania far less marked than
in the neighbouring countries of Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria
and Austria.
Thirdly comes the Greek which can be subdivided,
first the Phanariot, a successor to the Byzantine influence,
which notwithstanding their mutual psychological heri-
tage differed from them in many ways, and secondly the
" Grecoteiul," as they are called in Roumania, a bitter
and scathing term for a class so different from the Hellenic,
Byzantine and Phanariot that it is difficult to believe
that it is even a variety of the same type, a type very
degenerate and degraded by the intermixture of Semitic
and Oriental blood. This race, which settled in the
Roumanian principalities in the seventeenth century,
some historians have unjustly and foolishly mistaken
for the Phanariots.
Though the Phanariots had their faults and some their
vices, yet they were entirely different from this " intriguing
brood of locusts, who were a species of grasping restless
oligarchy, a rabble of uncultivated envious upstarts
gaining influence through the back door ; low, servile,
cringing ; hard, insolent, rapacious and untruthful."
They have been characterized by Count Kissileff in a
celebrated phrase as " the most turbulent and petty
intriguers of all bearded men who swarm beneath the
canopy of heaven."
The Phanariot influence was by far the most penetrating
96 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
of all the influences which coloured the national character.
Notwithstanding the luxury and corruption of their
political lives, the oppression and taxation under which
the people groaned, it cannot be denied that these princes
were the first really " active agents " in promoting
civilization and culture, and to them is due the sym-
pathetic encouragement of the luminous thoughts and
ideas of France,
Since the reign of Louis XIV the language of diplomacy
has been French. The Turks, indolent and retrograde,
would not learn it, and it was the wealthy Greeks of the
Phanar or Lighthouse who, living in sumptuous state and
luxury which made their palaces a veritable replica of
the Byzantine courts, and desirous for power, saw their
way to achieve it by means of their natural facility for
languages by becoming interpreters to the Divan. The
highest post they aspired to was that of Grand Dragoman,
who was the most influential minister of the Ottoman
Government, and the great ambition of these Phanariot
families was this very lucrative and distinguished posi-
tion, which brought them into close touch with the
Ambassadors of the foreign powers. In order to obtain
it they endeavoured to outrival each other in the study
and practice of French, summoning at great expense,
secretaries and tutors from France, who introduced to
them all the customs and ideas of their country.
These Phanariot Greeks who bought the thrones of
Wallachia and Moldavia from the Porte thus brought
the language and culture of France to the principalities,
and apart from the original Latin strain in the Roumanian
race it was through them that the French influence took
root in the country. Secretaries, valets, chefs, professors
THE HEART UF ROUMANIA 9;
and doctors were engaged by the Hospodars, and French
refugees from Russia flocked to the luxurious courts of
these princes. French books began to be read, and the
less rich boyars who could not engage the French teachers
got Greek or Italian masters to teach them French,
Voltaire was so much read by the young men that the
Patriarch in Constantinople issued a mandate menacing
those who read his works with the wrath of heaven ;
while in 1801, a Paris paper the Spectateur du Nord
WTites that " while France is becoming barbarian there
are barbarian countries that are becoming French."
During the reign of Michel Soutzo in 1823 this influence
increased greatly, penetrating the Oriental character
hitherto prevailing. The daughters of the boyars who
aspired at possessing any mind or education spoke and
read it and all sorts of jeux d'esprit were played in
societ3^
A traveller, Kosmali, who was in the country at this time,
relates that " If a life of ease can be considered as a happy
existence, without doubt the ladies of the Moldavian
nobility play this beatific role to perfection, for most of
their occupation consists of turning the pages of a French
novel or romance. Finding myself one day in the house
of a boyar that I visited I saw on a table an open book.
It was Corinne by Madame de Stael, I turned the pages
while waiting for the mistress of the house, and noticed
on the margin several pencil notes in Greek. I also
noticed that the dear Oswald, the hero, found little grace
in the eyes of the reader, who never lost an opportunity
whenever he appeared of addressing him with the not too
flattering epithets of ' animal,' ' donkey ' and other
courtesies of the same order ! WTien Oswald in answer
98 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
to the Prince of Castelforte, who reproached him on his
behaviour to Corinne, says, ' You really find me in error,
Prince,' the indignant reader finally launched out at the
head of the unfortunate Oswald the energetic epithet of
' horned ass ' ! The lady entering at that moment and
finding me smiling, we started a very interesting conversa-
tion on Corinne and love in general, until suddenly her
husband in company with another boyar entered the room ;
our conversation came to an abrupt conclusion, for the
men of Moldavia find it beneath their dignity to listen to
the opinions of their womenkind. Taking off their yellow
slippers they seated themselves a la Turque on the divan,
ordering coffee and the Tschibouka to be served."
The Phanariot gift for languages, their energy, political
dexterity and oratorical powers left a very distinct im-
press on the nobility of Roumania, among whom they
intermarried, and the French influence, though dating
from comparatively recent times, is the most important,
as it implies the affinity of the race and the psychological
tendency of the Latin blood. Imported by these Greek
Phanariot rulers, it has effected more deliberately the
culture and the intelligence of the nation than its habits,
and its influence on the upper and middle classes is very
evident and constantly increasing. More than one dis-
tinguished family of modem Roumania traces its origin
to these rulers.
Thus the French language so harmonious and rich in
idea, so capable of expressing the nuance of sentiment,
penetrated the thought and mind of the upper and middle
classes with an irresistible power. It became the organ
of expression and thought for all the governing and
directing classes as well as that of society. French books
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 99
and reviews circulated among the ranks of those who
aspired to cuhurc of thought and mind, indeed so much
did it become the language that hardly any books were
translated into French, for every one spoke it. The sons
and daughters of the aristocracy were sent at an early
age to be educated in France and often forgot their native
tongue. Not only in the language but in the customs
and manners ; furnishing, decoration and art ; the
women's dress and general taste, all were fashioned on the
French model. The laws and judicial code were copied
on French lines — in a word, everything was modelled as
faithfully as possible on the French civilization.^
On the other hand, this influence upon the peasantry
has not been so marked, and beyond the sympathy and
natural affinity between the two Latin races the peasant
still remains in paramount possession of the habits and cus-
toms that have come down to him from early Roman days
* ♦ * *
A very interesting section of the Roumanian race, the
Wallachs, Coutzo-Vlachs or Arimoni as they are called
in their own tongue, are the only nomads to be found in
Balkan Europe if we except the gipsy. Their name is a
synonym for shepherd, and they are a distinctly pastoral
people. They number about 450,000, and are to be
found in the Pindus in Thessaly — which by reason of
their numbers has acquired the name of Great Wallachia
— at Tricala, Larissa and Elassona ; in Acarnania (Little
Wallachia), in Albania, near Antivari, Dulcigno El
Bassan and in Macedonia. About ten years ago, as a
result of representations from Roumania, Bulgaria,
Greece and Serbia were made to guarantee educational
' Professor Xenopul, l.es HoH>naines.
100 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
and religious freedom for the Vlachs resident in their
lands.
Lenorment, a French writer, has compared them to the
shepherds of Homeric days. He found them in Attica
around the slopes of Daphne, and calls them " The
Wallachian or Roumanian race," and in describing them
says, " Wandering is not a necessity that the Vlach has
had to submit to by force : it is an absolute requirement
of his nature and his life. Detached from the soil where
other men are rooted, one could almost think he had
imbibed some of the instinct of his herd which sent him
migrating at certain seasons."
One of the most remarkable features of this interesting
people, indeed of all the Roumanian race, is the unity of
their psychology. In all the countries through which this
section of the race, these exiled and nomadic Wallachians,
wander, they speak the same tongue, have the same
manners and customs, songs, dances, music, legends and
superstitions as the parent stock. As distinct from other
Latin races, these people, ranging over approximately
300,000 square kilometres, speak an idiom that is identical,
whereas in Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, the dialects
differ greatly according to the provinces. The long years
of oppression they endured, their pastoral life which
drew them together at regular seasons of the year for
their national celebrations and ancient customs, was a
force which united them and held them together in an
effort to escape extinction and absorption.
The wandering spirit is extraordinarily pronounced in
them. Among the richer classes it shows itself as mer-
chants travelling to Italy, Austria and even as far as
Spain, and even when well to do they continue to do this
^PiK.7V
H
7.
■si
■p.
>'- /.
X
A:!<^fft.^>•^
it-
noon: beautiful draught oxen in the market-place.
PEACE BABIES — BUT ALL BOYS.
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA loi
until old age overtakes them. The poorer ones follow
the life of commercial travellers and pedlars, but by far
the largest number of these Wallachians or Coutzu-
Vlachs are pastoral with a passion for freedom, and their
life is spent in their tents in the highlands in summer, or
in their camps in the lower lands in winter.
Their social organization is of a very feudal and
patriarchal character — twenty to thirty families form a
little community, a group called a stana or sheep-fold,
under the headship of an hereditary chief who governs
his little clan. The patriarch or Tsellinga, as he is called,
is quite an autocrat and orders all the affairs of his tribe
— the younger men must wait on him and his guests and
his word is law to all.
At Easter-tide they take their flocks of lambs to the
markets and fairs in the towns, where they are sold in
thousands. This done they break up their winter quarters
and trek in a great stream, goats, sheep, donkeys, mules ;
carts carrying the tents, women and children ; the men
with their guns and clad in great shaggy sheep-skin coats,
capas, the fierce yelping Molossian dogs bounding and
barking on every side, to the summer pastures. The
men with their herds and dogs generally go up alone to
the higher slopes, where they live in little huts made of
branches and brushwood.
The larger number of them stay in the hills until after
the Feast of the Apostles, and in September at the Feast
of the Madonna they descend into the plains according
to their ancient custom, the shepherds of the higher
slopes alone staying there until November gloom and
cold brings them and their flocks also down to the lower
lands. Hospitality and thrift are marked characteristics
102 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
of these Wallachs ; peaceful and unaggressive, they are
a people of just and equable temperament with a deep
romantic devotion to their race, its customs and the
open free life of nature.
* * * *
Two other classes must be included in this very brief
summary of the Roumanian race. These are the gipsies
and the Jews, two races who live on Roumanian soil but
are alien to the land. The Tsigan, these mysterious
children of the East, nomads from far distant Persia and
Hindustan, penetrated into the country so long ago that
no authentic information on this point can be obtained.
They brought with them all the occult knowledge, the
rites, the customs and handicrafts, which as dancers,
musicians, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, weavers of spells,
brewers of potions and love philters, as masons, horse
doctors, tinkers of brass and copper work, have given
them a place — though a shifting and degraded one —
through all the lands of Europe.
It is, however, principally as musicians that they excel,
and the musical profession is almost a monopoly in their
hands. Their music is a wild, plaintive, erotic one,
passionate and deeply stirring, with a strain of savage
despair, a restless ardour, alternating with a languor, a
strange brooding melancholy, exciting and unrestful,
that seems to hold some ancient secret, primitive, guarded,
inscrutable.
As they wander westwards they lose this precious in-
born gift. The cold grey skies, the harsher reserve of the
northern temperament seem to affect them vaguely,
stifling their joyous song and dance, hampering the savage
vitality of their stringed accord. But in these Balkan
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 103
lands, in Hungary, Russia, Turkey they retain the full
command and witchery of their wild instinctive music
and magic.
Though they are called in by the peasants on all occa-
sions to celebrate with their music at births, marriages
and deaths ; for charms against the evil eye or the
terrible vampires so profoundly believed in ; by the rich
for the stringed music which accompanies all their
parties ; they are yet looked upon as a despised race ; a
caste, the slavery and bonds of which have only been
released within recent years, and who take little part in
the national life.
The Roumanian gipsy is the handsomest of them all.
In olden times they used to be bought and sold with the
estates, but in 1855 they obtained their freedom. They
are liable for military service, which they often evade by
means of their wandering habits, and they are taxed.
This yearly tax used to be paid by sifting the gold dust
washed down from the mountains by the rivers Arges
and Dimbovitza. They are of medium height, swarthy,
slender, but of a physical strength quite extraordinary,
especially amongst the male gipsies of the towns, who as
hammals or porters lift incredibly heavy weights. In dis-
position they are untruthful, cunning and somewhat
cowardly — a gay, inconsequent nature, yet subject to
moods of jealousy and quick flares of fury. Bound by
no conventions they may profess the religion of the
country, but they practise none beyond their own
primitive worship of nature and its mysterious rites.
Naked, predatory, content, their wants are few and are
often supplied by pilfering from the nearest farmyard.
With their prolific families and savage dogs they live
104 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY \
in tumble-down huts and dugouts on the outskirts of the
villages and towns, or in the picturesque encampments
of the more prosperous nomadic tribes. Ragged and
unkempt, extraordinarily picturesque in their gaudy
rags, with their flashing, heavily fringed eyes, white
teeth, their graceful limbs and brilliant smiles they fear
neither God nor man, cold nor heat. The freedom for their
wild, untrammelled lives, the warmth of the sun, the cool
sweet breath of the wind, something to eat — be it mine or
thine — liberty and love — is all these dusky vagrants of
nature demand of life.
♦ » # *
The Jewish immigration into Roumania is of com-
paratively recent date, and we only hear of them there
in the seventeenth century. Their numbers were small
then and were not augmented until the Phanariot period.
In 1803 they only numbered 10,000, and their pre-
tension as to being old inhabitants of the country is
therefore without foundation. Overflowing from Russia
and Galicia, two reasons induced them to emigrate, the
desire to evade military service in Russia and the knov/-
ledge that as strangers in Roumania they might invoke
the protection of the Consols of the foreign powers in
evading the payment of taxes. For by virtue of old
treaties with Turkey the nobility and strangers in Rou-
mania were exempt from taxation.
The Jews, who are ethnographically intruders in Rou-
mania, were not allowed to acquire land unless they, like
other strangers, were naturalized ; this legislative pre-
caution existed also in other lands, such as England,
Holland, etc., in order to prevent the Jew obtaining a
stranglehold on the simple peasantry.
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 105
A very large proportion of these Jews were only
Israelite in name and were not of Semitic blood but of
Mongol-Tartar strain, of Mosaic belief, and as the cele-
brated Russian statesmen Prince Gortchakoff said at the
Congress of Berlin, at a moment when he was animated
with nothing but the kindliest sentiments for Roumania,
" His Serene Highness must not confound the Jews of
London, Paris, Berlin or Vienna, to whom one could
assuredly never refuse any civil or political rights, with
the Jews of Serbia, Roumania and those of some of the
Russian provinces, who are a veritable scourge for the
indigenous population."^
Again, another authority declares that there is a vast
difference betw^een the so-called Jew of Roumania and
the Israelite of other countries. The former has none of
the Hebraic or Semitic type ; they are descendants of the
Mosaic Khazare hordes who in the eleventh century were
attacked by Sviastoslav and crushed by the Slav forces.
The true Israelite of Western Semitic race has nothing in
common with them but religion, and this has never been
considered by anyone as a criterion of race ; besides the
Jews of Galicia, of Russia and Roumania, even from the
religious point of view, distinguish themselves from the
Israelites of the race of Levi, from the Talmudists, or the
Israelites, adepts of the Kabbale, or the esoteric tradi-
tions. Some few indeed of those exist in Roumania ;
and one can pick them out by their Semitic type — an
interesting one — their customs and their names. It seems
thus very strange on the part of the Jews of the West to
show such a curious interest and sympathy in the flotsam
and jetsam of the mosaical Khazares of the yellow race.^
' Congress of Berlin, Protocol No. 8, 28th June, 1878.
- A. Sturdza, La Terre et la Race Rotitnaitic.
io6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Here they number nearly 400,000 as against 7,000,000
of the indigenous population, whereas in France they are
only 80,000 against 40,000,000 inhabitants. The Jews
increase more rapidly than any people except the
Armenians. They congregate in the larger towns, and
though in Northern Moldavia there are a few purely
Jewish villages and colonies reminding one of Poland,
yet in some of the towns they have increased so rapidly
that they are in the majority. The Moldavian Jews are as
different from the French of Jewish faith as the " Haitian
Catholics or the Maronite Catholics in Syria " are to the
Catholics of France or Italy. In Bucharest and the
southern part of Roumania one finds a considerable
number of Spanish Jews of the real Semitic race who have
wandered up from Salonika, their great centre, and who
are much superior to this other class.
With regard to a certain feeling of distrust and sus-
picion that exists between them and the Roumanians,
this is not due to the question of their religion, but because
wherever they settle they try to undercut the peasants or
workers and oust them from their natural occupations. A
very large proportion of them by birth as well as by will,
customs, mind and language are strangers to the country
they live in. They will not send their children to the
national schools and insist on retaining their German-
Yiddish jargon, and finally, as a well-known writer has
said, " they will not serve or be taught, cultivate or pay ;
they participate in no effort, make no sacrifices and do
not even submit to the orders of the police, to the rules
of hygiene, and will wield neither the plough, pickaxe nor
the rifle."
The greater proportion of these Roumanian Jews are
I
THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 107
not like those living in Austria, France, England, who
speak the language of the country they live in, and show
a practical or benevolent interest in the land that is
sheltering them and giving them a living. If they were
like those of other countries, identifying themselves with
the national interests, language, etc., the Roumanians
would not feel so sore ; but they show no sympathy or
understanding beyond that of their own material gain,
and in recent years as an economic advance-guard of
German influence ; and that is why Roumania endeavours
to keep her Latin life free from their infiltration.
It is a pregnant question and one which in the past has
been greatly aggravated by faults on both sides. But a
spirit of reconciliation, a sense of justice has of late years
contributed very largely to smooth these matters over
and to give some prospect of an early solution of the
problem, and citizenship with its attendant rights is
already well assured for these peoples.
CHAPTER V
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY
To attempt to dominate the East, forms the keystone of German
Welt-politik.— G. W. Prothero.
ONE of the oldest of the problems that have
confronted the chancelleries of Europe is the
Eastern Question. It has been regarded as a
chronic malady, a necessary evil to be borne
with patience. No one has had sufficient courage or
diplomatic skill to try and cure, or improve the position ;
with the result that these unhappy Balkan states — the
whirlpool of every intrigue and covetous instinct of the
greater nations — have ever been at the mercy of the
quack charlatan and adventurer of neighbouring pre-
datory powers, seeking only their own advantage.
One writer has said that the " Near Eastern Question
may be defined as the problem of filling up the vacuum
created by the gradual disappearance of the Turkish
Empire in Europe."^
This but embraces one small point of view. True, the
conquest and disappearance of that " presence embedded
in the Uving flesh of Europe of an alien substance — the
Ottoman Turk," has permitted these countries, Roumania,
Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria to escape from the Turkish
whirlpool that for centuries had sucked them under.
But their size, added to the vigorous, national spirit
» Ur. Miller.
108
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 109
which converted them into thriving States so quickly,
attracted the envy of the Central Powers — a coalition
more than the equal of the Turk in esprit de rapine,
cruelty and sinister diahlenes.
Little has been known of Roumania's attitude towards
the other Balkan states by the general pubUc ; less
indeed of the country itself ; but her entry into the war
on the side of the Entente has inevitably stimulated
interest in this beautiful land. The fact that one of the
loveliest of our English princesses is her Queen, and that
historically and commercially she is an Ally whom we
welcome with pride, is universally recognized to-day.
To realize clearly her position and to understand the
reasons for her intervention it is necessary to cast one's
eyes over the later years, leading up to her decision in
favour of the Allied cause.
The first seeds of Prussian influence in Roumania were
sown in 1866, when a German, Prince Charles or Carol of
Hohenzollem, was elected to the throne.
It was perhaps only natural that after the appropria-
tion of the Roumanian province of Bessarabia by Russia
in 1878 — a mean and ungrateful return for the successful
aid the small state lent the great nation at Plevna — a
deep feeUng of resentment was left among the Roumanian
people, stifling cordiality or goodwill between the two
countries.
France, notwithstanding racial traits, and the natural
bonds of sympathy between her and Roumania, was
bleeding from her defeat in 1870, and could give little
promise of anything in the way of practical support in
the working out of Roumania's national destiny. England,
indifferent and remote, rendered the eagerly proffered
-i^mbJs:^
no ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
friendship of Germany the easiest solution of the problem.
To Prince Carol, impressed with the power and develop-
ment of the land of his birth, the scheme was particularly
acceptable. At first unpopular, and received with sus-
picion by Roumanians, this German rapprochement was
approved later, and under its influence the country made
such progress that Roumanian statesmen, gradually
becoming more responsive, were willing to accept
Germany's exuberant offers of help and loans for the
further development of the country.
Complete reorganization of the army was one of the
first matters to which Prince Carol devoted his attention.
German officers were invited as instructors, German
engineers and contractors invaded the country, without
opposition, for the building of necessary railways and
bridges. With the usual Teutonic intensity Germano-
Jewish financiers busied themselves over the budding
prospects of the land.
To Roumanian statesmen the country lay between the
devil and the deep sea ; represented by the Central
Powers and Russia. Unfortunately, the devil was their
choice, for as usual his bribes were manifold, his energy
immense.
In 1883 the rapprochement became an alliance, though
not a publicly acknowledged one, due perhaps to a desire
on the part of the Prince not to offend Roumanian popular
sentiment, which, with the exception of a few politicians,
was persistently Latin.
Historical as well as racial affinity inclined Roumania
to the Latin Powers, and not the Teuton. Rome was
indeed the ancient mother of the race ; but it is to the
elder sister, France, that Roumania, "un ilot latin au
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY m
milieu de I'ocean slave et linnois qui I'environne," looks
with love and dt'\'otion, and France returns the affection.
And the Western nation is proud of this little sister — a
distant outpost of the same great civilization and culture
— standing at the frontier of the East — not the wonderful
and ancient East of India with its long history and deep
wisdom — but the East of the barbarian, the Turk, the
Kurd, and the Bulgar.
But Prince Carol, working conscientiously and with
shrewd tenacity for what he considered the best interests
of his adopted land, encouraged German enterprise and
influence. Imperceptibly at first, but very surely, the
essence of Prussianism permeated all the various channels
of national Roumanian life ; thus one more link was
forged in the Drang nach Osten policy of Berlin.
* * * *
On the outbreak of the first Balkan War, in 1913,
Roumania stood aloof. Taking no part, she watched,
however, necessarily interested in maintaming the Balkan
equihbrium, and with an eye on the sinister Bulgarian
schemes and ambitions. It was not until the Judas of
the Slav race, Bulgaria — that jackal of the Teuton and
the Turk — treacherously turned upon her AlUes, that
Roumania intervened. Knowing what a cat's-paw-
Germany possessed in the person ahty of the vicious and
unscrupulous ruler of Bulgaria, Ferdinand the Fox, the
little State reaUzed how resolutely — and successfully —
Berhn was intriguing to bring the Moslem world under
her heel, staking all on domination in the Balkans and a
Mittel-Europa policy.
Roumania determined to cast her influence on the side
of the small nations, fighting for their independence ; and
112 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
siding with Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, she declared
war on Bulgaria. This was not done as an excuse for
increasing her territory, for she only accepted the rectifica-
tion of her strategical frontier by the acquisition of the
Dobrudja, the barren and sandy belt south of the Danube
Delta. She recognized that if she failed to support
Serbia and Greece, and they were defeated by Bulgaria,
Germany with her claws deeply imbedded in Roumanian
vitals, with the control of the greater part of her indus-
tries and finance, would become omnipotent in the
Balkans, with a clear road from Berlin to Bagdad — a
perpetual menace to peace and the development of the
small nations that lay in the path of the Juggernaut.
In his endeavour to bind the Sultan by ties of gratitude
to Germany, the Kaiser had spared no pains, nor left un-
tried any wiles of bribery or flattery which might serve
this end. Even the terrible massacres of the Christian
Armenians did not stem the generous flow of his esteem,
and the very moment when the world was voicing its
horror and condemnation was chosen by the All Highest
to accentuate his friendship for Turkey and demonstrate
his admiration for this nation of assassins.
When Abdul Hamid was dethroned, the Kaiser merely
shifted the object of his attentions, and continued to
shower his favours and advice upon the ambitious up-
start leader of the Young Turk party, Enver Bey, he who
so ruthlessly "removed" older and truer patriots from
his tortuous "German-made" path. In Enver Bey,
Berlin discovered the perfect tool to shape the Kaiser's
projects ; while the Turkish capital provided the most
fertile ground for the cultivation of an infamous Austro-
German system of intrigue, bribery and massacre. On
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINV iij
this poisonous diet the Turkish nation was fed and
cunningly encouraged to continue their diaboUcal policy.
But it was a policy. Ajid a French writer has very truly
remarked : "La politique utilitaire d'AUemagne, si
odieuse soit elle au sentiment Europeen, est au moins
une politique ; elle gagne A I'Empereur Guillaume les
sympathies du monde Mussulman, ou\'re les voies au
commerce et impose un certain respect. . . . L'Orient ne
respecte que la force."*
Austria meanwhile seconded her neighbour's efforts to
the fullest extent by the development of her own schemes
of conquest. The Serb provinces of Bosnia and Herze-
govina had been audaciously annexed, and Franz Joseph,
the absolute monarch of a Hapsburg autocracy of the
most pronounced type, dreamed the same grandiose
dreams of glory as Germany. But to pursue his schemes
of spoliation he needed the powerful backing of his Ally.
Alone he could not do it ; for, as Take Jonescu very
truly observes of the Dual Monarchy, she is " a fossil in
the modem world ; a state, without being a nation —
only a dynasty, a government and an army. There are
many nations within the Hapsburg Empire. The only
one not to he found there is the Austrian nation, for it does
not exist. If a railway accident were to kill off all the
members of the Hapsburg family, Austria would auto-
matically cease to exist. Being nothing but a govern-
ment and an army, she can contemplate any kind of
conquest with a freedom of mind impossible for other
states, which are nations as well."-
This anachronism the Austrian Empire is very Asiatic
in typo, the Emperor as a Sultan being the patriarchal
' Gaulis. « Origins of the War.
114 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
and extremely arbitrary chief of a very stiff archaic and
unprogressive group of people who circle like satellites
around his person. A dynasty or family and a govern-
ment composed of archdukes and archduchesses with a
very limited addition of a few families of courtiers,
adventurers and aristocrats of the most exclusively con-
servative and mentally inert type.
But the unwieldiness of his Empire, the bitter clash of
alien races forcibly held under his rule, their unrest and
discontent did not discourage Franz Joseph from dream-
ing of further conquest, supported always by the might
of Germany. Austria " clutched the hair of diverse popu-
lations and having clutched kept tugging there."
Franz Joseph aimed at incorporating Roumania,
Serbia and Bulgaria with the Austrian Empire on the
footing of Federal States ; and his secret agent, M. Riedl,
was sent to Bucharest in 1912 to spy out the land accord-
ingly. Take Jonescu relates how this secret-service
agent divided " the states of Europe into three groups :
the Pirate States, i.e. France and England, who must be
driven out of the continental markets ; the Asiatic State
of Russia, whose frontiers must be set back beyond
Moscow ; and the rest of the States, all of which, includ-
ing Switzerland and Italy, were to enter the Customs
union with Austria and Germany." A modest and
pacific scheme indeed !
Austria's ambitious design to secure access to the
.^gean was apparent to all. The Kaiser, nursing since
1890 his Berlin-to-Basra-and-Beyond designs, never
rested. The vigour of the Balkan League, and the great
growth of the national spirit of these States, as well as
the fine fighting qualities, so successfully displayed by
THE WOOF AXn W'Al^P OF HER DESTINY 115
them, was a serious drawback to Prussian plans. But
vast ambitions were at stake, and every effort was made
by the Central Powers on the conclusion of the Balkan
War to prevent a satisfactory settlement, for this \\ould
have seriously thwarted all their schemes.
Serbia blocked Germany's road to the East as well as
Austria's access to the ^gean Seas, and the award of
Salonica to Greece was a severe blow to the Central
Powers who had coveted this great harbour above all.
It was a prize indeed for Greece. In population far
exceeding Sofia and Belgrade, and in Greece itself second
only to Athens, it is also by far the largest port in these
regions, and carries the lion's share of shipping in the
Balkans.
The Central Powers, feverishly anxious to extend their
own sea-board at the expense of the smaller states, made
frantic efforts to prevent Serbia being awarded a port on
the Adriatic which she had so justly deserved, and m this
they were successful. The further outcome of German
tactics resulted in Bulgaria being effectually estranged ;
a German vassal nominally ruled as Sultan at Constanti-
nople, while a German Queen and pro-German King
governed despotically at Athens. Could an3i:hing have
been more satisfactory to the enemies of European free-
dom ?
Germany's Mittel-Europa policy was what she went to
war for. It was a careful and systematically organized
plan of robbery prepared during the years of peace
hypocrisy by the Kaiser and the MiUtary Autocrats who
govern his Empire. History will in all probability be
able to demonstrate by circumstantial evidence that the
murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was deliberately
ii6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
planned in order to facilitate this scheme and to provoke
a quarrel with Serbia who blocked the Germano-Austrian
way to the East. The policy was a vast scheme of
aggressive intent to divide Europe in two. Germany's
vassals, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, with the
forced addition of Roumania, Serbia and Greece, were to
be under her control from the Baltic to the ^gean and
from Berlin to the Bosphorus and the Persian Gulf. All
were to be served and maintained by her Berlin to Bagdad
line.
This policy Haldane MacPhail says was " strategic
in its object, it would give her a solid Central Europe as
a magnificent jumping-off ground, off which to leap to
the great adventure. It split the world apart and
Germany was on the wedge. . . . Roumania and Serbia
alone barred the way, but the gate of Serbia must at any
rate at all costs be smashed in and a Pan-German empire
would be complete. Roumania could be swallowed as
Holland could be swallowed when required."^
The Pan-German plan was also intended to baulk her
enemies' defence by isolating Russia and Roumania,
rendering it difficult for their Allies to assist or co-operate
with them, and thus make them of little use as Allies.
Part of this ambitious and predatory plan included
the building of a ship canal to link up the North Sea
rivers with the Danube. By this means she would be
able to transfer destroyers, submarines, light cruisers,
aeroplanes and munitions by an alternative and less
expensive route than the railway, from the North Sea to
the Black Sea, and thus securely transport all the war
material she needed by an unassailable overland route,
^ Germany at Bay.
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DES'lINY 117
while England could only do so through the submarine-
infested Mediterranean. With a big naval base behind
the Dardanelles she would also be a constant menace to
us in the Eastern Mediterranean and to our possessions in
Egypt and the Soudan, India and beyond. As Hans
Delbruck has said : " The main ganglion of the British
Empire is Egypt and the Suez Canal. If Turkey comes
out of the war a strong state and provides itself with
railways, England can never go on holding Eg>^pt with
six thousand European soldiers, and if England loses the
Canal all the bands connecting the Empire are loosened."
It wants little imagination to realize the extreme danger
of this scheme in the hands of a relentless, audacious and
unscrupulous Empire like Germany, acutely covetous and
jealous of Britain's power, or the ominous peril thus
threatened her. Egypt in German occupation — and this
would be the first prize aimed at — would be the death-
knell of the whole British Empire.
♦ ♦ ♦ «
The general lack of intelligent interest on the part of
the British public in foreign affairs was doubly accentuated
in the case of the Balkan question. From the comfort-
able recesses of Western arm-chairs, the Balkans were
ignorantly regarded as being bound up with the political
destiny of semi-savage races. Entirely oblivious of the
fact that these "semi-savage" states had a most direct
bearing on Britain's tenure of her Eastern Empire, these
vital pages of history had practically no interest for the
average Briton. Safe by his own fireside, John Bull —
en bloc — overlooked the essential fact that the Balkan
States collectively form a most important part in the
great overland route to England's possessions in India
ii8 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
and beyond, and that Serbia was the " guardian of the
gate " in the East, just as Belgium is in the West.
Serbia was not a mere excuse for the war, she was the
principal pivot of it, and with the fall of Serbia Germany
achieved her purpose, her Pan-German map. Great
Britain has been indifferent and neglectful of Balkan
questions, with the consequence that the Central Powers
have only too eagerly picked up the golden chances so
readily relinquished, and joyously profiting by the
lethargy of those who guided England's foreign policy,
the Austro-German forces established themselves firmly
in the political, financial and industrial life of the Balkan
Peninsula.
Our statesmen, Foreign Ofhce and diplomatists have
displayed such ignorance and ineptitude coupled with in-
excusable blindness that Bulgaria and Turkey were able
to successfully befool them, while Greece showed to what
depths of treachery and intrigue a suborned royalty
could go, without opening their eyes to the fact that
for Britain Serbia and in a lesser degree Roumania meant
a mighty bulwark to her destiny.
For Roumania's intervention in the Balkan War we
owe her a big debt : such luck for us was far greater than
our diplomatists deserved. The little State, so casually,
so ignorantly regarded by many ignorant insular Britishers
as semi-barbaric, was able in conjunction with her Allies
to stave off, for a while at least, Germany's triumphant
progress eastwards.
Had this check not been placed on Teutonic activities,
our task in the present great war would have been im-
measurably increased, if not rendered insurmountable.
Apart from this, one other noteworthy result was obtained
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 119
by this inten'cntion. In linking herself with her Allies
Roumania definitely and deliberately broke away from
German influence, and ruptured the agreement by which
the Central Powers had striven to hold her bound and
captive since 1883.
* ♦ ♦ ♦
On the map of Europe Roumania's position is a curious
and interesting one. Her policy in the past has been
largely influenced by it, and her hopes for a peaceful,
fully-devxUoped future depend greatly upon its recon-
stniction on purely national lines. On this depends her
success in the years to come, provided that she can
obtain from her jealous and envious neighbours a
strategical frontier more closely corresponding with her
natural racial boundaries.
The Roumanian kingdom of to-day consists of the
ancient principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with the
Dobrudja. She is a distant outpost of \\ estern culture
on the edge of the barbarian fring-^, and is the bridge
between the Eastern and Western ci\'iUzations of Europe.
In the fifteenth century Roumania was square in shape,
consisting of the aforementioned principalities with the
addition of Bessarabia, Transylvania and the Buko\'ina.
Present-day Roumania, owing to incursions by neigh-
bouring powers, has been deprived of these last three,
and now consists only of Molda\'ia, Wallachia and the
Dobrudja.
The geographical outline of the kingdom as it exists
to-day is that of a boot in shape. The foot portion
contains the rich oil regions and great grain-producing
district of Wallachia with its progressive and charming
capital, Bucharest. The northern or ankle portion of the
120 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
boot being Moldavia, a bleaker, barer land, with the old
capital, Jassy, near the Russian frontier.
The southern frontier is bounded by the Dobrudja and
the Danube, stretching a distance of 250 miles, and
dividing Roumania from Bulgaria. The Dobrudja under
Roumanian rule has made vast progress ; roads, railways,
the Carol Bridge, the transformation of Constanza into a
great port, a just treatment of the Turk and Bulgar popu-
lation have made " this corner of Asia a pearl of Europe."
Russia, with Roumania's ancient province Bessarabia,
lies to the north, the river Pruth dividing them ; east,
the Black Sea — " I'Ocean Slav " — laps her shores ; while
to the west, facing the predatory Central Powers, the
Carpathian Alps stretch for 370 miles, dividing her from
those lost provinces, Transylvania and the Bukovina.
If these were added to the kingdom the general con-
formation of the country would resemble a square, with
an increase of three hundred miles to its territory.
Austria filched these provinces in 1867, and this theft
lies as deep and rankling a wound in the nation's heart
as Alsace and Lorraine are to France. Could she redeem
these lands — the loved and lost, the most cherished and
coveted jewels of the ancient nation's diadem — whose
people look towards the Motherland with faith uncon-
querable — Roumania's dearest dream would be consum-
mated. For there lies her ancient capital ; the mausoleum
of her kings, the many precious monuments and records of
the past. All her historic traditions point to these lost
provinces as the home of her ancient people. " Les
Carpathes sont notre histoire, les Carpathes sont le ber-
ceau de notre race " is the deep national sentiment voiced
by one of their statesmen.
'J.
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THE WOOF AND \\ARP OF HER DESTINY 121
The main problem of Roumania's Risorgimento and
the principal cause for her entry into the European war
centres round the question of her four million sons in
Transylvania, exiled and cruelly oppressed by the
Austro-Hungarian Government. Whatever claim the
Austrian historians may put forward there is no doubt
that Transylvania has always been Roumanian, that the
Daco-Roumans occupied the northern bank of the Danube
from earliest times, and that it was not until the tenth
century that the ^Magyar irruption into Transylvania
took place. They found Wallachia inhabited by large
numbers of Daco-Roumans, and it seems that the
Magyars derived their first civilization from these
Roumans, adopting Latin as their official language.
The Roumanian language, spoken by twelve millions of
people, is the most ancient of the neo-Latin tongues, a
mixture of a vulgar Latin spoken by the Latinized Roman
citizen and the tongue of the vanquished Dacian. Byzan-
tine historians aver that it was spoken in the sixth
century, and in 571 the Roumanians when attacked and
put to flight by the savage avare tribesmen reformed
their ranks shouting, " Touma ! Tourna, fratre."^
In Wallachia and especially Transylvania, the cradle of
the race, the population spoke " frequent Latine," or as
an English traveller wTote in 1673 o^ the people he met in
Transylvania who " have the commendation to speak
generally Latin. "2 It certainly was spoken from earliest
times and long before the Magyar invasion. In none of
the documents between 1291 and 1830 is there found
but the slightest trace of Magyar peasantry in Transyl-
vania. This tongue has continued ever since, " a mother
• Travels in Hungary. London. 1673. * Ibid.
122 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
tongue, a speech of daily intercourse, the only means of
expression for the land worker and the shepherd in the
mountains, and it has caught in its cadence the very
soul of the race."^
Again, the very great number of place names show
that the Rouman tongue was in use there previous to the
seventh century, and the very large preponderance of
Roumanians over the Hungarian population — which has
persisted through the centuries notwithstanding the long
systematic ill treatment, suppression and helotry — is a
still further convincing proof of this, affording a very
powerful argument in favour of the Roumanian, and
very little for the Magyar claim, while the dictum prior
tempore potior jure could surely always be substantially
advanced by the former.
The Magyar, like the Turk, rules the unfortunate races
that come under his lash with the bitterest oppression,
reaction and oUgarchism, indeed Christian populations
have often preferred Turkish suzerainty to the atrocious
and savage despotism of the Christian and Apostolic
Empire. In 1822 Milos, the great Liberator of Serbia,
said : "If you sum everything up you will agree with me
that it would be better for the Serbians to endure the
tyranny of the Turks than to lie down under the yoke
that Austria is preparing for them."
The Roumanians in Transylvania defended their rights
against the usurper with stubborn tenacity. Between
1291 and 1848 there were five big revolutions against the
Magyar tyranny. These were put down with revolting
cruelty. On one occasion, Georghe Doja, the leader, was
dressed as a king and " was set upon a red-hot iron
* Times Literary Supplement, 1916.
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 123
throne, an iron crown was put on his head and a sceptre
of the same in his hand, both red-hot. In this state half-
roasted, nine of his principal accomplices, nearly starved
to death with hunger, were let loose upon him and ate
their pretended king. The others who would not were
immediately cut to pieces, and this implacable hatred
and injustice to the people of Transylvania exists even
to-day.' " Here in this land neither a Saxon will marry
a Hungarian nor a Wallachian with a Hungarian," and
Count Tisza has voiced their Hungarian fear when he
says, " Magyar and Germans will be overflooded with the
Roumanian population of Transylvania," and indeed he
only speaks the truth of this annexed land, the special
Latinity of Transylvania and its preponderantly Rou-
manian population and history.
"Nowhere in the world has Austria done good," said
Gladstone, and history can testify that everywhere she
has done evil.
The Roumanians in Transylvania number about
3,500,000, but there are also to be included in the exiled
sons of this race those in Bessarabia and elsewhere. An
approximate figure of the Roumanian race distributed in
Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula would be as
follows : —
Roumania proper ....
7,000,000
Transylvania .....
3,500.000
Bessarabia .....
1,370,000
Bukovina .....
230,000
Serbia ......
200,000
Coutza-VIachs or Arimoni of the Balkans
450,000
12,750,000
' Travels m Hungary. Robert Townson, ll.d., f.r.s., ijQit
Edinburgh.
124 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
It will thus be seen that nearly four millions of her
countrymen are condemned to harsh restrictions and the
arbitrary rule of the Dual Monarchy. With relentless
despotism, first the Austrian, later the Hungarian, have
tried to reduce the spirit of this people ; to stamp out, in
arrogant Magyar way, all that was Latin in their nature.
But with the courage, the tenacity so often born of
desperation, the sword, the gibbet, the cell, even famine
itself, has failed to crush them or make them betray
their language, faith and customs held through a thousand
years of strife.
Take Jonescu, the ardent apostle of Roumanian Irre-
denta, and the distinguished statesman, has said : " If I
thought that the Roumanians of Transylvania could ever
conceivably become Magyar I should give up politics
altogether ; for it would no longer be worth while for us
Roumanians of the kingdom to go on living."
Hungarian has been made the official language. In the
schools and churches Magyar has been forced upon the
Roumanian people, and this notwithstanding that in some
districts the population of Roumanian to Magyar is 63 to 23 .
" In all Hungary there is no official Roumanian school
either elementary or superior. The poor Roumanian
peasant since the beginning of last century has estabhshed
schools for his children by voluntary subscription. The
Hungarians became furious and when by the settlement
of 1868 they became unjustly, and contrary to all his-
torical rights, masters of Transylvania, they did all they
could to annihilate those schools. ... In one year alone
400 Roumanian schools were destroyed and replaced by
Hungarian ones."^
1 Roumania Irredenta, N. Lupu.
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 125
Almost every newspaper has been suppressed at one
time or the other, and Roumanian joumaUsts have been
condemned in the last eighteen years to terms of im-
prisonment amounting to more than a hundred years,
and fines for criticizing the Magyars — lese-magyarism as
it is called — aggregating 250,000 francs. Their mis-
caiTiage of justice is as notorious and unjust as the
iniquitous examples in Croatia, and the Magyar police
rule with a brutality and inhumanity that is almost
unimaginable. The constant, rigorous prosecution for
dancing the national dances, singing the songs, wearing
the colours, reading Roumanian books, are too numerous
to mention. The law can take any children away from
their parents, should they bear a grudge against them, or
consider them incompetent, and hand them over to
infant asylums to be denationalized. Could an}i;hing be
more revolting in this the twentieth century of a so-called
civilization ?
Politically the Roumans have no rights, and the utmost
abuse is resorted to, to prevent them getting the ex-
tremely hmited and restricted franchise allowed them. In
the last general election of 1910, terrorization, repression
and corruption of the grossest form were used, and im-
mense numbers of soldiers were despatched to give effect
to this wholesale suppression of elementary political rights.
Astounded at the general outcry, the Hungarian Govern-
ment reluctantly admitted that it had " only employed
194 battalions of infantry and 114 squadrons of cavalry
to secure their aims against unarmed civihans ! "
Out of 4,000,000 Roumanians of Transylvania, repre-
senting 80 per cent of the population, only five mi-mbers
of the National Roumanian Party have seats, though
126 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
by the Hungarian census the number should have been
at least 80 ! On the other hand, the Hungarians whose
numbers are so enormously inferior to the Roumanian
send 300 ! As a writer has said : " What would the
world say if the British Government only allowed four
Irish Home Rulers instead of eighty-six to sit in the
House of Commons, yet the Roumanians form between
a sixth and a fifth of the total population of Hungary,
whereas the Irish (including Ulster Unionists) are about a
tenth of the total population of the British Isles. "^
So-called justice is administered in the Magyar tongue,
and in the Magyar fashion, and so prejudiced is it that if
a Roumanian takes his case to court his cause is lost in
advance. Hundreds of thousands of this fine race have
fled from this oppression and sinister tyranny, and have
emigrated to the States ; that new free world, now allied
with the battling nations to crush this monstrous Austro-
German octopus that slowly strangles to death all that
it grasps within its poisonous clutch.
So cruel was the oppression meted out to the Roumans
that on the occasion of the Emperor Franz Joseph's tour
through Transylvania, it was necessary for the Govern-
ment to decree that the wholesale execution of Rou-
manians must be suspended for the time, in order that
His Apostolic Majesty might not incur the inconvenience
of seeing the roads on which he passed lined with corpses !
Stubborn endurance has kept this Latin race pure.
Separated from the mother country, many of these
Roumanian exiles are of the finest type, intellectually,
politically, economically, and have contributed numerous
names distinguished in science, art and letters to Europe.
^ A. W. Leeper, Justice of the Roumanian Cause.
THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 127
Like standard bearers they hold aloft the flag of their
national culture amongst the alien and Slav races which
surround them.
They have waited long for redemption, for justice and
the right to Uve. The years have taught them patience,
and they will not waver or fail till the day of reunion
and national resurrection comes.
Cogalniceanu's stirring words, " We ha\c the same
origin as our brothers ; the same language, name and
faith. In the past we have suffered the same grief and we
now have to assure for ourselves the same future," are
words of hope and determination which we free peoples of
the British Empire can truly applaud and echo. For as
England could never suffer ^^r sons, or her soil, to languish
under hated oppression, so let us hope that the hour of
deliverance aad reunion may not be long delayed for
Roumania and her lost lands.
» ♦ ♦ ♦
Many countries, America, Italy and even Gennany
herself, have gradually developed from \arious and dis-
tracted states into a homogeneous united nation ; so it is
not unreasonable to hope that political co-operation
strengthened by military union will eventually weld
these several countries into a community of interest.
Herein alone hes their true hne of progress and only safe-
guard. United they may stand and survi\'e all perils.
Divided they will surely fall.
It must be evident that only by unity of interest and
power can these States of Eastern Europe protect them-
selves against the increasing intrigues of the Central
Empires. The pacification of these near Eastern countries
can only be secured by their own co-operation, and by the
128 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
granting to them of fundamental racial rights, the recog-
nition of which is a supreme necessity for their peace and
progress. The ancient provinces of Bessarabia, Transyl-
vania, and the Bukovina, peopled with Roumanians,
should be reunited to Roumania. To Serbia should be
joined her lands of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia and
Slavonia ; and to Bulgaria that part of Macedonia dis-
tinctly Bulgarian in blood.
No lasting peace can come to Roumania and these
storm -tossed Eastern States, ceaselessly subjected to the
intrigue and covetousness of the aggressive Central
Powers, until political boundaries, dependent on racial
principles, are secured for them.
Just so long as these nations are divided from their
brethren by arbitrary, artificial frontiers and remorseless
tyranny, will there be unhappiness and bloodshed in the
Balkans.
CHAPTKR VI
THE GREAT DECISION
I made the mistake of my career, when I had the opportunity, that
I did not remove the Hohenzollerns from the throne of Prussia. As
long as this house reigns and until the red cap of liberty is erected in
Germany, there will be no peace in Europe. — Napoleon.
THE two years that followed the declaration of
the European War were the most momentous
period in the history of Roumania. Though
never a member of the Triple AUiance as Italy
was, she had, it was surmised, certain engagements for
defensive purposes ; but unlike Italy — whose pact was
publicly acknowledged and ratified by successive Parlia-
ments and people— Roumania's agreement remained a
secret one, never revealed to the people or ratified by the
Government, it having been more or less the work of the
King, who had kept the foreign policy of his country
largely in his own hands.
Indeed, when Russia took Roumania's northern
pro\ince of Bessarabia from her in 1812, a rapprochement
with the Central Powers seemed the safest and only
possible policy under the circumstances.
Titu Maiorescu, writing in the Deutsche Revue — ist
January, 1881 — a much discussed article, advocated an
orientation towards the Central Powers, and certainly
several of the Conservatives as well as the Liberals of that
day wen* in agreement with his principU'S.
K. I2y
130 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
King Charles, after fostering for forty-eight years the
closest political and economical rapprochement with
Germany, believed that the interests of Roumania lay
there. He felt sure of the victory of the Central Alliance
and believed that Roumania would benefit by espousing
its cause, while the land of his birth, so powerful in organ-
ization and resources, was his model for all that he had
dreamed, hoped and planned for his adopted country.
But his people thought otherwise.
An interesting sidelight into the secret history of this
period is afforded in the letters of Count Czernin, Austria's
Foreign Minister, who was Minister to the Roimianian
capital in 1914 and 1915. He was a close friend and con-
fidant of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, on whom the
Roumanians had fixed their hopes for an amehoration of
the position of their brothers in Transylvania. His keen
insight and sympathy with the racial difficulties of the
Empire and his well-known hope of being able to secure
some justice for them on his accession to the throne, had
fired their expectations, which were overwhelmed when
the terrible disaster at Serajevo occurred nearly four
years ago, precipitating the present War.
The famous Austrian Red Book shows in the following
very interesting notes from Count Czernin 's letters, how
he tried to induce Roumania to join the Central Powers.
He had received instructions from Count Berchtold, the
Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, to commrmicate to
the King and Roumanian Government the contents of
the ultimatum Austria was sending to Serbia.
The whole world knows the arbitrary and outrageous
character of this ultimatxmi, which the imfortunate
country was compelled to answer within forty-eight
THE GREAT DECISION 131
hours. It is also a matter of common knowledge that even
if Serbia had accepted the ultimatum in its entirety, there
was not the slightest intention on the part of Austria —
backed by Germany — to stay the full measure of covetous
vengeance which she had determined to inflict on her,
and to destroy her status as an independent kingdom
and reduce her to a state of vassalage.
Austria-Hungary wanted, of course, to undo the Treaty
of Bucharest, which left a greater Serbia and which had
also definitely put a stop to the long cherished Austrian
designs on Salon ica.
Accompanying the copy of the ultimatum Count
Berchtold sent the following note to Count Czemin to
present to King Charles in explanation of the ultimatum
to Serbia :
" The King knows how much love His Apostolic
Majesty has for peace and the sense of his high responsi-
bility. . . . Unhappily, there remains nc hope of finding a
pacific issue.
" Austria-Hungary is not pursuing any selfish plan in
Serbia, but she must defend her rights against a neighbour
whose whole policy is to detach from the Monarchy her
frontier population. This must be stopped.
" We do not aim at any territorial aggrandisement in
Servia, so we have to hope that, if war becomes necessary,
it may be localised.
" We expect from the King fidelity to treaties, and that
in his high wisdom he will maintain Roumania in a state
of strict neutrality. We ourselves, remembering our duty
as Allies, will not undertake any decision touching
Roumania's interests without coming to a prior under-
standing with her.
132 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
" Should Russia adopt an aggressive attitude towards
us, we should reckon upon the loyal co-operation of
Roumania as being our Ally."
In reply the King informed Count Czernin that he
guaranteed Roumanian neutrality, and Count Czernin in
his letter after the audience adds that if Russia inter-
vened on the side of Serbia " We could, alas ! with diffi-
culty reckon on the military intervention of Roumania."
He continues : "I never saw the King so much moved
as when he told me that if he followed the biddings of his
heart, his army would march by the side of the Triple
Alliance (Italy still officially belonged to it, not having
yet seceded), but that he could not ; so many changes
had happened in the year that it had become an impossi-
bility for him to keep his engagements. Nevertheless, he
begged me to let Your Excellency know that if Russia
should enter the conflict, he would keep a strict neutral-
ity ; no force in the world could oblige him to take arms
against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy."
* ♦ * »
On August 5th, 1914, a Crown Council was summoned
to the beautiful Palace at Sinaia, the summer resort of
the Court in the Carpathians, facing the sinister Austrian
frontier. Addressing his Ministers, King Carol earnestly
argued for the validity of this convention. The Govern-
ment protested that though it might exist, the treaty had
never been ratified by Parliament, and one well-known
statesman pointed out that neither he nor his colleagues
had ever seen the text of the agreement, and that if it
existed, the secret way in which it had been arrived at
was contrary to all constitutional procedure, and to the
general understanding that no treaties with foreign
THE GREAT DECISION 133
States should hv valid unless the sanction of both political
parties had been obtained.
The declaration of Italy's neutraUty strengthened the
opposition of the Government, which refused to consent
to King Carol's contention that Roumania's interest as
well as her honour was involved in intervention. The
King, finding the Governmer* fit n, had to yield to the
inevitable. Profoundly chagrined at the result, he
remarked to the Council : " Gentlemen, you cannot
realize how bitter it is to find oneself isolated in a country
of which one is not a native." To which one of the most
distinguished statesmen present replied : "In peace time
it was possible for your Majesty to follow a policy con-
trary to the sentiment of the country, but to make war
in defiance of that sentiment is impossible."
This famous Council, which was representative of all
the political parties of the State, Cabinet Ministers,
ex-Prime Ministers, Party Leaders, as well as distin-
guished personages of independent position, voted by a
large majority against intervention and declared in
favour of neutrality. So greatly did King Carol take
this decision to heart that at the conclusion of this
historic conference he is reported to have said : " Gentle-
men, you have acted no doubt according to what you con-
sider the interests of your country, but you have destroyed
my work of forty-six years."
Reluctant to accept the decision — a definite and
national one — he made a final appeal to the Army — which
had been modelled on German lines and instructed by
Prussian officers — but here also the vote by an over-
whehning majority was definitely against the King's
desire for intervention on the side of the Central Powers.
134 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
In one of his communiques to Baron Burian, Czernin
admits that " Here they are only seeking to gain time till
the European War has given results. If we are the con-
querors, and this is the opinion of the King, Roumania
will join us, but should fortune betray us, then the mot
d'ordre " partition of the monarchy " will be raised again
and Roumania will join our enemies ; but I believe the
King would abdicate before he would consent to that.
Finally, all depends on our success in the theatre of
war."
A month later, on September 19th, he wrote to Vienna :
" The news of the retreat of our army has increased the
desire to strike us a mortal blow. They are afraid of
being too late in at the death of the monarchy. The King
is the only brake left on the downgrade. Let us be patient
and let the shouters yell. The first success we have
against the Russians, all will be silent again."
The unhappy King, whose end was undoubtedly
hastened by the position in which he found himself, in
opposition to the wishes of his country, mortified and
tormented by the failure to prove his sympathies with the
Central Powers, and by the antagonistic demonstrations
against Austria, remarked to Czernin in the last interval
before his death, " I only wish to die, so that there may
be an end of it all."
Czernin, in describing his last visit to the dying
Monarch, describes the state of mind of the unhappy
King. " The fear of being obliged to fail in keeping his
word, of committing a felony, of dishonouring himself
in one word, was so odious that he appeared to be crushed
by it. And the old man is alone."
THE GREAT DECISION 135
The country was at one with the Govern nient in its
declaration of neutrality. Though prosperous then, it
was in no condition to rush into a war of such magnitude
as Armageddon promised to be. It was abhorrent to the
people that they should have to fight beside their here-
ditary' foe, the " accursed Magyar," the oppressor of their
four milhon kinsmen. Their race, language, traditions,
all were akin to the Latins — how could they fight against
them ?
The country was not prepared for war. Equipment
and munitions were lacking, the frontier terribly long
and difficult for defence. Owing to the secret under-
standing between King Carol and Austria, his unbounded
belief in Germany and confidence that war could never
result with these Powers, the country found itself with
few strategical railways, the nearest lateral one being at
a distance of fifty miles from the frontier. No fortresses
exist on the Roumanian frontier excep"". those rude Nature
had provided among the rocks of the Carpathians, while
the Danube and the small flotilla of river monitors were
the only protection to the south against Bulgarian attack.
Another unfortunate result of King Carol's policy was
that the Government had of late years imported from
Germany \'irtually everything in the way of munitions
and equipment for the army, so that at the outbreak of
hostilities the country found itself completely mi provided
with arsenals or munition factories.
Meanwhile, the very large percentage of Germans
engaged in the " peaceful commercial penetration " of
the country launched out into a vigorous and determined
campaign of political propaganda.
Agency bureaux were started all over the land, large
136 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
sums of money being expended in circulating thousands
of brochures and pamphlets glorifying the power and
ideals of the Teutonic Alliance and disseminating the
usual sensational German-made lies about the Entente.
The pro-German politicians Carp and Marghiloman
placed their influence with the Press at the disposition
of the Central Powers. Carp's paper, Moldova, was un-
compromisingly pro-German, but represented, neverthe-
less, the opinion of a really sincere man. As for Marghilo-
man, though not openly connected with a newspaper
he had much influence, and his policy, a double-faced one,
was to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
German agents raked in, by dint of much bribery and
vast expenditure, a great number of small provincial
papers, in which they could circulate the falsehoods
which it was too absurd to expect the intelligentsia of the
big towns to believe. The organs of Filipescu and
Take Jonescu — the valiant advocates of the Entente —
and General Crainicianu, headed the counter-attack
with great energy and decision.
The campaign on the German side was conducted by
Baron von dem Biissche, the German Minister at
Bucharest, a typical Prussian, scheming, unscrupulous,
and peculiarly imbued with the Prussian dogma that the
end justifies the means. The Kaiser's policy during the
past years had been to nurse carefully the Roumanian
situation, and many distinguished German diplomatists
had at one time or another been posted to the Roumanian
capital, among them Kiderlein Wachter, Prince von
Billow and Marschall von Bieberstein, while Count
Gulochowski, Prince Furstenberg and Coimt Aehrenthal
had represented the Dual Monarchy.
THE GREAT DECISION 137
The Gemiaii-siibsidized Press was naturally supported
by Berlin, and the most fallacious and grotesque mis-
statements about Britain and her Allies were distributed
daily. Any delay in negotiations was construed into
treachery, and the " dreimal verdammtc Englisch " were
accused of every felony and sin. With pride the German
agents pointed to the brotherly true-hearted interest, the
sympathetic attitude of the Central Powers, who lavishly
expended money and gifts in bribing the nation — the
flower-festooned brass-bedecked trains, the ' Carmen
Sylva ' and the ' Mercury,' that arrived in pomp and
glory, like the Queen of Sheba, laden with precious gifts,
to the strains of the band provided by the German
Legation !
It strikes one as the more astonishing and admirable
that notwithstanding such a shameless and insidious
propaganda the bulk of the nation resisted, and remained
true to the national ideals, closing their ears to the lure of
the German sirens weighted with gold.
The death of King Carol in October, 1914, followed very
shortly afterwards by that of his old adviser and states-
man., Demetrius Sturdza, removed two of the strongest
pro-German forces for intervention. He was succeeded
by his nephew. Prince Ferdinand of Hohcnzollern, who
on the death of King Carol's only child in 1875 had
come to Roumania and been nominated the heir-
apparent.
Few thrones are secure in these democratic days, and
those of the Near East, unstable at all times, are doubly
so at the present, when the republican spirit is blowing
so fiercely over Europe and dynasties are tottering before
its','chillv breath.
138 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
The only Balkan dynasty that is rooted in the soil is
that of Serbia, the others are all of exotic origin ; but
King Ferdinand has shown himself a true Roumanian
and a constitutional monarch of the very highest type.
Simple, straightforward, and sincere, he has none of the
blatant braggadocia of the Kaiser or the tinsel flamboy-
ance of his furtive and treacherous neighbour, Ferdinand
" the Coburger," King of Bulgaria. King Ferdinand of
Roumania is conspicuously endowed with a spirit of lofty
patriotism, deep regard for his people, and above all with
a profound sense of his duty to the nation.
During 1915 popular Irredente opinion made many
successful counter attacks against the German Press, but
Bratiano, the Prime Minister, held his hand, and adopted
a policy of " Wait and see," which earned for himself
the name of the '* Sphinx " in the general opinion of
Europe.
In April, 1915, it was proposed to Roumania that she
should discuss matters with the Cabinet at Petrograd.
After an informal conference, it was agreed that in return
for her neutrality she should be allowed her claim to the
" countries inhabited by the Roumanians of Austro-
Hungary," the stipulation being that she should occupy
Transylvania " par les armes," before the conclusion of
the war. These tentative negotiations did not develop
very quickly, and in June Austria became restive and is
alleged to have made an offer to Roumania of the Buko-
vina and a guarantee of the most satisfactory treatment
of the Roumanians in Transylvania, if in return she
would intervene on their side. Germany added the lure
of Bessarabia. These offers synchronized with the
advance of the German armies eastwards, Mackensen
H.M. KIN(i IKKhlNANP
H.M. QUEEN MARIE IN HOSPITAL DRESS.
THE (,REAT DECISION 139
having entered Przemysl and Bohm Ermolli Lcmberg.
It seemed the moment of triumph for the pro-German
interventionahsts. But pubhc opinion, as well as that of
the Government, was suspicious of the honourable in-
tentions of the Central Powers. Bethmann-HoUweg's
and the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin's contempt for
treaties — " mere scraps of paper " — had deprived German
assurances of all reliability, and Germany was generally
regarded as Uke the old Irishwoman who remarked that
" she had too much consideration for the truth to be
dragging her out on every occasion." The offers were
refused.
Bratiano's reluctance to take such a momentous
decision cannot be wondered at under the circumstances.
Greatly though the country desired to come to the aid of
Serbia and to collaborate with Venizelos in his desire for
intervention, there was the treacherous spirit of the
Greek King and General Staff to be reckoned with. The
heroic but disastrous Dardanelles campaign could afford
them no prospect of help in that direction, while they
feared the Western Powers might only be able to give
them " diplomatic " assistance. Roumania had only
enough ammunition for a campaign of three months, and
the various Powers, uncertain of how she would decide,
showed a reluctance in providing her with the necessary
equipment, while her long frontier, surrounded by
German, Austrian, Turkish and Bulgar troops, rendered
her liable to complete military isolation.
The circumstances demanded the most cautious policy
or she would have found herself in the position of a bee
in a wasps' nest, and Bratiano, with the tragic desolation
of Belgium and Serbia before his eyes, and the bloody
140 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
revenge the Central Powers would exact in case of defeat,
must be excused for hesitating to embark his country in
warlike adventure before it was adequately equipped
and every guarantee for support given him. But the
principal consideration lay in the field of international
policy.
Bulgaria's reputation for perfidy, and her equivocal
attitude, rendered it essential at the outset to have a
clear understanding with her before Roumania could
shape her policy. The cession of a small portion of the
Dobrudja, the district of Silistria, to Roumania on the
conclusion of the Balkan War, at the Treaty of Bucharest,
had been the fine inflicted on Bulgaria for her treachery
in turning on her Allies. It seemed the only solution at
the time for establishing again a balance of power, but it
was generally recognized as not entirely satisfactory, a
pis alter for the moment. It was also evident to the
Roumanian statesmen that in the event of participation
in the war the advantage of Bulgarian neutrality, or her
intervention on the side of the Entente, was of the first
importance, and Bucharest realized that no friendly
relations could be hoped for until the settlement of the
Dobrudja awarded Roumania at the Treaty of Bucharest
was revised, and that it was advisable, in order to further
the general cause of the Allies, to offer to restore to
Bulgaria some part of the Dobrudja if Greece and Serbia
would also contribute some share of Serbian or Greek
Macedonia. But the inherent rapacity of the Bulgar was
not content with such small bait. His fantastic and
exaggerated claims produced a deadlock, which the weak
and hesitating diplomacy of the Entente only served to
strengthen.
THE Cil^KAr DECISION 141
Another important point to be considered was the
promise to Russia of the Straits. This being Roumania's
sole outlet to the Mediterranean it was of paramount
importance that she should be assured of security and
free rights of access for her maritime commerce on an
equal foothig with Russia.
« * * #
In the early autumn of 1915 three great events occurred
which placed Roumania in a critical position. Bulgaria
under its Magyar-Bourbon king — whom his French
relatives called, with contemptuous disdain, " the pedlar "
— this pinchbeck despot, a combination of poltroonery,
abhorrent habits, and base duplicity, after haggling with
the opposing Powers in vulgar bagman spirit, mobilized
his armies on the Roumanian and Serbian frontiers. The
shifty intrigues of his spiritual brother, Constantine of
Greece, another " puppet king " — a tyrant at home and
the pliant tool of his country's enemies abroad — had
compelled that great patriot Venizelos to resign. Lastly,
after more than a year of wonderful fighting, Belgrade,
" the white city " — now red with the blood of her vaUant
defenders — was occupied by the Teutonic forces.
Intense excitement prevailed in Bucharest, and a big
demonstration of the people demanded immediate inter-
vention to save Serbia and to realize the Greater Roumania
which was to free their exiled brethren beyond the
border.
Filipescu and Jonescu, the pro-Entente leaders, work-
ing with extraordinary energy, their wonderful brains
and marvellous gifts of oratory engaged in combating the
unashamed and pernicious flow of Germanophile propa-
ganda, called on Bratiano in a stirring manifesto to refomi
142 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
the Cabinet. They urgently "demanded what Republi-
can France has obtained, national union. Men of all parties
and men attached to no parties — let them unite, even the
Liberals, and fonii a government which should have no
other care than for the interests of the land " — continuing,
*' We ought respectfully to address ourselves to the King,
and say to him, ' Sire, give us sacred union.' " Jonescu
furthered the appeal by calling upon the King to prove
himself "the best of Roumanians," urging that the
dynasty would only be strong " when it has its roots this
side of the Carpathians. ..."
But the difhculties in the way of intermediate inter-
vention were still unsurmountable. " \Ye march as soon
as we have the munitions," such was Bratiano's assurance.
Support for the northern and southern frontiers was also
asked for, and it was stipulated that an increase in the
force at Salonica and an offensive there should be timed
at Roumania's intervention, in order to draw off the full
force of the Bulgar forces, who would at once attack the
Roumanian frontier. This demand was of the utmost
necessity and was one of Roumania's paramount conditions,
for this co-operation was vitally necessary.
La Roiimania writes in May, 1916, " The Roumanians
only await a sign from Salonica to cross the Carpathians."
Roumania's territorial demands were entirely confined
to the redemption of her race in exile, and she did not
propose to declare war on either Germany or Bulgaria.
But this course was impracticable, and Germany,
trembling for her cherished Berlin to Bagdad scheme and
apprehensive of her partner's weakening powers, would
not stand aside.
THE GREAT DECISION 143
Events were moving rapidly. Roumania stood on
the edge of the precipice. Thf gnat flood swirling
beneath Irt was swollen ajid foaming a crhnson hue
with the blood of the millions fighting for their lives
among the sharks.
Ready to come to their assistance Roumania stood
stripped, and waiting for the call to plunge into the
\ortex. . . . Excitement in the capital was at fever heat.
Baron von dem Biissche, the German Minister, had
begged for an audience, and when received by the King
a dramatic scene occurred. Von dem Biissche, in great
agitation and with tears in his eyes, had implored the
King not to depart from neutrality, declaring that a
Hohenzollem could not make war on a Hohenzollem. To
which the King had answered, that he was first and fore-
most King of Roumania, and must follow the national
will.
A Crown Council was summoned by King Ferdinand
for the following morning, August 26th, to be held at the
charming old Palace of Cotroceni, standing in its peaceful
woods without the city. The whole population was on
the tiptoe of excitement, crowds filling the streets and
watching anxiously the ministers as they whirled past
in their cars towards the Palace.
At ten o'clock the King entered the Council Chamber,
and as President received the Assembly of i\Iinisters and
Statesmen. A moment of tense silence preceded his
declaration. With white face but unfaltering voice, he
informed them that the moment had arrived to liberate
their suffering kinsmen in Transylvania, and that he had
convened the Assembly for the purpose of ascertaining
their desire as to the declaration of war. Repeating the
144 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
phrase he had used to Von dem Biissche, he stated that he
would abide by the decision of the majority. The Germano-
phile members raised no objection, saying that if war
was declared, they would give their full support to the
Government, and the decision was carried with only
three dissentient votes.
The King declared an immediate state of war to exist
between Roumania and Austria-Hungary. . . .
With deep emotion, but in accents of great conviction,
he exclaimed : " May Roumania conquer her enemies,
as I have conquered myself." Great words indeed,
suited to a supreme crisis. The die had been cast.
* ♦ ' * *
The Council was followed by stirring appeals by the
King to his army and the nation. The first was as
follows : —
" Soldiers, I have called you to bear your standards
beyond the frontiers, where our brothers await you im-
patiently, their hearts full of hope. The shades of the
great Voivodes, Michael the Brave and Stephen the Great,
whose mortal remains rest in the lands you go to deliver,
will lead you to victory as worthy successors of the
soldiers who were victorious at Rasboieni, Calugareni,
and at Plevna. You will fight by the side of the great
nations to whom we are united. A desperate struggle
awaits you. You will support its weight, and with God's
help victory will be ours. Show yourselves worthy of the
glory of your ancestors. Throughout the ages a whole
people will bless you and sing your praises."
To the nation, King Ferdinand appealed in the accents
of a lofty patriotism : —
THE GREAT DECISION 145
" Roumanians !
" The war, which now for two years has hemmed in our
frontiers more and more closely, has shaken the old
foundations of Europe and shown that henceforth it is
solely on a national foundation that the peaceful Ufe of
its peoples can be assured. It has brought this day,
which has been awaited for centuries by the national
conscience : the day of the union of the Roumanian race.
After interminable centuries of misfortune and cruel trials
our ancestors succeeded in founding the Roumanian State,
through the union of the Principalities, through the
War of Independence, and through indefatigable labour
from the national renaissance. To-day, it is given to us
to assure unshakably and in its fulness the work realized
for the moment by Michael the Brave : the union of the
Roumanians on both sides of the Carpathians. It is on us
that it depends to-day to deliver from foreign domination
our brothers beyond the mountain? and the lands of
Bukovina, where Stephen the Great sleeps his eternal
sleep. It is in us, in the virtues of the race, in our gallantry
that lives the powerful force which will give them once
more the right to prosper in peace, in conformity with the
customs and the aspirations of our common race, in a
complete and free Roumania, from the Theiss to the
sea.
" We Roumanians, animated by the sacred duty which
weighs on us, are resolved like men to confront all the
sacrifices inseparable from a bitter war. We set forth for
the struggle with the enthusiasm of a people which has
unshakable faith in its destinies.
" The glorious fruits of victory will be our recompense.
" With the help of God— for^vard ! "
L
146 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Roumania had crossed the rubicon. The first blast of
the war clarion was summoning her armies to the grim
Carpathian ranges, and the new Ally had joined the ranks
of European chivalry in arms.
" Hark ! I hear the tramp of thousands,
And of arm^d men the hum ;
Lo ! a nation's hosts have gathered
Round the quick alarming drum, —
Saying ' Come,
Freemen, come !
Ere your heritage be wasted,' said the quick alarming drum."
PART II
TO-DAY
CHAPTER VII
FROM MV SOUL TO THEIRS
By H.M. the Queen of Rou mania
THE trains are passing, passing — and the cargo
they are hurrying thither is the youth of
our country, the hope of our homes. By
thousands they are massed together, they
sit on the roofs of the waggons, they hang on to their
sides, they balance themselves in perilous positions,
but all of them are gay — they shout, they sing, they
laugh .
And the trains pass, pass — all day the trains pass.
With hands full of flowers, we hurry to the stations ;
our hearts are heavy, we long to say words they will
remember, to tell them what we feel, but their voices
raised in chorus drown all we would say.
One cry is on every lip when they see me : " We are
going ! Going gladly, going to victory, so that you may
become Empress, Empress of all the Roumanians ! "
There is hardly a voice that does not say it, it is
the cry of every heart, they hope it, they believe it,
they mean it to be, and I smile back at them offer-
ing them my flowers which they clutch at with eager
hands.
And thus the trains pass — pass.
149
150 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
One evening the sun was going down in glowing glory,
turning all it shone over into glittering gold — I was late,
other duties having kept me back, the train I had come
to greet was already moving away.
In joyous crowds the young soldiers thronged the
carriages ; others had been before me to deck their caps,
their tunics, even their horses and cannons with bright
violet asters of every shade. The prodigious radiance of
sunset fell over all those flowers, enhancing their beauty,
as though even the heavens were doing their utmost to
render more blessed the departure of those eager boys
who so gaily were going to death.
Hurriedly I ran towards the moving carriages, dis-
tressed at being late, A great shout mounted from a
thousand throats as they recognized me, and a shower of
flowers fell at my feet.
From their caps, their tunics, their cannons, they tore
away the flowers that had been given them to shower
them over their Queen, whilst the usual chorus mounted
to the skies : " May you become Empress ! Empress of
all the Roumanians."
And always more flowers fell over me, my arms were
full, my hands could hardly hold them, the ground was
purple where I stood.
Long did I remain there after the train had dis-
appeared. A trail of smoke against the orange sky
alone marked its passage, and all those fading flowers at
my feet.
As one looks at the incomprehensible, I gazed at those
two long rails running into the infinite, there seeming to
join their separate ways, and wondered towards what
Fate those youths were hurrying, wondered if their
FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 151
dream would be realized, especially I wondered how
many would come back.
The sun had set, the smoke had dissolved into nothing,
the voices of my soldiers were but a remembrance.
Slowly I turned my foot towards home.
All day long I have been movmg amongst the wounded,
wandering from ward to ward — they all want me to come
amongst them, each soldier desires to see his Queen.
Never do I leave a call unanswered, everywhere do I
go, no sight is too sad, no fatigue too great, no way too
long, but sometimes it is to me as though I were wander-
ing through some never-ending dream.
Bed beside bed they lie there, and all eyes meet me,
follow me, consume me ; never before have I known
what it means to be the prey of so many eyes — they
seem to be drawing my heart from my bosom, to be a
weight I can hardly bear !
I bend over suffering faces, clasp outstretched hands,
lay my fingers upon heated brows, gaze into dying eyes,
listen to whispered words — and eve^y^\'here the same
wish follows me : " May you become Empress, Empress
of all the Roumanians." Stiffening lips murmur it to me,
hopeful voices cry it out to me, it goes with me wherever
I move : " What matter our suffering as long as you
become Empress ; Empress of all the Roumanians ! "
Infinitely touching are the words w^hen they mount
towards me from the beds of so many wounded, who see
in me the realization, the incarnation of the dream for
which they are giving their Uves.
It makes me feel so small, so humble before their stoic
endurance ; tears come to my eyes, and yet because of
the beauty of it, I have a great wish to thank God.
152 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Why should I be chosen to represent an ideal, why
should just I be the symbol ? What right have I to stand
above them, to buy glory with the shedding of their
blood ?
And always more tenderly do I pass from bed to bed.
« « * *
That was at a time when hope still sang in every soul,
when in the first enthusiasm all hearts beat in unison,
when belief in glorious victory gladdened the day.
But much later under widely different circumstances
in quite another place, the same words were said to me
by one who could not see my face, for that morning he
had been trepanned, his bandaged head was lying in a
pool of blood.
Someone told him that his Queen was beside him, that
she had come to see him, to enquire about his sufferings,
to help him if he needed help.
A groping hand was stretched out towards me. I took
it in mine, whispering words of comfort, bending low
towards the parched lips that were murmuring something
that at first I could not understand. The man had no face,
no eyes, all was swathed in blood-stained cloths. Then
as though from very far came the words, the same brave
words : " May the Great God protect you, may he let
you live to become Empress — Empress of all the Rou-
manians ! "
It was to me as though something very wonderful had
quite suddenly descended upon the distress of my soul,
something very holy, very beautiful, but that was al-
most more than I could bear. Touching had been that
wish when hope shone before us like a star, but now it
was more than touching, it was grand and sacred, for it
FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 153
was pronounced at an hour when darkest disaster had
overthrown our land, when inch by inch our armies were
retreating before the all-invading foe. There in that
chamber of suiferiiig those dying lips still spoke of the
hope they clung to, of the Dream, that in spite of
sacrifice, death and misery, one day must surely come
true.
That dying man was but one of many, a voice out of
the miknown, a martyr without a name ; but his words
had gone home to my heart. As I bent over him, laying
my hand gently upon his crimson-stained rags, I prayed
to God to listen to his wish, prayed that the blood of
so many humble heroes should not be given in vain,
prayed that when the great hour of Uberation should
sound at last, an echo of the shout of victory that that
day would sound all over our land, should reach the
heart of this nameless one beyond the Shadow into
which he was sinking, so that even beyond the grave
he should still have a share in the glory his Uving eyes
were not destined to see.
THE COMING OF SPRING
Spring is coming ! The snow is melting, the air is full
of sounds of life ! Like a warm promise the sun smiles
down upon those who long to hope. How is it possible
not to hope when the grass is sprouting and the birds
beginning to build their nests ?
Like a hideous nightmare that on awakening we leave
behind us with the darkness of night, this winter that
had thrown its chains about us retreats ever further as
we go foru'ard into the growing light.
154 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
It is to me as though I saw many faces, with different
expressions all turned towards this resurrection of Hght.
Tired faces, suffering faces, faces with eyes that have
looked closely at death— but beside them, there are also
the faces of children and other faces, of those who can
smile, of those who can hope and of those who can
forget .
Even into the most hidden corners does the new light
carry its message of hope. Out of dank, dark hovels
miserable creatures crawl forth to stare with wonder at
the sun, for so long had he forgotten to shine upon those
whose sufferings can only be equalled by the patience
with which those sufferings were borne. The mud and
filth of their surroundings become less sordid ; I have
seen ghostly faces lifted towards the skies as though
some great joy were hiding behind the clouds. Even the
beggar's outstretched hand seems to be extended rather
towards the growing warmth than towards the scarce
coin thrown to him by those hurrying by. »
But above all it is the faces of our soldiers that I
seem to see, of those quiet, uncomplaining heroes who
more than any other have suffered from the winter's
snows. I
I see them at daybreak in their far-off trenches,
gazing at the sun that each morning rises a little earlier
to announce to them that cold and frost and endless
night will soon be a thing of the past. I see their eyes
that have that special expression of those who are accus-
tomed to watch, who are closely acquainted with danger,
who have buried many a comrade and who have over-
come every fear. Steady eyes, like the eyes of eagles,
accustomed to contemplate horizons a great way off.
FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 155
What is he thinking of, that silent sentry leaning on
his gun ? Was he perhaps in happier days a shepherd
faithfully guarding his flock ? Or was he a peaceful
labourer who at dusk returned to the children he loved ?
Has he a vision of his village where his cottage lies hidden
beneath fruit trees just bursting into bud ? Is it per-
chance in a far-off region which the enemy has overnin,
and as he looks at the sun rising over the mountain, is he
wondering who has care of those he left unprotected,
who feeds them, who clothes them, who dries their tears ?
Perhaps he has an old, old mother who each evening
comes out to sit on her doorstep in the vague hope of
seeing him come back. Spring is coming ! \\'ho will
till his field, sow his maize, feed his oxen ? \\'ho will
tread the path leading to his home, who will knock at
his door ? Spring is coming ! The woods will soon be
full of tiny blue flowers which his children will gather
into bunches, but the flowers will wither, for the village
is deserted, no one is passing that way.
Spring is coming ! And still other faces do I see turned
towards its growing Ught and the hope that it brings.
These are also the faces of soldiers, but thin, emaciated,
pale as death, the faces of those who have stood every
hardship and who after long weeks of illness are slowly
creeping back to life. These are the faces with which I
am best acquainted, which I have hunted up in desolate
corners where many dread to go, faces over which I have
bent in place of the old, old mother who every evening
on her doorstep patiently waits in vain.
With parched lips these lonely sufferers have spoken
to me about their homes, about their children, about the
wives they long to see. They have clung to my hands
156 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
and kissed them, they have called me " mother," begging
for tidings of their loved ones, begging for consolation —
begging for hope. And I have endeavoured to comfort
them, feeling that my words had more meaning when the
sun shone brightly without.
* * * *
Over there it is also spring-time ! Over there in the
regions we have lost. The sun will be shining, the birds
will be singing as though no mighty spirit of Death had
passed over the earth.
Yet over there ! In spite of sunshine and the calling
voices of spring, this year our Roumanian soil will have a
tragic awakening — our blessed Roumanian soil ! When
the plough of the stranger will tear it asunder, forcing it
to bring forth fruit for the hated foe, a cry of anguish will
rise from its depth, a cry of protest, a cry of despair, and
its banished children will hear it and understand its
meajiing ! Their hearts will thrill with the holy desire to
free it from bondage, to save it from the humiUation of
having to give forth its riches to feed those who torture
its women, starve its children, burn its villages and cast a
shadow over its name.
Yet, indeed, blessed art thou, oh Roum anian soil !
Thy bounteousness has no limit ; Uke an all-loving
mother dost thou give, and art always ready to give
again ; the smallest seed entrusted to thy bosom, a
hundredfold brings forth its fruit, and if thy weeds are
nearly as plenteous as thy flowers, it is just because thy
generosity is so great.
Have no fear, oh soil of Roumania ! Thy children
will come and free thee from thy chains ! It is the message
they send thee with the awakening voices of spring !
FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 157
They will not weaken, they will not tremble before the
struggle that still has to be. Deeply hast thou drunk of
their blood, but they are ready that deeply thou shouldst
drink again if with the sacrifice of their lives, they can
buy back thy freedom and drive the enemy away from
the land !
And if it were not to free the hving that thy
children would come, it would be to free the dead,
it would be to free thy graves — thy many uncounted
graves.
Never shall we know where they all he, those brave
sons of thine who by thousands have died. We can only
pray that thou shouldst not weigh too heavily upon
them and that within thy bosom their rest should be
sweet.
Far and wide, scattered in all four comers of the land,
silent and uncomplaining, they lie in graves that are
marked by no crosses, in places that have no names.
They lie waiting, and they are not impatient, so sure
are they that we shall come back.
W'hen I was young, quite young, a beautiful dream did
I cherish : I dreamed of planting gardens wherever I
went, wishing that nothing but flowers should mark the
places where I had passed. As I grew older that dear
dream vanished with many vanishing dreams, reality
called me and few gardens had I leisure to plant.
Now, should I ever return, it would be upon those
nameless graves that I would sow my flowers, upon those
thousands and thousands of graves where our heroes he
hearkening for the tramp of our returning armies: those
would then be my gardens, my holy gardens — the
gardens I would love.
158 ROUMANIA ; YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Like my other dream, this dream may never come true
— but as this year I am a helpless exile, I think that per-
haps God himself will remember our dead and sow flowers
on their graves !
Spring is coming ! Therefore surely, surely will God
sow His own flowers upon the graves of our dead.
CHAPTER Viri
ACROSS THE BARRIER
Whatever they may tell you, believe that one fights with cannon
as with lists ; when once the fire is begun the least want oi ammuni-
tion renders what you have already done useless. — Napoleon.
The riches of a State I take to be the number, fidelity and affection
of its Allies. — Demosthenes.
ROUMANIA'S declaration of war was presented
to the Austrian Government in Vienna at
eight o'clock on Sunday evening, August 27th,
'"1916.
The same hour saw the twilight of a wonderful summer
day falling softly over the woods and mountains among
which lies Sinaia, the beautiful country resort of
the Court, and the diplomatic and social world of
Bucharest. Lying under the shadow of Mount Sinaia,
among the woods, streams and verdant valleys, knee-
deep in wildfiowers, it is one of the most beautiful spots
in Eastern Europe. Round the old Greek Orthodox
monastery, built by Michael Cantacuz^ne in the fifteenth
century, and its magnificent Byzantine church, a modem
town of beautiful villas and country estates has grown up.
A little below the monastery stands the stately Royal
Palace, Castel Pel^s, with its magnificent background of
woods and lofty moutain-peaks, and its rare collection of
pictures and treasures within.
The gay crowd had spent the day in eager anticipation
and discussion of the rumour that a momentous decision
'59
i6o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
had been taken. Mothers with fighting sons spoke httle,
carrying brave faces and anxious eyes ; the men, eager and
excited, talked fast and furiously as they dined in the fine
villas, listened to the music, played bridge, or gambled
in the gay little Casino.
Suddenly the roar of cannon broke the stillness of the
mountain air, wrecking the gay chatter and laughter of
the room and causing that terrible throb of excitement,
that fluttering of the heart which presages the great
moments of destiny. Boom — boom ! — the dull roar
sounded from the Carpathian ranges only fifteen miles
away. . . . Boom — boom ! — they echoed . . . and re-
echoed fainter in the rocky gorges and glens beyond !
Within an hour the ominous thunder had changed the
bright frivoHty of the gay world to a scene of hurried,
feverish, anxious preparation and flight to Bucharest.
Carriages, motors, carts, piled up with valuables and
packed with people rolled down the winding roads from
the hills to the plains and on to the capital.
The station was soon a jostling mass of people, who
crowded on to the trains like swarming bees ; lying on
the roofs of the carriages, sitting on the steps, on the
buffers, on any ledge to which they could cling. Villas
were hurriedly closed, and precious things that could not
be taken away were buried in the gardens. Only the
gamblers still lingered round the green tables, reluctant
to leave the magnetism of the ball of chance for the
mighty ball of war that had already begun to spin, and
the croupier was even now raking in his harvest of carnage
and death.
All through the night energetic workers were hurriedly
converting the Casino, and other buildings in this ville
ACROSS THE BARRIER i6i
de piaisir et de beaute, one of Europe's beauty spots,
into Red Cross hospitals for the reception of the
wounded. . . .
All through the night the long trains rumbled through
the valley to the frontier, packed with troops. . . . All
through the night the mountains reverberated to the
mighty diapason of the guns, echoing to the distant peaks
and \alleys far away, rousing all Roumania to the great
call : To Arms ! To Arms !
For Roumania had decided in favour of an advance
into Transylvania, which stood a vast saUent into terri-
tory for the liberation of which she had taken up arms.
By the early hours of the morning several of the Car-
pathian passes were already in the hands of the Rou-
manian army and an energetic offensive was in progress.
* ♦ ♦ *
The time has not yet arrived to discuss the political
and diplomatic reasons which determined the moment of
Roumania's intervention, but one can assume that
intervention had become a military necessity as much
for the cause of the Allies as for her own security.
The decision to enter Transylvania — the real aim and
object of her intervention — was no doubt akin to the
original ardent desire of the French in August, 1914 — to
reclaim Alsace and Lorraine, and the national and senti-
mental aims of Roumania counted for much in the decision.
As to the wisdom of the decision (that governed the
Roumanian General Staff in launching the Transylvanian
offensive), Roumania hoped, like the rest of the AlUes,
that Brussiloff 's offensive would go far. In the Bukovina,
on her North-Eastem frontier, Lechitsky's armies had
been greatly reduced, and the Central Powers were mass-
M
i62 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
ing forces for a vigorous offensive. Roumania realized
that if this offensive proved successful and the army of
Brussilof's left was turned, that the road to Bessarabia
would be open to the Germans, and Roumania, isolated
and cut off from Russia, would be at the mercy of the
" chivalrous and honourable " Central Powers, without
having struck a blow.
Added to this, the recent disclosures of the Machiavel-
lian plans of the Russian pro-German Stuermer Govern-
ment in Petrograd have demonstrated beyond question,
that what almost amounted to an ultimatum was
despatched by Russia to the Roumanian Government,
insisting on their intervention and an offensive on the
Transylvanian frontier.
Some Western critics were strongly of opinion that her
true strategy at the opening of hostilities was to strike
south, and cut the communications between the Central
Powers and their Eastern AlUes, Bulgaria and Turkey.
Had she been fully assured of complete support and been
able to avail herself of forces larger and better equipped
than she actually possessed, she might have been able to
accomplish this with the probable effect of shortening the
war. But indeed her resources and small army could not
have permitted her alone to undertake this alternative
strategical plan of crossing the Danube, marching to
Sofia, and cutting the line of communication between
Berlin and Constantinople.
She certainly had assurances of support from Salonica,
but they did not materiahze. Russia, though promising
her two hundred thousand men, never sent any till weeks
afterwards, and she had neither the forces nor artillery
sirfficient to hold the immensely long line of her Car-
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ACROSS THE BARRIER 163
pathian frontier and its many passes, while alono she
embarked in adventures south.
As regards the Dobrudja or Danubian frontier facing
Bulgaria, Russia had assured her that there was little to
fear from Bulgaria, as the latter would never be willing
to fight against her Slav mother Russia.
It seems incredible that anyone could have put faith
in the traitorous character of the Bulgarian, or in the
crafty scheming fox who occupies the throne, and who
was using the negotiations between his Government and
the Roumanian Minister at Sofia regarding neutrality
as a pretence to gain time for his attack, using these
diplomatic manoeuvres in true Teutonic style as a cloak
to conceal the dagger beneath.
But the Prime Minister Bratiano, strange to say, did not
beUeve in the duplicity of the Bulgarian Government, and
thought it possible to avoid war. Thus a grave political
miscalculation determined the course of the campaign.
The element of surprise counted considerably in the
first great successes for the Roumanian Army. She was
able to throw her forces well over the Carpathians, cross-
ing at eighteen points, and to penetrate deep into the
enemy's country before the latter could assemble in force,
even had the latter had at her disposal sufficient men and
material to release from her other fronts for this purpose —
a condition the Allies did not believe to be possible. Of
the four Roumanian armies, the third, under General
Asian, was left to watch the Bulgarian frontier, while the
other three — the first, under General Culcer ; the second,
under General Averescu, and the fourth, under General
Presan — were to operate on the Carpathians.
During the first few weeks the Roumanians made a
i64 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
rapid advance, all opposition being overcome. The
Central Powers had been taken by surprise, and had as
yet no time to bring up reinforcements to arrest the
victorious march forward, since the elan of the Rou-
manian troops was at its highest, fighting as they were
now on what was once their own territory, and where
their kinsmen are held under the iron hand of the Magyar.
The Czech regiments sent to oppose these Roumanian
units simply walked right over to them, so glad were
they to join those fighting against the Magyar tyrants —
" The Prussians " of the Dual Monarchy ; and indeed
as a Deputy said in the Hungarian Parliament, " they
just disappeared without anyone being able to say where
they went ! "
The Tomos, the Tolgyes and the Rothen Turm passes
were in turn forced, the railways and frontier towns
occupied, and the Roumanian Army was debouching
into the wide country of rolHng hills and valleys — the
well-loved land — while Hermannstadt was being menaced .
It was a triumphant success, and the hopes of the little
nation beat high. But their slender forces, in a coimtry
both mountainous and difficult and covering a frontier
of no less than three hundred miles, were widely separated,
making it hard to establish communications. It must be
remembered they had not yet reached the river Maros,
which in itself would have given them a position of com-
parative security.
The enemy meanwhile with furious energy and aided
by his splendid railway system was preparing a deadly
counter-stroke, of which the Roumanians with their
limited and scattered aeroplane service were unable to
gauge either the extent or full importance.
ACROSS THE BARRIER 165
It was at this moment that the risky nature of the
strategic plan began to make itself felt. Bulgaria had
held her hand until Mackensen, who was in the Balkan
area, had been able to make his military preparations
and assume command of the armies on the Bulgarian
frontier. Within five days of Roumania's declaration
the Slav Judas, Ferdinand of Coburg, ruler of Bulgaria,
had once again sold his honour and declared war on
Roumania and on his country's liberator Russia. General
Jostoff, the Chief of the Bulgarian Staff, a man of
patriotism and honour, who was strongly opposed to the
German domination of his country, was, following the
notorious Enver Bey tradition, ' removed,' his body
being found riddled with bullets. Such indeed are the
rewards for men of this stamp in countries where Germany
teaches ' Kultur ' 1
* * * *
Mackensen was the first to strike. Massing his troops
with great speed he fell on the scattered Roumanian
forces defending the fortresses of Turtukai, and Silistria
in the Dobrudja, the reduction of which would open the
way for a quick advance to the great bridge and railway
over the Danube at Cemavoda, linking the port of Con-
stanza with the capital. Turtukai, though defended by
fortifications, had been left with a very inadequate number
of troops. The utmost gallantry was displayed by the
defenders, who were seriously handicapped and at a most
serious disadvantage on account of a superiority in men
and guns which the enemy possessed. Though vigorously
contesting every inch of ground under the most terrific
fire, and repulsing the enemy again and again, they were
eventually overwhelmed, and the fortress fell on the
i66 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
6th September, just ten days after Roumania's entering
into the war.
This was a very serious reverse for Roumania, as the
fortress covered the crossing of the Danube. On the
Bulgarian side the river bank stands high, dominating
the low Roumanian bank opposite, and the advance
from this point to the capital is only thirty miles. As a
consequence of the fall of the fortress of Turtukai, the
evacuation of Silistria, a little further to the east, was
decided on, on the ground that the garrison being in-
suflicient would have merely fallen into a trap. The loss
of these two important fortresses, within two weeks of
the opening of the war, was a disastrous check, and
placed a very anxious aspect on one portion of the
campaign.
Meanwhile the Transylvanian armies had been weakened
by the transference of some of their not too abundant
forces for the defence of the Dobrudja, and the with-
drawal of General Averescu, the ablest of their Generals,
to command the army there, which now found themselves
involved in serious difficulty.
As already stated, Roumania's equipment was in-
adequate for a war which she had hoped to limit to the
Central Powers alone, but which had now developed into
one against four nations, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and
Turkey, all combining to surround and crush our gallant
Uttle Ally, who was still awaiting the promised artillery
and support from Russia. Guns, machine guns, aero-
planes, field telephones, rifles, etc., were alike lacking to
meet the wants of the long line of thirteen hundred kilo-
metres on which she was conducting two campaigns
simultaneously, and to combat the gigantic fighting
ACROSS THE BARRIER 167
machine elaborated by the enemy during two years of
war and continual experience.
The Roumanian army consisting of only sixteen
divisions was now having to face thirty-seven divisions,
accompanied by an over\vhelmingly superior armament,
twenty divisions of which belonged to the elite of the German
Army.
Roumania's two years of neutrality had not availed
her much, for the Powers, uncertain as to her decision,
would not assist her with supplies, and it was only by
the long, roundabout way through Russia with its inter-
mijiable delays and demoralization that she could get
ajiy munitions at all. Furthermore, the hopes she had
built on the promises of a steady flow of these from Russia
were not fulfilled. The treacherous pro-German Stuenner
Government at Petrograd held up supplies and abso-
lutely vital necessaries, with the consequence that the
brave little nation, cruelly isolated in this distant corner
of Europe, was for the most part left alone to meet the
combined attack of the four Powers.
With Turtukai and Silistria in German hands, Mac-
kensen's aim was now to push on to the great Carol
Bridge at Ceniavoda (which means Black Water), the
only bridge over the Lower Danube for a distance of six
hundred miles. By capturing it and the railway across
it, he would sever Roumanian access to the Black Sea,
as well as cut through Russia's road to the Balkans. The
bridge is one of the longest in the world, and counting
the causeways is twelve miles long and cost £1,500,000
to build. The railway was built in 1882 under Turkish
rule, by an English company, and cuts through the
wonderful old wall of Trajan at several points.
l68 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
The greater part of the Russian 47th Army Corps and
the Serbian division were now supporting the Rou-
manians in the Dobrudja, the whole under the command
of the Russian General Zayonchovski, the Serbian
division being composed of Jugo-Slavs forced to fight in
the Austro-Hungarian Army and taken prisoners by the
Russians, These soldiers were a splendid lot, and begged
to be allowed to fight on the side of the Allies and to
strike a blow for their kinsmen. They fought with a
stubborn tenacity all through the campaign, winning the
admiration of both Allies and enemy alike.
Mackensen, even with his war experience and superior
troops, vastly superior artillery, and aeroplane service,
which gave him inestimable advantage over the Rou-
manian forces who were practically without ' eyes,'
encountered the fiercest opposition. The defenders con-
tested his advance with the greatest pugnacity and
valour. Even the German report admitted that " fierce
and fluctuating battles have taken place, the enemy
defending himself with great stubbornness." So much
indeed was this the case that they were able to inflict
serious reverses on the enemy at Kara Orman, where they
lost eight guns and a high-born officer, Prince Henry of
Bavaria, nephew of the King, and drove the invading
armies back in complete confusion ; and Mackensen's
boast of the " crowning mercy " that was to be his — the
Cernavoda bridge — was still out of reach.
A propos of the death of this Prince, it is said that just
before he expired, conscious that his death was not as
that of other men, he murmured, " Noblesse oblige." These
words were applauded by the German nation, who over-
looked the fact that they were the last words spoken by
ACROSS THE BARRIER 169
a scion of a Royal German House, and were those of their
traditional but always chivalrous foe, France.^
The Roumanians, unable to bring up sufficient rein-
forcements, were too exhausted to pursue their successes.
All through October battles swayed, alternately success
coming first to one side, then to the other, the Roumanians
fighting with fury and desperation to arrest the enemy
advance on their port of Constanza.
Their forces were still further depleted by some di\i-
sions being withdrawn to the Carpathians, where the
passes were being seriously threatened. Towards the end
of September Mackensen, strongly reinforced by Turkish
and Bulgar divisions, was able to seize his advantage,
and after a fierce resistance to cut the connection between
Cernavoda and Constanza, the latter coming within
range of the German guns and unable to be held. The
Roumanian troops withdrew under cover of the fire of
the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, and amid a wild storm
of wind and rain the Bulgars entered the city. Every-
thing had been destroyed, including the great stores of
grain and oil, and the enemy found little beyond some
hundreds of empty railway trucks and a few loco-
motives. By this Roumania lost her only seaport and
the principal lines of communication with Russia were cut.
The Transylvanian campaign had been launched on
the assumption of surprise, and unpreparedness on the
part of the enemy. An historian has described it as a
" gamble between two conditions of unpreparedness," in
view^ of the political conditions and the poor equipment
of the Roumanian Army for the heavy tasks awaiting
her. Austria had, however, the luck to hold the better
• The Times History of the War.
170 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
card. Thanks to her splendid system of strategic rail-
ways, her Ally, Germany, was able to summon to her
support large forces from Verdun, the Somme, and the
Riga fronts, while Turkish and Bulgarian hordes rolled
up from the south on the brave but unfortunate little
country, which found it could count but little on the
promised assistance from Russia.
The forces arrayed against her consisted of over nine
hundred thousand war-seasoned troops, picked Bavarian
Alpine corps — sturdy highlanders accustomed to moun-
tain warfare — and a great mass of artillery, the whole
under the command of General von Falkenhayn. The
Roumanian forces were depleted by having to send several
divisions to the Dobrudja. They were short of big guns
and had no experience of mountain warfare, for since the
outbreak of war in 1914 they had been unable to practise
manoeuvres there for fear that they might excite the
apprehension of the Central Powers and have them mis-
construed by them as a threat.
* * * *
The early days in October saw the great German offen-
sive in the Carpathians launched. Brussilof's advance in
Galicia had been checked, and the ill success on his left
wing was soon to be followed by disastrous consequences
for the Roumanian offensive. Supported by an over-
whelming preponderance of artillery the Austro-German
command delivered blow after blow with deadly effect.
The Roumanians fighting desperately reeled under
the titanic onslaught of massed guns and superior forces
and were forced to retreat towards the passes. Slowly,
bit by bit, all the ground they had won had to be given
up, and soon the fifteen thousand prisoners that they had
ACROSS THE BARRIER 171
taken and their depleted forces were all that remained
to them of the great adventure.
In the rocky gorges and precipitous roads of the Car-
pathian passes she braced herself sternly for a desperate
defensive. Amid the blaze of colour, the glorious beauty
of early autumn, a fierce resistance took place in the
narrow defiles, defended as strongly as the slender re-
sources of the Roumanians allowed.
The mountain peaks 7000 and 8000 feet high, no longer
solitary and silent, the haunt of the bear, chamois and
eagle, were echoing to the deep thunder of the guns, the
shrill screaming of the shells.
The aeroplanes — the cavalry of the clouds — with
droning purr, were contesting the lonely heights and the
supremacy of the air with the king of birds. Deep roars
resounded through the ravines as the furious onslaught
of artillery dislodged great rocks, which, riven and rent,
crashed down the heights to the depths of the defiles.
The sunny warm-scented pastures of the lower slopes
where the bees droned, the sheep browsed, the little
pcistof fluted his plaintive melody so short a while ago,
was torn and desolated now by the remorseless fury of
the shells.
Death and destruction were stalking hand hi hand,
and many a mother's son lay grim and distorted under
the benediction of the eternal hills.
High up on the ledges of the narrow defiles ran the
steep winding roads on which the Austrian high-explosive
shells were blasting their way ; hundreds of feet below
brawled the streams.
Again and yet again the valorous Roumanians wrested
success from the enemy and drove him back. In the Jiu
172 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
valley they inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat
on those fiercest of Teuton fighters, the Bavarians, who
fled in utter rout ; like the Irishman who thought it was
better to be a coward for five minutes than to be dead
for the rest of his life ! They left immense stores behind
them, only snatching time to shoot 1300 of their horses,
which they hastily buried in a gigantic funeral mound
before escaping on foot through the ravines. General
Dragalina, one of Roumania's exiled sons from Transyl-
vania and a most daring and capable commander, was
severely wounded here and succumbed later to his
injuries. He was a brave, strong personality and greatly
beloved by his men.
But these and other brilliant counter-offensives of the
gallant little Roumanian Army could not stem the
onward sweep of the Teutonic hosts, who had burst
through the mountain passes and were pouring into the
v.dde rich plains of Wallachia, this treasure land of grain
in Eastern Europe.
Roumania had hardly faced the disastrous fall of Con-
stanza and the Cernavoda bridge when the rude shock of
the fall of Craiova, the chief town of Ollenia, " the
millionaires' city " as it was called, forced them to realize
the imminent peril of the nation.
* * « *
By the end of November the Austro-German, Bulgar
and Turkish armies were closing in on Bucharest. Out-
gimned, out-manned, the splendid peasant soldiers of our
Ally rose to the crisis with the true spirit of soldiers,
defending their country with desperation, and as the
German reports admit, " with unsparing energy."
The small Orsova group stubbornly holding on to its
-r;
U
m
U
I
ACROSS THE BARRIER 173
positions at the Iron Gates of the Danube was left far
behind, as the main Roumanian Army retreated, and
foimd itself in the rear of the advancing enemy forces.
Completely cut oft and isolated from the main army, this
vahant detachment of seven thousand men under General
Anastasiu, stubbornly fighting, tried to escape the doom
that they knew was certain. But they resolved to sell
their hves dearly, harrying unceasingly the rear troops of
the enemy forces and menacing their transport traftic on
the Danube.
This wonderful retreat lasted three weeks, and so
courageously and determinedly did they fight to the last
that they even earned the praise and admiration of the
enemy, who reported that "amidst continuous fighting
and delivering repeated counter-attacks the Orsova
group withdrew slowly to the south-east, constantly
resisting and fighting for the honour of its arms."
Decimated and lacking in everything but their superb
courage and daring w^hich resisted to the bitter end, the
gallant remnant, under its heroic General Anastasiu,
were forced to surrender at Caracalu two days after the
fall of Bucharest.
Meanwhile on the Danube frontier Mackensen had been
able to force a crossing at Giurgevo and was now marching
northwards to co-operate with the armies advancing
from the west under Falkenhayn, the objective being to
close in on the capital.
Whilst destroying Giurgevo, the Bulgarian forces under
his command gave full rein to the hatred and savagery of
their dour natures. In a few hours nothing was left of
the once prosperous little town but scenes of wanton
destruction and piles of gruesome corpses — old men,
174 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
women, children, girls ! What the flames did not spare
was wrecked by the fury of these heartless brutes, who
in the way of the furor teutonicus of their predatory
masters had nothing to learn, and in the matter of murder,
rape and savagery could even give them points. They
were well aware of Germany's order that " Roumania
should pay in full the expenses of her invasion."
The German Socialist and Labour paper the Arbeiter
Zeitung, crowing with satisfaction over the misery of the
devastated peasantry, remarked : —
" Our troops could not possibly have marched at this
rate had not Roumania so much cattle, so many geese,
pigs and poultry. The Wallachian plain is covered with
thriving villages very different from the poor hamlets in
the mountains on the northern border of the country.
The invading forces live here in great style."
The extreme gravity of the moment was incontestable.
General Averescu, now in supreme command of the
Roumanian Army, gathered together all the forces he
could muster for a last stand on the River Arges and a
decisive battle, on which the fate of Bucharest would
depend.
It was now that the soldiers of the Czar — two divisions,
a small part of the long-promised help — made their first
appearance in Wallachia, although this was three months
after the commencement of hostilities, at a time when the
little nation was mourning the tragic loss of more than
half her kingdom. Bleeding and exhausted, she was
facing a formidable foe flushed and exalted with success,
and supported by a crushing preponderance of both
artillery and men. f
The narrow line of the river Arges, on which Averescu
ACROSS THE BARRIER 175
was giving battle, presented no formidable obstacle,
being not much more than a wide ditch. Nevertheless,
(^neral Presan delivered a counter-stroke in the hope of
driving a wedge between the army of Mackensen and
the German centre under Kiihne. Within an ace of
achieving his purpose he repulsed the enemy, throwing
him across the river Neaylovic and defeating the Turkish
division as well as the main body of German-Bulgarian
troops, resulting in the capture of fifty guns and some
thousands of prisoners.
But success was dashed from his grasp, for espionage
was rampant, and the whole place infested with German
civilians domiciled in the country, of whom fifty, dis-
guised in Russian uniform, were arrested, tried and shot
in one day.
General Presan, desperately pressed and anxiously
awaiting the expected reinforcements which were pur-
posely delayed through the culpable negUgence of a sub-
ordinate officer, found treachery on every side. General
Socescu — a naturalized German whose real name was
Sosek — commanding a di\'ision, left his post at night at
nine o'clock without authority, and, in the midst of this
supreme crisis, went to Bucharest. The position occupied
by his troops was attacked by the enemy at 9.30, the
line was pierced — General Presan 's at one time victory-
was turned into a crushing defeat of the Roumanian
armies — and the way to the capital lay open !
CHAPTER IX
WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH
WHILE the city was being invested and its
destiny decided on the Arges, a section of
von Falkenhayn's army was sweeping for-
ward like a great flock of vultures to the
rich prey they expected to find at Ploesti, the centre of
the immensely rich oil region of Roumania.
There in the valleys of the Prahova, Dimbovitza, of
Teleajen and Buzeu the earth sweats through the pores
of the soil the surplus blood from her vast arteries.
Covetously, with hungry eyes eager for the prize, the
Germans were quickly advancing counting on the rich
spoil they would find in the great store of oil, petrol
and benzine of which they were so desperately in
need.
As was the case in the destruction of their great grain
store at Constanza, and Braila, an instant and quick
decision had to be taken by the Roumanian Government.
The British Government had sent out Colonel Sir John
Norton Griffiths, d.s.o., a well-known engineer and
member of Parhament, a man of great energy and deter-
mination, to aid and advise them in this crisis. For
Roumania it was a stern and tragic decision to take, and
nothing but the supreme gravity of the moment could
have justified it, forced upon them as it was by the
relentless advance of the enemy.
176
WRECKIN(i A NATION'S WEALTH 177
It was a terrible and heart-breaking undertaking to
have to dehberately sanction the destruction of a vast
industry, and never perhaps in the history of the world
has there been an act of self-sacrifice so moving as the
immolation of a country's treasure at the height of its
prosperity on the altar of dire and tragic necessity, while
her people starved and cried for bread.
But the exigencies of the situation demanded it, and
as Vandervelde has said, " to destroy war it is necessary
to carry war to its logical conclusion."
The Government had given orders that all the work-
men employed there, young and old, without distinction
of nationality, were to be evacuated, so that no one
capable of repairing the wells should fall into the hands
of the enemy. Village after village poured out, the work-
men with their wives and children, swelling the ahready
mighty stream of refugees on the road to Braila, Focsani
or Galatz, industrial centres as yet not in the hands of
the enemy. For the whole district had to be emptied of
its human burden before fire and devastation could work
their ill-fated will.
It must have been like some grim nightmare, some
ghastly picture of a distorted mind, those bitter days of
early winter, when a whole countryside was turned into
the roads homeless and in flight ! Scenes poignant in
their sacrifice but which had to be accomplished, however
cruel, however desperate, in order to spare the little
country further sufferings at the hands of a boastful,
replenished and enriched conqueror.
As Hamilton Fyfe has said : —
" Destruction of that which has been created by man's
energy for the satisfaction of the world's needs, of that
N
178 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
which provides profit and wage for hundreds of thou-
sands of people, and so enables them to live, must be a
hideous, saddening spectacle. That the wrecking was
beyond all question necessary made the case no better.
It added to it a horrid irony. We were forced to defend
ourselves against barbarians by barbarous means. To
leave the oil-wells untouched would have been a crime.
The Germans and their dupes need lubricants very badly.
These were the only oil-fields from which they could get
them in any quantity. They would have benefited by the
products of the Roumanian wells for as long as they
occupied the oil region. Then they would have destroyed
the industry themselves so as to prevent the Allies from
making use of it. t
" It was therefore an urgent matter, when the enemy
flood came pouring over the Roumanian plain sweeping
the Roumanian Army before it, to set about destruction
with vigour."
Sir John Norton Griffiths, aided by several Britishers
resident in the country, and connected with the oilfields,
who, dressed in khaki, were given temporary commissions
in the army, and supported by the overseers and engineers,
worked like veritable demons. If they were to be de-
stroyed, then they must be so completely wrecked that the
Germans could not hope to repair or utilize them for
years.
One by one the valleys which formerly had been hives
of industry and movement were invaded by the wreckers.
" The man with the sledge-hammer," as Sir John was
called, his muscular arms, his athletic frame working Uke
a Titan, led the way showing them how to wreck the
derricks and pipes. The big hammer swung round his
WRECKINCx A NATION'S WEALTH 179
head in a fury of energy, as he struck blow after blow
that Vulcan himself might have envied for strength and
precision, till everything was a tangled and terrible
ruin.
Then with torches or bundles of straw he and his
energetic helpers would rush to the big reservoirs and
cisterns — lakes of petrol and benzine — to set them alight.
Obli\ious of danger or fatigue, valley after valley was
destroyed, houses and villages wiped out, and millions of
pounds were swept away every hour.
The enemy was so close on their heels that the work of
destruction had to be effected with the utmost speed.
The benzine and petrol was poured through the open
sluices and pipes until it flooded the factories and
ground to a depth of several feet. Into this were hurled
machinery tools, dynamos, after having been first smashed
to pieces.
A lighted match or straw was cast into this flooded
area, and as the workmen saw all that they had built
with so much care — at so much cost — flare into a roaring
furnace they would smile bitterly as they murmured,
" Here's another the devils won't get."
It was a dangerous job and many of them were burnt
by the inflammable air which caught fire and hung round
in gassy clouds. But they stuck to it with extraordinary
determination. The valves and cocks of the cisterns were
turned on, allowing the precious oil and other products
to flood the earthen embankments around the tanks,
which were then set on fire, and vitriol was run into the
steam and oil boilers in order to render them completely
useless. The pump station was also flooded with oil and
benzine, then burnt, the flames rising like great leaping
i8o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
tongues nearly four hundred feet high — a panorama of
magnificent horror ! The tortured leaping flames, the
towering columns of dense black smoke rolling skywards !
The huge tanks, exploding with a roar, were hurled a
distance of over one hundred yards, ploughing up the
ground in great rents, while on all sides resounded the
shattering thunder of the derricks and cranes as they
crashed to the ground.
The deep pipes which drew up the petrol and precious
oils from the depths of the earth, many of them 900 to
1 000 feet in depth and of a value of 90,000 francs ; others
3000 feet deep and of 250,000 francs in value, were choked
up and blocked, far, far down, by forcing scrap iron,
broken chains, stones, mud, rocks, and drilling bits,
thrust upside down, through the pipes, while the out-
lets were twisted and destroyed out of all shape and
use.
One of the most dangerous points tackled was the big
power house at the great Astra works. It was full of gas,
and there was the possibility of its exploding at any
moment. The Roumanian Commission before retiring
endeavoured to persuade Sir John from undertaking such
a dangerous operation as its destruction, but he would
not listen to the word danger. Grasping a fuse of lighted
hay he dashed into the building, setting fire to the oil in
the basement, which had been previously piunped in.
It was a courageous act and a miracle he was not
asphyxiated — he was shghtly burnt — and that the others
were not killed.
One of the last things to be demolished was a huge
tank, the largest in Europe, containing 10,000 tons of
petrol.
WRECKINCx A NATION'S WEALTH i8i
The enemy v\as so close aiid folloNviiig so swiftly,
anxiously hoping lo be in time to stay the destruction of
the coveted booty, that not a moment could be wasted ;
in fact the whole work was only completed a bare hour
or two before he advanced over the ground. As for the
financial destruction the sum ran into many millions. A
French engineer, one of those working at this terrible
work, puts the bill at the following : —
Francs.
Petrol, benzine, lubricant and mineral oil . 75,000,000
Refineries ...... 80,000,000
Reservoirs and cisterns .... 25,000,000
Material for pipes, derricks and installations 100,000,000
Installation and pipes .... 800,000,000
1,080,000,000
More than seventy refineries, including the celebrated
Steana and Astra, were destroyed and more than 80,000
waggon-loads of petrol were burnt in the reservoirs. One
can understand the tragic irony of the destruction and
the effect of it on the wealth of the nation when one
realizes that the output of petrol in 1915 reached the
figure of 1,850,000,000 tons, and that the industry, as
yet only in its infancy, was worth about £6,000,000.
Over twenty millions of foreign money was invested
in this great industry, and it is surmised it will re-
quire thirty millions to put the refineries again into
working order.
Reservoirs containing 12,000 to 15,000 cubic metres of
petrol were set alight, and the great clouds of inflammable
vapour rising into the smoke-laden, darkened air ex-
ploded and darted about like huge will-o'-the-wisps,
catching light here and there as it floated o\irhead. In
i82 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
one place more than i6o great shafts were set alight
and destroyed, while the gas searching underground for
an outlet rumbled and roared like an imprisoned giant,
till finding a sudden vent it burst upwards in a great spit
of flame which belched forth earth, sand and stones,
intermingled with great flares of gas.
One of these vast clouds of asphyxiating gases floated
over a poor little gipsy encampment on the hillside,
suffocating every soul there with the bitter poisonous
fumes, while the leaping flames followed, wiping out and
devouring all that was left.
The valleys were ablaze from end to end — ^a furnace
that sent up a dense pall of black smoke that blotted out
the sky, the daylight, and left nothing but a scene of
frenzied Dantesque destruction and darkness. This
dense black cloud enveloped Targovistea, a town
twenty-five miles away, for hours, turning day into
night.
The devastated valleys — once such scenes of pros-
perity — bright with the sun by day, little electric lamps
at night lighting so cheerfully the peaceful homes of the
workers, the farms of the peasants, were silent now and
dark. In the distance the muttering thunder of the
guns throbbed heavily through the smoke-laden air
and, from out the ruin and desolation around, the broken
chimney-stacks stood up tall and gaunt, like weird
tombstones, in this smoking necropolis of a dead in-
dustry.
The enemy advancing rapidly by forced marches, had
before his furious and disappointed gaze the great smoke
and flame riven sky, betokening the destruction of what
he so ardently desired. Like Moses, a pillar of smoke
WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH 183
was in front of them by day, a pillar of fire at night.
Their utmost endeavours to reach the scene and stop the
destruction was ever frustrated. The pillar was always
menacingly ahead ! And nothing but a blackened desolate
and reeking land greeted them in mockery and bitter-
ness.
CHAPTER X
THE VIA DOLOROSA
I heard a voice that cried, " Make way for those who died,"
And all the coloured crowd like ghosts at morning fled ;
And down the waiting road rank after rank there strode
In mute and measured march a hundred thousand men.
Like desolate stars they shone one moment and were gone,
And I sank down and put my hand across my head
And felt them moving past, nor looked to see the last
In steady silent march, one hundred thousand dead.
/. C. Squire.
jA ND Bucharest ! the city of pleasure, the gay
/% little capital ! Vanished are her smiles, the
/ ^ dimples are gone.
Squaring her shoulders, looking fate bravely
in the face, she braced herself for the worst. A silence
had fallen on the gay clatter of the city, the streets were
empty, a sense of impending predestined fate hung over
everything like a pall during those terrible days of fore-
boding, those throbbing hours of fear.
Her children watched the relentless march of events
with strained and anxious eyes ; with sinking hearts they
saw the enemy advancing swiftly, piercing deeper and
ever deeper into the heart of their land.
Wild is the music of autumnal winds amongst the faded
trees. Wilder still the moaning winds of winter. The
whistling of the shells . . . the thunder of the great guns
... as in a slowly increasing crescendo of fury they drive
the terrified peasants towards the capital, Uke leaves
before a hurricane.
184
THE VIA DOLOROSA 185
They have loft all that means life and happiness and
home behind — their men, their sons — bleeding and dying
in that hell of fire. Their little homes built up with such
patient labour and self-sacrifice, the cattle, the sheep,
the dear personal possessions, the grandparents too feeble
to fly — who refused to go !
The feverish departure, the hastily packed bundles,
the trembling fingers, the eyes blinded with tears that
turned for a last look, carrying the memory of the beloved
home. The old people standing on the doorstep waving a
trembling farewell, the burning villages on the horizon,
the crying children, the babe at her breast.
The long grey roads leading to the capital are packed
with hurrying fugitives. Too tired, too anxious to speak
they hurry along. Great bullock transport wagons
creak slowly by, the stately calm-eyed oxen moving with
the same slow dignity as in days of peace and leisure. A
dark line moves sinuously along in the bleak dusk. Quick,
eager-eyed a regiment of infantry passes. With set faces
they march rapidly towards the west. With a dry sob
the women thrust out their hands to them in passing,
murmuring huskily, " God be with you." The trees stand
out bare and leafless, lifting gaunt arms to a leaden sky !
Surely, surely the Russians are coming to help ! The
gallant Roumanian Army fighting with such desperate
devotion will get the help, the guns, the men in time ?
Surely then the Neamtzi^ will be stayed ?
Darkness and cold — the wind is whistling drearily ;
rain mixed with sleet is falling ; the little ones, crying and
hungry, drag at the mother's skirt. Where shall we
sleep to-night ?
* Contemptuous term for the hated German.
i86 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
What does the future hold ?
Dear Mother of Christ, how wet, how cold we are
— and tired.
My man, my man ! where is he now ?
Shall we ever get to the city — another ten miles !
Oh, the whimpering little ones.
* * * *
In the city a fever of unrest prevailed. One moment
the briUiant heroism of the gallant, dwindhng Roumanian
Army would succeed in arresting the merciless advance
of the enemy for a few days and the spirits of the people
would bound upwards with hope, only to be cast down
again with the news of further disasters.
The consulates were besieged with people trying to get
their passports. The rich were sending their families
northwards and thousands of fugitives were crowding
into the city. Prices were soaring and the excitement was
intense.
The Government had taken resolute means to prevent
espionage or news leaking out, but the capital was full of
Hungarians and Grermans settled in business, as well as
paid German secret agents, and was a veritable rabbit
warren of intrigue. Several hundred German clerks had
been interned on the declaration of war, but it was found
that the banks and some of the important business houses
could not be carried on without them. They were there-
fore released, and as can be well imagined, made ample
use of their liberty for espionage. They stood about the
corners of the streets in groups, insolent and sneering, dis-
cussing in vainglorious terms the successes of their armies.
No letters or newspapers were received by the troops
with the exception of a little news-sheet printed especially
TMI-: VIA DOLOROSA 187
for them. The tea-shops had all been closed. Too many
wild rumours and exaggerations had emanated from them
for them to be regarded as anything but mischief factories.
The news of the evacuation of Constanza ; then of
Craiova, the rich millionaires' town, had fallen upon
their ears with a crashing insistence, and a dread pre-
monition of what next might follow ! Would the Army
be strong enough to hold back the Colossus that was
striding forward so swiftly, so vastly superior in heavy
artillery and machine guns ? It was being realized that
the supreme crisis was approaching and that their only
hope of safety from the tragic fate that had befallen
Serbia and Belgium lay in Russia remaining true to her
promise, and sending them the long delayed help.
General Averescu was summarily deleting the army of
the negligent and unsatisfactory officers, who as in all
armies and all wars have failed to prove their worth, and
commands were being given to active and energetic
younger men.
Daily the city was subjected to the horrors of Zeppelin
and aeroplane bombardment. They bombed the hospitals
so continuously that the authorities had to erect a small
camp beside them in which they interned some of the
sleek, well-fed German prisoners. This proceeding,
through the agency of the hundreds of German spies in
the city, soon reached the ears of the enemy and caused
him to desist from this especial game of hospital baiting.
They flew over the crowded courtyard of the railway
station where hundreds of women and children had con-
gregated waiting for a train to carry them north to
safety. Flying very low with no anti-aircraft guns or
defending aeroplanes to distract them from their dia-
i88 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
bolical work, they raked the helpless crowd v/ith their
machine guns until the place was a perfect shambles of
horror.
The small number of machines Roumania possessed
were all needed at the front, and there were none left for
the defence of the capital. She had no aircraft factories,
and the only way to replenish her shattered stock was
by the long round-about way of import from France or
England.
Thus the little nation in this hour of dire distress was
feeling the terrible loneliness of her position, isolated and
away on the furthest shore of Europe. She had now only
one door of entry and exit open — that through Russia.
The long, long route from south to north, then through
Sweden, Norway and across the submarine invested
North Sea before she reached her distant allies France
and England ; weeks en route — and Sweden, as events
showed later, was not strictly neutral. Indeed her Foreign
Office and Minister seemed to be at the complete dis-
position of Germany in despatching her cipher telegrams
to South America, Mexico and other neutral countries.
Great difficulty was experienced in getting even Red
Cross supplies passed through this neutral country whose
Queen is a German.
What a malevolent, pestilential influence these German
women have exercised on the countries whose thrones
have had the misfortune to be occupied by them ; the
one brilliant and wonderful exception during this war
being the truly heroic, patriotic, and high-souled Queen
of the Belgians, who though Bavarian has shown that
honour, truth and justice come far before the creed of
hate, cruelty, arrogance and intrigue, the cult of lies.
THK VIA DOLOROSA i8g
deception, ambiguity and hypocrisy, this lust of power,
to be obtained by fair means or foul, which is the inverted
religion instilled into the race from their earliest child-
hood.
The German Legation here, as well as those other shame-
less nests of spying and intrigue, scattered over the world
and which she has debased from their honourable title of
Legation, was a veritable scullery where all the odious
schemes and dirty work of the master chef were per-
formed. The place was a sink of foul plans and poisonous
plots hatched by members of this tainted race under the
loyal protection of a nation still at peace. What scoun-
drels these German diplomatic ' gentlemen ' can be !
As a Japanese ofiicer said, " What most disgustable
gentleman German can make, he make a disgrace to
civilization to-day. He belong to class that Eiigland call
cad, and France canaille."
Here in the gardens of the Legation over one hundred
boxes of explosives were dug up. Fifty contained " Bick-
ford cords " with charges. In another comer of the
grounds under a heap of firewood were buried other
boxes ; on one, bearing in red wax the seal of the German
Consulate, was the following direction : " By King's
Messenger. Very secret ! Not to be thrown." Beneath
this wrapper was a second, " Very secret — by tela. To
his Royal Colonel and Military Attache, His Honour
Herr von " The name had been rubbed out, but
traces of the letters HAM — T — IN were recognizable
(Colonel von Hammerstein was the German military
attach^). Inside the box was a typewritten note in
German to the following effect : " Herewith four tubes
for horses and four for horned cattle. For use as directed.
190 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Each tube sufficient for two hundred head. If possible
administer direct through the animals' mouths, if not,
in their fodder.
" Should be obliged for a httle report on success with
you. If there should be good news to report Herr K.'s
presence here for a day desirable."
In six boxes were found test-tubes filled with a yellowish
hquid. These phials and the cartridges were reported by
the military to be high explosives, with nitrate of am-
monium and trotzl of great destructive effect. In the
case of the test-tubes, the Institute of Bacteriology re-
ported that they contained glanders and anthrax bacilli
of very virulent culture.
A confidential German agent who was arrested con-
fessed that " still worse things " were hidden in the
Legation. One knows how successfully they were start-
ing this greater scheme of devilish ' frightfulness ' by
dropping in the country districts from their aeroplanes tins
of sweets for the peasants and children to find, and which
contained the most virulent culture of typhoid and cholera.
The Taubes, generally in groups of five and six, would
raid the city continually, sometimes six times in twenty-
four hours. The houses being rarely of more than two
stories high the destruction, casualties and death fists
were appalling. The hospitals were filled with men,
women and children, with legs and arms blown off and
terrible injuries of all sorts. The little Boy Scouts did
splendid work as ambulance bearers and first-aid helpers.
These brave little fellows controlled their natural terror
most wonderfully, and played their part of succour in
the shambles of the streets with fine courage and presence
of mind.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 191
An English lady working in one of the Bucharest
iiospitals gives a vivid picture of the Hfe there.
" To-day I drove to the hospital with Mrs. C. It was
three o'clock on a lovely sunny day. We got to an open
market-place, and noticed that all the poeple were looking
up — and then, for half an hour we were really in it !
For there were six Taubes overhead, all dropping bombs.
" We bought our cheese quite calmly in the market and
drove on. As we neared the hospital, shrapnel and bombs
began to fall all round. I picked up one man wounded
and unconscious, and took him on with us in the motor.
A woman was killed at the gate of the hospital, and
another man died on the doorstep. We went in and
settled down to work. We had three operations between
four and seven, and were just going home when men on
stretchers began to come in from the different parts of
the town where bombs and shrapnel had fallen. I wired
home not to expect me till they saw me, and we worked
on till nearly 2.30, till all the operations were over. I've
never had such a nightmare day, but we finished them
all. The other hospitals were all full up, too, and the
wounded were all over the town. The casualties were
thirty dead and over a hundred wounded, for the streets
were crowded when the Taubes came. The beasts flew
round and round, hardly a quarter of the town escaped.
I got home to find that A. and a lot of others had stood
in the garden and watched ; fi\'e big pieces of shrapnel
fell there, and yet the silly people stayed. I collected the
pieces and shall have them decorated with silver bands.
A. consents not to do it again, but he was so interested,
and says it was such a fine sight that he couldn't resist
it !
192 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
" One couldn't be excited in the hospital, there was no
time. If a doctor is cutting off things and calls out panse-
ment ! or aqua lactea ! like a pistol at your head, you
somehow find it even if you don't know what it is ! One
just works without realizing at all what one is doing.
After it was all over we collapsed, and sat in the hospital
model kitchen with the petrol cooking lamp and drank
hot tea and zwicka and tried to recover. I don't feel it's
over yet. We shall have the beasts before morning
again ; they have only half an hour to fly for more bombs,
but twice in twenty-four hours would be too much for
one's nerves. They came last night, too, you know, but
I was too tired to get up for them.
" Well, you'll think I'm romancing, but they came
again last night — six Taubes — that's three times in
twenty-four hours ! Yesterday already seems like a
dream except for the fact that we helped to save lives,
and that's all that seems to count. In the market people's
arms were blown off, and one man's head ; twenty women
and children lay dead in the Hospital Coke.
"It's nearly eight o'clock and we've had twelve hours'
peace. Three of the poor legless fellows died. I am
trying to console myself with the one remaining who
will recover. Apparently a Zepp comes at night and
the six Taubes by day. The bombs behave differently
and procedure is different when avoiding a Zepp or a
Taube. The latter bombs are pointed and timed, they
pierce the floor, and explode downstairs — so you go up.
The Zepp bombs explode on contact — so at night you go
down. By day one has time to decide, as one can watch
the approach, by night we sleep in our bedrooms and trust
to luck. So far we have been lucky.
THE VIA DOLOROSA igj
" They — the enemy — were undoubtedly well informed
by spies, else they would not have come when all our airmen
were away. They are scared of the French airmen and
cowards at heart.
"It's really not the bombardment that has upset me,
but all the horrors I've seen. One poor chap with both
legs off sat up on his bleeding stumps saying, ' Thank
God I'm alive.' No bombs have fallen on the interned
Germans, which is significant of spy work. I think that
the Red Cross flags should come down off the hospitals,
for I'm sure that the Taubes try for them." ^
But French aviators and British ' birds ' from Salonica,
flying over the whole width of Bulgarian territory, across
the Danube and the invading forces, to Bucharest,
arrived soon after, and thus put an end to the daily sport
of the Knights of the Iron Cross.
« « « »
Food and provisions of all sorts were getting very
scarce. At all times a most expensive city, it was
now under martial law, and the simplest commodities
were only to be had at exorbitant rates. The enemy
was only twenty miles away, and disorganization
of transport and trains was making itself woefully
apparent. Meat was only permitted three days a week.
Coffee was being sold at 20 francs a lb., tea 22 francs,
biscuits 14 francs, while the prices demanded for boots
and clothes were extortionate. The simplest serge dress
or man's suit was £10 and £12. An overcoat cost £14.
Coal, which is both dear and scarce even in peace time,
costing generally £5 a ton, was quite unobtainable, and
winter had set in with extraordinary se\erity.
' A correspondent (Lady liarclay) in J'/ie Times History of the liar.
194 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
No one was allowed out at night except on urgent
business. Meeting or talking to friends in the streets was
strictly forbidden and not more than three people might
walk together. Stern measures were taken against
thieving or disorder, and those caught were shot at once.
The city was wrapped in darkness at night, and gloomy
apprehension and fear had settled down on the civihan
population. ]\Iilitia-men paraded and policed the town
— aged dug-outs who stumped about vigorously.
In the Government offices, banks and legations active
preparations were being made for removal. Everything
was being hurriedly packed, ready for the word of de-
parture, should the worst happen. Everyone knew that
the fate of the city depended on the battle of the Arges.
The forts built round Bucharest by Briaulmont were
obsolete and utterly useless against the great guns the
Germans possessed, and which had crumpled up the
defences of Liege and Namur so quickly !
Indeed, so serious was the Army's shortage of artillery
that the heavy guns protecting Bucharest had been dis-
mounted and, mounted on temporary platforms, had
been despatched to the front. This rendered the position
of the capital defenceless, and it would have been sheer
folly to have risked the loss of an army through trying to
hold what was after all but an open city.
With the usual cunning and boastfulness of the Boche
they had been spreading reports as to the strength and
importance of the ' fortress ' in order to impress and
impose on the gullibility of the people at home, and to
accentuate the valour and importance of the conquest.
It was also done so as to give them the excuse of indulging
in the recreation of looting and destruction, so dear to
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THi: VIA l)e)LUKUSA 195
their nature. But the Roumajiian Government promptly
countered their declaration by an official pronouncemerit
on December 3rd, declaring that :--
" Well before the commencement of the war, as is
known to our enemies, Bukarest was dcpri\ed of the
character of a fortress, and when the danger of occupation
presented itself steps were taken for the evacuation of the
city by the military elements, but not by the civil popula-
tion, which has been enjoined to remain in the city."
« « « «
Some few of the long promised, long delayed Russian
troops were now arriving. Too late however. The
situation was desperate, and beyond hope of saving.
The arrival of the French Military Mission seemed to
put new heart into the populace, ignorant of the rumours
that had been circulating as to the delay in Russia's
promised help in troops and guns.
But the supplies of war material, aeroplanes and
military equipment despatched to her by the Allies were
being deliberately detained in Russia by order of the
traitor Stuermer.
Munitions and an enormous mass of war material were
lying in trains in countless railway sidings in the north
of Russia. Only now was the infamy of the betrayal of
Roumania by the pro-German Stuermer Government at
Petrograd being suspected. Supremely critical as the
situation was becoming it was incredible that such
treachery could exist, and it seems to have been General
Berthelot. the head of the French Mission sent out to
Roumania in this crisis, who, on arrival, declared to
King Ferdinand, " Sire, we have been betrayed and the
treason comes from Petrograd."
196 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Facts have recently come to light which show us that
Roumania was summoned by Russia to the war before
she was ready, and that this was done at the bidding of
Berlin.
Think of the paradox ! Berlin felt sure Roumania
would come in on the side of the Allies as soon as she was
ready.
The Austrian Red Book has disclosed " that inter-
vention was to come about with the least chance of success
for Roumania and with the most advantage for Germany."
The Central Powers were aware that France and Eng-
land had promised to send her great quantities of war
material. They also knew that the time arranged for
intervention would be the spring of 1917, when a great
general offensive of the Allies would be launched. Under
these conditions Roumania would have proved a very
serious menace to the Central Powers, and one they were
determined to discount if possible.
During the summer and autumn of 1916 Stuermer was
Prime Minister to the Russian Government under the
late Czar. Fully in sympathy with the German ex-
Czarina in her machinations to arrange a separate peace
(an obsession due, it is stated, to a message received at a
spiritualistic seance that the Czarevitch would never be
well while the war lasted) , he was only too ready, plenti-
fully bribed with German money, to collaborate with her
and the dissolute and intriguing priest Rasputin to
further Germany's designs in this direction. A plot was
dehberately hatched by Stuermer with the Berlin Govern-
ment, with which, it is now disclosed, he was in constant
communication.
In order to accomplish the peace Stuermer and Proto-
THE VIA DOLOROSA i-.;
popoff sought to attain, it was decided that the Russian
Government should summon Roumania by means of a
quasi-uhimatum to enter the war on the side of the
Entente. Brussiloff 's offensive had come to a halt by the
end of July, and Hindenburg's divisions were threatening
seriously to outflank him.
A great defeat of the Russian armies would at once
sweep these traitors from office and destroy all their
ambitious schemes. This had to be averted at any cost.
The storm threatening to burst over the Russian front
must be diverted, and the cost of the separate peace
aimed at by those intriguers be paid for in blood and
desolation by their trusting and unsuspecting neighbour
Roumania.
Russia was to promise to send her munitions and
troops to support her in the defence of her terribly long
frontier, being more than three-quarters of the circum-
ference of the kingdo.n, and Stuermer assured Berlin
that once Roumania had started her offensive it would
be quite easy to leave these promises unfulfilled, or so
delay them that they would be useless. It will be seen
how well he accomplished this.
So the famous ultimatum was despatched to the
Roumanian Government, an ultimatum " the brutality
of which was only equalled by its perfidy." Haughtily
they demanded " Now or never," and, continuing im-
periously : "for it must not be hoped that we shall again
permit the Roumanian Army later on to make a miUtary
promenade and enter Austro-Hungarian territory in
triumph."
In return for her intervention the Russian Govern-
ment agreed to support her with the greatly needed guns,
198 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
munitions, horses, aeroplanes, and to send two hundred
thousand men to her support.
This was a vital necessity, for the small Roumanian
Army, inexperienced, lacking guns, and consisting only
of sixteen divisions, was quite inadequate to protect the
seven hundred kilometres of the Transylvanian frontier,
as well as the six hundred of the Danubian front.
Part of the plan of campaign of the Roumanian General
Staff was to take possession of the Danubian bridgeheads
of Rustchuk and Sistova, in order to guard against the
possibility of the enemy crossing the Danube ; for it was
known that two hundred thousand Bulgars reinforced
by several Turkish divisions were concentrated in the
Dobrudja. Russia arrogantly declared that on no account
were hostilities to be directed against Bulgaria. They
assured Roumania that Bulgaria would never declare war
against the Slav sister nation and deliverer, and that
Roumania would have nothing to fear from that quarter.
Roumania could hardly have believed this or put much
faith in the " peaceful negotiations " then being con-
ducted between their representatives in Sofia and those
of that Judcs of the Balkans, that unscrupulous knave,
Ferdinand of Bulgaria, whose only contribution to the
cause of civilization or the war has been the dexterity
with which he has stabbed his neighbours in the back
when they haven't been looking. The Roumanian
General Staff, however, had undeniable information that
several Bulgaro-Turkish divisions were already moving
towards the frontier, and Russia was compelled to place
two divisions at their disposal. Of these divisions one was
composed of prisoners taken from the Austrians, men of
Serb, Croat and Czech nationality.
THE VIA DOLOROSA i«99
It was impossible for Roumania to resist the imperious
pressure of Russia, seemingly representing the AlUed
voice. If she refused, she knew that never aloiic could
she realize her long cherished dream of the emancipation
and union of her exiled brothers under one crown. But
her confidence and faith in the French and British
Governments entitled her to hope that they would " see
her through," and take full account of the vast sacrifice
and uncertainty she was incurring.
Great Britain and France, belie\ing in the loyalty of
the Petrograd Government, ad\ised Roumania to come
to terms with Russia. England fighting desperately on
the Somme, and France strained to her uttermost over
the defence of Verdun, showed their solicitude for the
Latin sister by pledging to help her " by a general offen-
sive of the Salonica army which should begin eight days
before the date of the entry into the campaign of Rou-
mania. The desire of France to help this new Ally was so
sincere that M. Briand, then President of the Council,
breaking all precedents, went so far as to announce in
the Chamber the projected offensive of the Orient forces.
The treason which unfortunately surrounded this army
on all sides rendered it impossible for General Sarrail to
carry out this plan at the opportune moment. \\'arncd
by the pro-Germans of Athens of the impending attack,
the Bulgarian Army made the first move and, attacking
on both flanks, obliged General Sarrail to regroup his
forces, which paralysed his movements. Thus the
Roumanian General Staff remained alone to face the
Government of Petrograd."^
Meanwhile Stuermor's German agents had btxii busy
' National Review. August, 1917.
200 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
intercepting and tampering with the shells, guns and
aeroplanes sent out by the Allies and which had to pass
through Russia. Whatever it was, some of the essential
parts would be abstracted, and when the supplies eventu-
ally reached Roumania, owing to the lack of raw material
and factories there, it was found impossible to replace
them, and much of it was useless. With regard to the
twenty thousand cavalry horses promised, none were
forthcoming ; venal evasions and excuses were the only
acknowledgment vouchsafed to the Roumanian Govern-
ment, and it was not until the representatives of France
and Great Britain protested in the strongest terms that
five thousand very inferior animals were sent. Of the
promised machine guns not one could be obtained ;
Protopopoff having mounted all he could get hold of on the
roofs of the houses in Petrograd to quell the revolt he had
provoked among a populace sick of the Stuermer rule.
General Iliesco of the Roumanian General Staff has
since told the world that the Berlin -Stuermer Agreement
was planned so that Roumania should be overrun and
devastated as far as the river Sereth to allow of the
triumph of the Central Powers, enabling them to con-
clude a separate peace in consequence of a defeat which
would be represented as a Roumanian and not a Russian
one. Russia's " face," as the Chinese say, would have been
saved at the expense of the little Ally Roumania ! By
this infamous intrigue Roumania was to be divided
between Russia and Austria. Russia was to annex
Moldavia, while Austria-Hungary took Wallachia, and
that was why the armies of Falkenhayn and Mackensen
came to a stop at the Sereth. ^
^ Le Genevoin (cit. Gazzetia Ticinese, 17-111-17).
THE VIA DOLOROSA 201
Thus Stuermcr pretending to speak for the AlUes "was
merely the mouthpiece of Berlin, and by his quasi-
ultimatum to Roumania to intervene in the war deUbcr-
ately betrayed her." Bought with German money and
intriguing under the cloak of his official position, he
played with the fate of Roumania in order to " facilitate
a premeditated act of treachery," both as regards his
own country and the Alhes.
The Russian nation knew nothing of this sinister plot
until the Revolution swept the traitors from their seats
and disclosed their diabolical schemes.
* * « *
Pending the issue of the battle on the Arges, the
utmost foreboding reigned in the capital : " Alternately
in fear and hope, swung the grim pendulum of hfe and
death." Immense numbers of wounded came pouring
in. The hospitals were filled to overflowing and numbers
of the beautiful houses of the wealthy had been utilized
for the wounded. The Queen working nobly and assisted
by her daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Marie,
seemed everywhere at once, nursing in her hospital, com-
forting the bereaved and dying, aiid seeing her soldiers
off. With her arms full of flowers and gifts, she was at
the station to wish them God-speed, her beautiful face
anxious, but the eyes and lips bravely smiling at them,
as the heavy train with its crow^ded human burden drew
slowly out and away towards the red horizon. She barely
took time to sleep, to eat, so great was her solicitude for
all, so eager, so untiring her work, so anxious her tender
heart for the suffering around her.
She was facing the most tragic hours that can fall to the
lot of any woman — for with the nightmare invasion of
202 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
her beloved land, she, the proud Englishwoman, was the
target for the vilest slanders, lies and diatribes of fury
that hatch and spring so easily from the unadulterated
savagery of the Prussian mind. And in the midst of
the carnage and desolation that was sweeping over the
land, Death brooded over the Palace. All around the sons
of mothers were dying. She was not to be spared.
Fate stood in front of her demanding the supreme
sacrifice — what she loved the most, the child of her heart,
the most beloved, the little Prince Mu-cea. The little one,
sobbing pitifully as he suffered, must be given up —
nothing could save him.
The terrible thunder of the guns shook and rattled the
windows and walls of the nursery as she knelt by his
bedside. The heavy lids would lift over the brown eyes,
the fair childish head would turn on the pillow as the
doctor neared the bed. The little hand Ijdng so inert in
his mother's would strengthen as he saw her silent tears
falling slowly. The httle voice, so soon to be silent,
would huskily rally the doctor — the dear devoted
" Docco " — saying with a twinkle in the glazing eyes,
" pfui Docco, naughty Docco " — knowing that his little
joke would chase the slow tears and bring the rare smile
to his mother's face, so grave and saddened now.
The little Prince, the pet and playmate of all, and
around whom the happy family life of the Royal Family
centred, was, in the words of his mother, " a stoUd httle
fellow, very independent, strong-willed, and who always
kept well in the middle of the road. He never would
talk to me in any language but Roumanian, although he
had a devoted English nurse and governess, and that I
always talked Enghsh v.lth my children. He was a great
THE VIA DOLOROSA 203
joker and loved fun, and even when very, very ill would
try to make me smile. He loved flowers and horses, and
above all his little sister Ileana."
Daily the terrible Taubes and ZeppeUns bombed the
Palace hoping to get a bag worthy of the acceptance of
their war lord. What a prize for the award of the Iron
Cross, to announce the slaughter of the beautiful children,
to bomb a Uttle child dying of typhoid, a broken-hearted
woman kneeling by his bed ! What rejoicings there
would be as they sped the little soul to its Maker !
Seventy-two bombs were dropped around the Palace
and in the gardens one morning alone, their shrieking,
shattering explosions drowning with their murderous
roar the gasping breath of the little lad, turning piteous
eyes of terror to the white-faced woman by his side. The
bright toys, the rocking-horse, the gay cheerfulness of
the nursery — and close and ever closer the muffled foot-
steps of approaching Death — the reverberation of the
guns !
Could life hold a more piteous moment of agony — of
renunciation — for the bowed and sobbing figme of the
Queen ? Fate indeed was striking deep.
The day following the death of the child, a more deter-
mined effort than ever was made to wreck that part of
the Palace in which the little figure was lying so quietly
now. It was known that the Queen could hardly bear to
leave the room. One of the bombs exploded in the passage
outside just at the moment the painter Romani was
going into the room to paint a portrait of the little dead
Prince. He was killed at once, though the Queen and
the body of the dead child escaped the horrible effects of
the dastardly crime.
f
204 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
What can one say for such unutterable, such infamous
deeds ? As some one has said : "If Hell were turned
upside down ' Made in Germany ' would be found
stamped on it."
* ^k * *
For Roumania these were indeed terrible days of
anxiety. Bit by bit the heroic army were forced back,
fighting stubbornly under overwhelming odds, exhausted,
decimated, lacking everything, yet constantly winning a
grudging acknowledgment of valour and resistance in the
enemy's reports. I
The treachery of General Socec and the consequent
defeat of the Roumanian armies had fallen on the capital \^
Uke a thunderbolt. The excitement in these bitter days ^i'
of winter was indescribable. The cry : " The Germans
are coming " filled the populace with terror.
But with unquenchable hope and faith they waited
— with sinking hearts they waited and hoped. Where
was the promised help from Russia ? Only two
divisions had arrived. Where was the Brussilof offen-
sive in Galicia that was to draw the enemy off ?
The advance from Salonica ? But the Allies were too
busy parleying and believing in the false protestations of
neutrality of another traitor, Constantine, once of
Greece. And Sarrail, immobilized and paralysed for lack
of men, munitions and railroads, could not advance for
the promised assistance.
Roumania stood at bay facing her martyrdom alone.
A tense pause seemed to hang over Europe as it watched
the mortal struggle of the Uttle nation, the cup raised —
to be drained to its bitterest dregs.
No reproaches passed her loyal lips. The heroic spirit
i
THE VIA DOLOROSA 205
of the past, the spirit that through the centuries had
refused to be annihilated was supporting her sons in this,
their supreme trial ! Well did she know the fate meted
out to those the Hun conquered ! Belgium, Serbia,
Montenegro — these were pictures seared into her brain
by the flaming lingers of history.
The decision to evacuate the capital was taken, and
a nation poured out on to roads deep in snow, iron-bound
in ice, towards the frozen bitter north.
♦ ♦ * *
The early morning of December the 4th a terrific report
shook the city. The arsenal had been blown up by the
authorities. The last hope of saving the capital had dis-
appeared.
The next morning Mackensen sent an officer under flag
of truce into the city calling upon it to surrender. He
returned the next day to report that there was no fortress,
no commander, and that the impressive and ostentatious
ceremony of triumph the Germans had been looking for-
ward to could not be enacted. When the Hun hordes
poured in, with the exception of the great numbers of
German and Austrian residents who had been battening
as spies and who welcomed their countrymen with ardour,
it was almost a deserted city.
That night the horizon was aflame ; and blazing like
the mouth of Hell were the great oilfields, one of the
richest districts in the world. All the rich stores of
grain, too, had been destroyed, burnt, or soaked in petrol,
so the Hun, ravenous and bent on plunder, was baulked
of his prey.
The heroic Roumanian armies, fighting superbly with-
out ammunition at the last, had escaped encirclement.
2o6 ROUMANIA ; YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
There was no Sedan, and an empty city was the con-
queror's hollow triumph.
* * * *
Meanwhile the terrible winter of Eastern Europe,
eighteen below zero, had settled down on the stricken
coimtry, enfolding in its glacial grip the famishing, home-
less fugitives and wounded.
During that ghastly retreat as much as ;^300 was paid
for a taxi to carry someone's family away from the
German hordes. Thirty thousand people waited at the
station in the vain hope that a train would be provided
to take them north. The few railways — the terrible
crisis of the moment — had disorganized everything, and
the supplying of the army was the first vital consideration
of the Government. The congestion on the narrow roads
— on the bridges — was so great that an inextricable
wedged mass prevented progress.
And all the time the ferocious Uhlans were at the heels
of the terrified fugitives. The aged succumbed at once ;
Uttle ones, frozen and starved, lay by the wayside ;
their heart-broken mothers dropped dead with exhaus-
tion beside them ; and the wounded from the hospitals
who could crawl, and even those who could hardly do so,
dragged themselves along till cold, hunger and mortifica-
tion ended their terrible suffering. The gallant little
nation was indeed treading its Via Dolorosa — the bitter
cup was being drained.
From Bucharest they journeyed into a country of
poverty and want ; everything was left — home, money,
food !
Surrounded on three sides by hordes of Turks, Bulgars,
Magyars and Teutons, and lying at the very back of
t
THE VIA DOLOROSA 207
Europe, there were no open arms to succour and help her
as England, France, America and Italy held out to Serbia
and Belgium in their terrible flight. Money, food, cloth-
ing, shelter were provided for the fugitives there. Guns,
men, food, equipment, hospitals were sent to their sup-
port, and to sustain the remnants of iheir armies.
But for Roumania no deliverer, no Samaritan was near.
Surrounded by the horror and clamour of war, the stream
of pitiful humanity fled northwards before the most
vicious foe ever faced by mankind. Bit by bit they were
driven back — and still back — past the homes and fields
of the more prosperous land.
" 0\er the death- strewn plains,
Fierce 'mid the cold white stars,"
into the little remnant of beloved soil — the bleak northern
pro\ince left them — frozen under its shroud of snow.
CHAPTER XI
A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE
By H.M. the Queen of Rou mania
MY CHILD
DEATH is sweeping over the earth ; in all
I lands, beneath many suns, thousands of
' brave boys are giving their lives ; mothers are
crying ; the earth is drinking nothing but
blood.
And because Death has become master, he stretches
out his hand and wants also to pluck the buds that were
to have flowered in the days to come — he stretches out
his hand and tries to seize hold of my own treasure, of
my last -born, of the child of my heart.
There is not yet enough dying, enough sorrow, enough
sacrifice — each woman must learn to give up what she
loves, must weep, must hide her head in the dust.
In these days, the sons of Queens are not allowed to
throw away their Hves in battle ; but, so that better I
should understand the tears of every mother, Death has
stolen into my house and stands there waiting, ready to
tear from me my youngest, the most innocent, the one
most without defence.
There he lies on the narrow whiteness of his bed, fight-
ing back some invisible terror which is too big. I seem
to be struggling with him, yet all my love cannot help
208
A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 209
him. I am powerless before his suffering, my anguish can-
not lessen it, my tears cannot cool the fever in his blood.
All around me the sons of mothers are dying and here
within the walls of this guarded chamber my child is
dying — and I cannot hold him back. He becomes
the symbol of my country's tragedy ; he is wrestling
against an enemy he is unable to overcome, whilst not
far off, on all our frontiers our armies are struggling
against invading forces that inch by inch are tearing the
holy soil of home from beneath our feet.
My child is powerless as my country is powerless ; our
love, our prayers, our efforts, the spilling of our blood
are in vain, for indeed there are hours that belong not to
the will of man, but that belong to Fate.
♦ ♦ ♦ *
It is my birthday ! A day set apart for national re-
joicing — and death stands waiting, waiting at the side of
my child's bed.
Others are also waiting for me ; my wounded are
waiting, they too are my children, for days I have
neglected them ; because of my cruel anxiety I have not
been able to go to them, but they need me, their voices
call me — too many need me ! Sometimes I feel as though
it were too much, as though it would drive me mad. . . .
Yet on this day, all have a right over me, I must for-
sake no one, the most humble must be able to reach my
heart.
Flowers have been brought to me in fragrant profusion,
the floor is strewn with them, they lie on the tables, they
are massed on every chair, the air is filled with their
perfume.
What is the meaning of all these flowers ? Havt* they
p
210 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
been brought to me for a day of rejoicing, or for a day of
—death ?
Fining my arms with them I hurry to the beds of my
wounded; there is so httle time — my child is dying.
His voice is calhng me back — but, oh, there are so
many beds, so many ! Shall I ever reach the last ?
What are they saying to me as they bend to kiss my
hands ? I cannot clearly see their faces, for my eyes are
full of tears. I cannot clearly hear their voices because
of the throbbing of my anguished heart — what are they
saying ? One name is on every lip — Mircea ! Mircea !
They are wishing health and recovery to the child of my
heart. But he is dying. Know ye not that he is dying ?
My heart cries out the awful certainty, and I bury each
bed under my flowers as though in some dream-ritual
I were decking with them the beds of the dead.
* * * *
Mircea is resting. . . . Mircea's struggle is over. . . .
Mircea is at peace. . . . Mircea is dead.
Now the chamber of suffering is silent, the screams are
a thing of the past ; they belonged to earthly terrors
— for Mircea all earthly terrors are passed.
Like a little light that flickers and goes out, thus did
he die — no more screams, hardly a sigh. He was tired,
his heart could bear the strain no longer ; he was too
small a fighter, so God let him die, like a little light that
goes out — thus did God let him die.
* * * »
Mircea is dead.
All Souls' Day ! The leaves are falling, the heavens
are weeping tears of regret, hke a veil of mourning, mist
covers the earth.
A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 211
All Souls' Day, and on the eve of this day, Mircea's
soul has flown to God.
The leaves are falling, the heavens are weeping tears
of regret — like a veil of mourning, mist covers the
earth.
» * » *
It is over.
The grave is closed, a heavy stone lies over your face,
the tapers have been put out, the solemn chants have
died away, the flowers are tired, shadow fills the church.
It is over.
Neither my prayers nor my tears, neither my despair
nor my suffering can bring you back to me, Mircea, my
child.
I saw how they lowered your tiny coffin down into a
hole that was full of night ; so that less sombre should
be that night I filled the gaping hole with flowers, flowers,
flowers — and all the flowers were white.
Then I left you, my Mircea. I turned my foot away
from your place of rest, I turned it towards the empti-
ness, towards the unfathomable void of the days that are
to know you no more, I turned it back towards the house
where your bed stands empty, whilst you He so small and
forsaken in your coffin under the ground.
And yet I know, Mircea, that is only your poor little
body that lies there under the ground !
This is not a time for mourning in darkened chambers,
not a time for idle weeping, not a time for rest.
My own sorrow must not separate me from others'
sorrows, it must be but an added link between me and
my people, not keep me from them at a time when they
need me most.
212 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
My country is calling, although darkness has descended
like a pall on my soul, once more must I take up my
burden and walk.
Whither shall I turn my saddened face ? To what beds
of suffering, to what homes of woe ? Better for a while
to listen to voices that awake no memory, to wander
towards regions where he has never been, amongst
strangers who did not know him, who saw not his hours of
agony, who heard not his screams of pain.
Better go away ! Whilst my wound is still bleeding,
so that it should not be touched — go there where my pity
is most needed, where my tears can flow freely, where it is
no shame to weep !
* * » ♦
Therefore I left the daily routine and went to many
places, carrying my own grief amongst the most miserable
and forsaken, carrying my breaking heart to those who
needed no words, only caresses and gestures of love.
As one but half conscious, I travelled through many
parts of my land, motoring miles and miles along endless
stretches at the dying season of the year ; I passed
through peaceful valleys ;- 'neath frowning mountain-
sides, over plains where the fields were at rest, and my
soul was one with this country, its agony was the agony
of my heart, the cries of the wounded were the cries of
the child I had lost, and when bending over the beds of
the dying, I knew no more if it was for their woe I was
weeping or for my own !
From those dark corners of suffering where the wounded
lay huddled together, their marred and bleeding visages
turned to the wall, from the land itself, from its invaded
frontiers, from its fields, its villages, its towns and forests
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A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 213
a mighty groan of anguish seemed rising towards the
skies. I felt as though I must bend down and Uft up all
that anguish, lift it with both my hands and carry it
away with me so as to relieve those less able to bear
such a weight.
Yet what could I do ? \\ ith the greatness of my Love
could I save my country ? Had I with my Love even
been able to save the life of my child ?
BUCHAREST
There is an hour of which I have never spoken — an
hour of darkness and sorrow that I could share with no
one, an hour when I had to carry my head very high so
that none should see the tears in my eyes, an hour when
naught else remained to me but to look beyond the things
of this earth towards shadowy Futures that belong only
to God.
I had to be strong at that hour, not to cry out, not to
complain, but to lead the way into exile very simply,
very quietly, so as to avoid all panic, so that no one
should be afraid. Others depended upon me, all eyes
were turned towards me to see how I would bear that
which was unbearable, so I was silent ; at that hour silence
alone could help.
Three months have passed since then, three long
months — months that could be years, so full are they of
anguish and pain and grief. Months that I have lived
close to the heart of my people, months when I ha\e
heard their cries, and hoped their hopes and feared their
fears. Months in which I have struggled with them and
wept with them, doing all that was in my power to ease
their burden and to dry their tears.
214 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
But if there are hours when silence alone can render
bearable the duty one has to perform, there are others
when one has a right to lift up one's voice and to cry out
one's longing and one's regret.
It is three months since Bucharest was taken from us,
since the enemy struck at the heart of our land. Three
months— and to-day I want all those who love and all
those who weep and all those who regret, to turn their
faces with mine towards that far-off distance and to
remember that which we have lost.
It is to me as though I must climb some very high
mountain, up, up, till I reach its summit, so that from
there I might perceive at least the smoke rising from
that town which once was our loved and cherished
centre and that now lies chained and silent 'neath the
enemy's relentless sway.
Yes, indeed, heart of our land ! Pulsing centre that
held us together, fed our energies and filled us with pride.
Who of us will ever forget those last days of anguish,
when hope became always less, when from all sides the
voice of the cannon called out its fearful message, called
out its warning, telling us that danger was coming ever
nearer — that soon it would be flight and exile and sorrow
and darkness.
Difficult it is to speak of one's own sorrow when the
suffering of all was so great, yet if to-day I speak of
mine, it is because I know that it is my country's sorrow,
that a thousand thousand voices are echo to mine when
I talk of that for which we are mourning ; of that which
lies beyond the line of fire, that like a wound upon a
mother's breast cuts our dear country in two.
I wish my voice to reach every heart, to penetrate into
A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 215
every homu, to go out towards the most miserable, to
search out the hero on his bed of snow ; I want you all
to know that I have wept with you, that there are none
of your griefs that I ha\e not shared, none of your
despairs that I have not understood, none of your sacri-
fices that I have not appreciated, but this message would
I bring you : Hearts are bound more closely together in
days of sorrow than in days of joy, in days of war than in
days of peace.
I cannot know for which special sorrow each man is
mourning — I know not what house, what spot, what face
he sees in his dreams, I know not to what hope he clings,
to what joy he desires to go back ; there is a national
sorrow and there is a personal sorrow, that last one each
man carries alone in his heart.
Bucharest ! Thy name conjures up pictures without
end in the mind of those who have been obliged to sur-
render thee to the hated foe. We remember thee with
all thy faces, in sunshine, in rain and in snow, we remem-
ber thee busy yet smiUng, within thy streets all seemed
happy ; it is to us, now that we are torn from thee, as
though we had known naught but joy within thy embrace.
What is thy face of to-day, oh Bucharest ? Hast
thou veiled thyself in mourning because so many of thy
children have fled ? Or dost thou wear a smile of false
acquiescence, so as not to draw down upon thy trembling
inhabitants the wrath of those who now call themselves
masters and who perchance keep thee in better order
than thine own children ever did. Have thy proudest
buildings been desecrated with flags that are not dyed in
the three holy colours before which each Roumanian un-
covers his head ?
2i6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Have the blinds of thy windows been drawn down so
that those who have remained should not see men in
pointed helmets marching to and fro before the house of
thy King ? Are the hospitals we prepared so tenderly
for our wounded filled with foreigners that speak not our
language, that mock at our sorrow, rejoicing over the
misery they have strewn over our land ?
O Bucharest, I left thee without a word of farewell, I
who so often have been acclaimed in thy streets ! It was
told that I must steal away from thee in silence, show no
sorrow, say no good-bye, betraying no emotion so as to
awaken no panic in the hearts of those who were to stay !
Like a traitor did I feel, like a coward, to leave thee
thus to thy fate ! To go away, to know naught of thy
sorrow, to leave thee, unprotected, to those who soon
would suck thy heart's blood.
And Cotroceni ! House that I love, house that little
by little I have modelled to my taste, house that knows
the voices of my children, in whose garden their baby-
feet have toddled about. Cotroceni ! I left thee taking
no leave of those who were to remain to protect thee,
casting hardly a look upon the rooms that once had been
my pride — I had the courage to smile into the face of the
old family servants who looked at me anxiously as though
divining that my silence hid some awful truth.
Yes, I left thee — and from one, one only did I take
leave ! But that one was so small and so silent that
never will he relate what his mother said to him in that .
hour before her flight !
It was evening — the shadows were already stealing
into the church, and with them I slipped into the sanc-
tuary where a heap of white flowers spread a mystic light.
A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 2l^
And there beside that grave but so recently closed I tore
from me the mask that all day I had worn, and cried out
my pain to the little one, lying beneath the stones.
I confessed to him that I was going — going not know-
ing when I would come back. I asked him to forgive me
for forsaking him, to forgive his mother for taking the
five others with her, whilst she left him lonely, he who
was smallest of all ! Left him to the mercy of those who
soon would take possession of the places we had loved !
As I wept in solitary despair, it seemed to me that I
heard the tread of the approaching armies, and shudder-
ingly I reahzed that it was the breasts of our soldiers
that were forming a rampart around our threatened
home ! I thought of all those who still must fall before
the enemy could reach this sacred door ! And with
anguish I realized that I would no more be there to bind
up their wounds, to console their defeat.
Perhaps it was so that some vital part of my being
should remain in our capital even after our retreat, that
I was destined to leave my youngest there beneath the
cold slabs of the church. Did perchance God tear him
from us as a sign that all this sorrow, all this sacrifice is
but a passing horror, that because Mircea lies there
awaiting my return, that surely, surely I must come back ?
When he died, the popular belief was that the Heavens
had claimed from me a sacrifice, that God had taken my
child from me that in his perfect innocence he should
plead for the country he was destined to quit so soon !
So let it be ! For I beheve in the day of return. I
believe in the hour of victory, I believe that the blood of
our heroes has not been shed in vain !
One day thy arms will be opened wide to receive us,
3i8 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
O Mother-town ! Flags will fly from thy windows, thy
streets will be strewn with branches, and those who
return to thy embrace will not know if their hearts are
breaking with sorrow or with joy !
It lies in God's hand if I your Queen am to share that
solemn hour with you — but this one boon do I ask of my
people, that if my feet should not enter the dear city
with you, carry all the flowers that you would have given
me to the church where my little one lies, carry them
there to his grave, heap them in masses above him, fill
the whole church with flowers, so that he who so long was
lonely should have a share in your songs of praise !
Marie.
CHAPTER XII
TO THE FROZEN NORTH
In the steppe cruel wind skirleth.
Speeding furiously,
Round the low oaken cross
Blizzard cheerlesslj'. Fet.
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain
that they may live. — Ezekiel.
NEVER perhaps in all the long centuries of
tyranny, oppression and bloodshed under-
gone by Roumania, have her sons so needed
the sustaining Hght and hope of faith in
their destiny as in those cruel days of a winter un-
paralleled in its grim severity, when the very depths of
human misery were reached.
Her anguish has been all the deeper because it followed
on the brilliant success of the early part of her campaign.
The vahant ardour of her people was burning to avenge
their suffering kinsmen and dreaming that Right must
conquer Might, and giving nobly their all for the cause.
In those tragic days of iron-bound winter a nation fled
desperately before the unmentionable atrocities, torture,
starvation and slavery that the Hun and Bulgar mete
out to those they conquer, and which has made their
names to stink in the nostril of every civilized being.
Onward- despairing, starving, frozen, dying, the pitiful
stream of agonised humanity pushed ; in icy blizzards,
219
220 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
snow that buried them as they fell, heart-broken and
exhausted : slipping into the drifts never to rise again :
sleeping in the arctic night never to wake again.
Forward — the bleak lonely north looms — Russia,
menacing, mysterious. Behind them, all that is most
dear — the smiling south of yesterday, the homes so
cherished— the life, the love, the happiness !
The whistling winter blast dies down. . . . The cold
clear stcirs like sword-points glitter forth — the stars that
have looked down upon the eternal ages, watching in
silent stillness the tragedy and travail of man !
A grey dawn creeps up like a ghost from the sullen
silence of the wind-swept steppes. . . . Bleak and brooding
it pauses before the tragic scene — then lashing its shroud
of sleet, cuts like a whip in the faces of the stricken
fugitives.
Like a lantern of light down the desolate, unending
road flashes the ancient words of comfort, of hope ;
words that sustained their ever-battling, never despairing
forefathers — Romanul nul piere — the Roumanian neve^
dies !
* * * ♦
And close to the bleak inhospitable steppes, the seeth-
ing anarchical frontier of Russia, near the river Pruth,
that river of ill-omen which divides Roumania from her
lost province of Bessarabia, stands Jassy, the old capital
of Moldavia — the little bit of northern land — all that is
left to the despairing and stricken country.
To this town the Court, Government, Legations and
the vast stream of wounded and fugitives retired. Urgent
miasares were taken to try and relieve the awful suffering
and distress. But the difficulties were stupendous and
i
TO THE FROZEN NORTH 221
the means to overcome them almost nil. The catastrophe
was so swift, so appalling, that the nation reeled under it.
The King, the kindliest, gentlest of men, had aged
greatly in appearance and his face, deeply lined with the
terrible anxiety weighing upon him, was showing a
splendid fortitude and courage. Princesses EUzabeth
and Mariorara were nursing in the hospitals as hard as
any of the nurses, and doing everything and anything that
he could was young Prince Nicolas, in his Boy Scout
uniform driving his little car which was generally full of
all sorts of things for hospitals, wounded, etc. The
Queen working superbly and with heroic devotion, cease-
lessly strove to alleviate the misery, and cope with the
great streams of wounded pouring in. The little city was
taxed to the uttermost and quite unable to find accom-
modation for the four million people that crowded into
it for refuge.
A friend, a very well-known Englishman, there at the
time wTOte me : " It is difficult to adequately describe
the suffering, to find words to express the terrible state
of affairs or give a real idea of the awfulness of the
position." Virtually the whole civil population was on
the verge of starvation. The hastily organized hospitals
were lacking in everything — equipment, disinfectants,
drugs, etc., had to be deserted in the retreat and had
fallen into the hands of the enemy. It was of highest
importance to replace them at once, and yet to obtain
them at first almost impossible.
Plague, pestilence and famine were rife, the few
hospitals were fillt-d to repletion, and the overflow of
wounded and diseased were scattered in the various
houses and buildings in the overcrowded town. Supplies
222 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
of drugs, dressings and chloroform were completely
exhausted, and the mortality from and suffering during
operations and amputations from the want of anaesthetics,
dressings and disinfectants was indescribably terrible.
Can you understand Roumania's plight ? Do you
realize that nothing can enter this country — the Back
Door of Europe — save through the north ?
From the south, east, west, not one grain of wheat —
not one strip of bandage could reach that stricken land —
except by the long narrow path through Norway, Sweden,
Russia — weeks en route.
Typhus and cholera were raging, and so limited was
the accommodation that these cases could not be isolated
and had to be housed with the wounded. What hope
could there be for the latter — debilitated, exhausted by
wounds and lack of food — of escaping this added terror ?
These appalling diseases ravaged army and civilian
population alike. Two hundred doctors as well as many
nurses succumbed in a few weeks, after working heroically
amidst the most distressing circumstances, with a superb
self-sacrifice and devotion, and lacking nearly everything
that was vitally indispensable for their work.
Roumania produces no soap and little coal, and there
was none forthcoming. All supplies had fallen into the
hands of the enemy. Imagine the want of these in
hospitals during an arctic winter ! No heating, no
steriUzing, no washing of wounds, clothes, floors. Think
what this meant !
My friend writes me again : "I have myself seen with
my own eyes men virtually dying of starvation and disease
because there was nothing but paper swabs, or some saw-
dust with which to dress their wounds and — when the
TO THE FROZEN NORTH 223
mt'n had been already without food for days — nothing
to build them up in the shape of nourishment. With
twenty degrees below zero, though there was plenty of
wood in the country, there was nothing to heat the hos-
pitals with. The roads deep in snowdrifts were impass-
able, and the great mortality among the horses and oxen
owing to lack of fodder, the shortage of labour (every
able male being with the army and all vehicles requisi-
tioned) made it impossible to remedy the want for a
while."
Disease and hunger claimed many more victims than
the Hun foe did, and the peasants — such patient souls,
enduring everything so uncomplainingly — would drag
themselves into Jassy, staggering exhausted after a
tramp in the snow of fifteen to twenty miles to beg for
some food for their children. Matches were so scarce
that even in the bitter weather crowds of men would
gather at street corners on the look out for some one to
pass, who might have a Hghted cigarette, and the moment
one appeared there would be a wild but polite scramble
to beg his permission to light their cigarettes from his, in
the vain endeavour to still the cold and hunger paralysing
them. The Russians would give three hundred roubles for
a tiny bottle of scent or eau-de-Cologne which they would
drink. Another friend wrote me : —
" The agony of it all has nearly killed the Queen.
During the month of March in Jassy alone, there were
over nine thousand patients down with typhus, scarlet
fever, cholera and diphtheria — and no isolation hospitals.
Dangerously wounded men had to lie next most infectious
cases. I think I am as thick-skinned as anyone with
what I have seen since the commencement of this war
224 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
and my two previous wars, but I tell you that if you
could print the word awful in the biggest letters that
were ever dreamt of in size, and the greater you printed
the word, the more it would emphasize the meaning, you
could not print it big enough to adequately describe
matters as they are here."
Well men died returning to their regiments, deteriorated
from lack of food and clothes. One train of seven hundred
wounded arrived, after being detained in a blizzard, with
only eighty men alive ! And these splendid, famished,
wounded sons of Roumania were found clasped close in
each other's arms, trying in the agony of starving and
freezing misery to keep a little life, a little warmth in their
maimed and tortured bodies.
* ♦ * ♦
" Clime of the unforgotten brave,
Whose land from plain to mountain cave
Was freedom's home or glory's grave \
Shrine of the mighty, can it be
That that is all remains of thee ? "
This, the little strip of territory, the bleak bare north
was all now that was left Roumania of her wide, beautiful,
and prosperous land. She faced the disaster unflinchingly,
and by the middle of January the remnant of the Rou-
manian Army had been skilfully withdrawn to the
defences on the line of the river Sereth.
After stubborn fighting the best North German regi-
ments, under General von Kiihne, took the little town of
Manesti, on the right bank of the Sereth. The gain was
barren and they were unable to develop their success,
while the rigours of a winter that surpassed all records
put a stop to any operations on a large scale. Local and
minor engagements were constantly taking place, how-
TO THE FROZEN NORTH 225
ever, and the grim struggle continued ; a fight against
nature as well as man.
An officer fighting there thus describes it : —
" Up to now winter in the forests of the Carpathians
had been only playing with men ; now it showed its
teeth and turned to grim earnest. In the high mountains
the roads hitherto ran, like soft ribbons of velvet, over
the passes. Now they were like hard bands of steel,
hard, shining bands of steel, binding together the con-
secutive valleys. They were Hke perfect toboggan runs ;
the lomes skidded and swerved on them out of control,
side on to the road before you knew.
" No more soft covering of snow, only hard iron naked-
ness. Cloudless, starry nights. The earth rings like
metal, the trees snap, wolves leave the forests and run
on the open road. Friend and enemy lie out on the
mountain side opposite to each other, frozen to the
marrow.
" No strategy has ever foreseen that this country
would once become a theatre of war. These mountains
look as wild and desolate as any bits of unknown Asia ;
forests untouched by any woodman's hand, protected, it
would seem by their own loneliness and inaccessibility.
Only here and there runs a little Ught railway looking
most unmilitary and casual. Every road in these moun-
tains is roundabout ; there is no connection from one to
the other of the long valleys which traverse them, except
tracks of smugglers and poachers. At the entrance of
the valleys which lead from Molda\'ia into Transylvania,
or at their exit, you may see perhaps an insignificant
village ; no other human habitation near, if it be not a
saw mill or the house of the customs guard on the fron-
Q
226 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
tier. Fires and winds have ravished the forests. In
places the great trees lie prostrate like straw, their heads
to the east, their withered roots heaving up masses of dry
earth, and they are covered by an impenetrable tangle of
boughs.
" Elsewhere the war has found territory prepared for
it, here it breaks as a strange thing into the primeval
forest. Here man has to start at the beginning the work
of the reclaiming of the wilderness, not for food and
habitation, but for war. Roads and railways have been
made — for the war.
" The air in the valley is like ice : the high plateau on
which we stand is surrounded by mountain ranges, Hke a
little Thibet, its atmosphere dim with ice-cold winter
vapours. Curiously as you mount higher you feel it
grow warmer, in the daytime at any rate. At night the
frost is uniformly cruel everywhere, and in this mur-
derous wintry desolation men dig themselves into the
iron ground, stalk each other, storm these God-forsaken
and nameless heights, defend them to the death as if
they were possessions of the greatest price. There is the
noise of the axe in the virgin forest, roads force their way
through the chaos of fallen trees.
" Buzzards and vultures hover overhead, then sud-
denly fly off scared as the report of a gun resounds in the
forest underneath and splinters of trees are thrown high
in the air. A she-bear with her two cubs comes stumbling
on our picket, stands on her hind feet for a time before
the strange apparition, swaying her head. The picket
dare not shoot for fear of arousing the enemy. Man and
beast stand perplexed face to face till the old bear shuffles
off again into the thicket.
O
H
3:
H
TO THE FROZEN NORTH 227
" Huts have been built in the wilderness, but one has
to remember in the darkness the wolves which inhabit
the forest. A stall officer of our division was besieged in
an outlying hut by wolves who howled and whined out-
side till some soldiers scared them off. The battle fronts
in this gruesome war measure by the thousands of miles,
but nowhere is there a region more wild, more desolate
and less inhabitable.
" I stand in the darkness in front of our hut and look
at the stars which shine in a narrow strip of sky above
the valley. A regular ticking sound is heard through the
night, like the beating of a nervous, anxious, diseased
heart. Again and again an endless, restless ticking. The
typewriter — in the snow-covered mountains, in the midst
of primeval forests — the typewriter in the office of the
staff. Perhaps the ticking signifies an order to attack, a
report of losses in battle or a request for reinforcements.
Here, on the Moldavian border, humanity has reverted
to its original wild condition, and yet this ticking tries to
speak of the ages that have passed over the earth. Steadily
long Hnes of letters are drawn, one after the other, and a
faint hope revives in one's heart that there may yet be a
return from our fall, a return to civiUzation.''^
No one will ever know what the sufferings the Rou-
manian Army went through. A little has filtered through,
but the full tale of horror they endured in this ferociousl}^
unequal contest with a savage, highly experienced, cruelly
vindictive foe will never be known.
Added to the lack of equipment which made itself felt
after the first successes, and during the retreat, when
sticks and stones were used, and rifles had to be taken
* Correspondent in The Times History of the War.
228 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
from the enemy dead, they were terribly hampered mdeed,
often sacrificed by the inexperience and negUgence of
some of their officers.
General Averescu, who like our late Chief of the Im-
perial General Staff, General Sir W. R. Robertson, has
risen from the ranks, is a man of iron character, stern
and resolute. Cowards receive short shrift from him
whoever they are, and several were court -martialled and
shot for this offence. To the brave and the efficient he is
a true friend. His interest, contact and knowledge of
the men under him is very close, and he is quick and
generous in rewarding valour and devotion to duty.
Under his regime a great number of the generals who
took part in the opening events of the war have been
relieved of their commands or given less responsible
posts, while the commanders of the divisions are all
young men, not promoted according to seniority, but
who have given undoubted proof of their ability, and
who inspire confidence among the men.
Full justice must be given to him and his capable
Chief of Staff, General Presan, for the ability and fortitude
displayed in the tragic retreat. After the first brief
successes General Averescu quickly grasped the grave
elements of danger, and by the skilful defence of the
passes, and the best disposition possible of his small
armies, prevented the complete annihilation and encircle-
ment of his forces, aimed at by the enemy.
Standing with their backs to the wall, ill-equipped, in-
expert in warfare and unsupported, the gallant little army
during ten terrible weeks put up an heroic defence marked,
as Colonel Buchan has said, by " conspicuous instances
of Roumanian qualities in the field. The battles of
TO THE FROZEN xNORTH 229
Herman list ad t and the Striu Valley, the defence of the
Predeal, Torzburg and Rothen Thurm Passes, the first
battle of Tarjul Jiu and Prtsan's counter-stroke on the
Arges, were achievements of which any army might be
proud. And the staunch valour of the Roman legionaries
still lived in the heroic band who under Anastasiu cut
their way from Orsova to the Aluta."
With regard to the splendid peasant soldier of Rou-
mania he is in many respects somewhat like the Poilu.
He is perhaps more sturdily built, has perhaps a scjuarer,
simpler character and face ; bright inteUigent eyes, a
quick friendly smile with the dignity and ease of manner
of the man who has Hved much with nature ; fearless,
steady, patient, resourceful, these are the lessons the great
Mother teaches her sons in forest, plain or mountain, and
these were the qualities he had to show in this desperate
struggle. The Roumanian peasant is splendid military
material, and is more civilized than his neighbours, Slav,
Turk, or Magyar. Patient, sober, tenacious and capable
of great effort his love and devotion for his country is
intense, and the ardour and fury of sacrifice in defence of
his land is very touching and wonderful. Impulsive and
ready to leap to a white heat of fury, he has a tender
heart for suffering, be it for friend or foe ; and none of
the ferocious savagery found in the Turk, the Bulgar, the
Hun and the Magyar is found in his nature. Hamilton
Fyfe, who knows them well, says that they put into prac-
tice the teaching of Epictetus, that everything has two
handles ; one handle is that " enemies are enemies, the
other handle is that they are fellow-men."
CHAPTER XIII
AT BAY
The Hun now satiated with blood and booty, still trampling in
blood and ashes in an orgy of lust and robbery on Belgium, Poland,
Serbia, Ro\ima,ma..— Frederic Harrison.
WITH the fall of Bucharest the curtain de-
scended on the final scene of the first act of
the tragedy. The wide sweep of Teutonic,
Bulgar and Turkish forces, all that means
reaction, rapine, barbarism and murder., had engulfed
three-fourths of the country. The Great Adventure
launched with such high hope, for justice and freedom
for the oppressed, was well-nigh crushed, and the bar-
barian Powers, like blatant cocks atop the cinder heaps,
were raucously crowing their exultation over the defeat
of the small opponent. It had, however, taken the picked
troops of four Powers with their two most famous
generals to accomplish this feat !
For the moment Roumania's resistance had been
pulverized. German troops had forced open the last
remaining gateway to the East and had now in their
covetous grasp the fertile lands producing the great
yields of grain, cattle, oil and minerals so essential for
the continuance of the Teutonic struggle.
The success of the great ' pincers ' offensive of the
Central Powers — a converging movement of two large
armies endeavouring to crush their opponent between
2^0
AT BAY 231
them — which had been carried out in the offensive against
the Russians on the Narew, at Tannenberg, Augustovo
and in Eastern Prussia, had been closely followed in the
strategy of the Roumanian campaign.
According to the Hindenburg-Ludendorf plans, General
von Falkenhayn, advancing in the north and north-west,
with the object of attacking the Roumanian armies, was
to be supported by General von Mackensen operating to
the south between the Dobrudja and the Carpathians. By
means of the Teutonic, Bulgar and Turkish troops they
were to enclose within their grip the small Roumanian
Army, which, unsupported and ill equipped, had to defend
a line much more extensive than that held by the British,
French and Belgian armies on the Western front.
Let us carefully note this, for few of us in the British
Isles realize the tremendous extent of front, and the
terrible strain this small nation had to bear to withstand
the picked forces of the war-seasoned, and highly equipped
armies of the Teutonic fighting machine, with all their
advantages of interior lines and splendid railway service,
great factories and reserve of war material. According
to their calculations the Roumanian armies would be cut
in half, and three-fourths of them probably annihilated.
They aimed at winning the whole of Roumania, Bess-
arabia and Southern Russia up to Odessa, thus giving
them the immense grain and oil fields, and the command
of the Black Sea and the whole of the Danube. All this
would greatly mitigate the acute economic problems
facing them at home, and would replenish their larder,
while depriving the Russian and Roumanian armies of
their most fertile lands, and so thereby diminishing their
powers of resistance.
232 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
To the north along the Moldavian border the Russians,
under Generals Kaledin and Lechitsky, the conquerors of
Lutsk and Czernovitz, were holding the line against the
Austro-German forces of Generals Kovess, von Arz, and
Gerok, under the supreme command of a blue-blooded
figurehead the Archduke Charles Francis Joseph. Further
south General von Falkenhayn's ninth German Army
was operating, while Field-Marshal von Mackensen held
the supreme command from Dorna Vatra to the Black Sea.
Until January Wallachia still remained the principal
field of operations. By this time the Russian reinforce-
ments had arrived, but all the skill of the Russian Generals
was unable at this late hour to counterbalance the terrible
omission, the criminal negligence, disorganization and
treachery of the Stuermer administration.
It was the old, old story. Too late ! Too late ! Half
the forces if sent in time might have saved the country ;
now that the disaster had happened and the unhappy
nation and army were in retreat, the invasion looked as if
it could not be stayed.
Tulcea, one of the most important towns in the Dob-
rudja, and a big commercial centre, fell. Inhabited by a
mixed population of Roumanians, Russians, Jews, Greeks,
Armenians, Turks, it is a flat town of low buildings and
fishermen's huts ; lying on the western fringe of the
Delta, it is divided by the Danube from Russia.
Braila, the fourth largest town in Roumania with a
population of seventy thousand, had also to be evacuated.
The headquarters of the grain trade and chief port of
Wallachia, it was a thriving and prosperous town on the
Danube. British steamers of four thousand tons could
load and unload at its wharves, where great grain elevators
AT BAY 2J3
and warehouses were established. Everything that could
be of value to the enemy had been removed. The shops
were empty and shuttered, and hardly a bootlace, shirt
or tin of food could be bought or commandeered by the
hungry hosts of the invader.
From Braila the German armies swept up towards
Focsani, and their ultimate aim was to turn the line of
the Sereth and invade Bessarabia and the direct road to
Odessa.
« * * «
By January the actual battle front lay roughly on a
line of about 135 miles from Galatz, at the junction of the
Sereth with the Danube, to Focsani and the Gyimes Pass
in the Carpathians. North of Galatz Ues the southern
portion of the valley of the Sereth, six to ten miles wide ;
a region of marshes, swamps and minor streams. Few
roads exist here, indeed not a single one crosses it below
Momoloasa, half-way to Focsani. Beyond Focsani the
valley of the middle Sereth stretches a distance of some
thirty miles, and was considered to be the weakest part
of the line ; the river, no very serious obstacle, cutting
its way between level plains free from marsh.
The line north of this lies among the Carpathian ranges.
The ground here, difficult enough in summer, was im-
penetrable in winter ; a pathless snow-bound waste, of
giant forest, wolf-haunted ; grim mountain peaks and
lonely mist-enshrouded valleys.
This hne, the line of the Sereth, was the first strong
continuous line across Roumania since the enemy had
burst through the line at Targul Jiu early in September.
It was a well acknowledged strategical front even before
the war, and in all the plans considered by the Roumanian
234 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
General Staff in case of hostilities with Russia or the
Balkans had played a prominent part. A system of
fortresses built by the Belgian engineer Briaulmont, and
completed under the supervision of German experts, ran
along the river. The fortifications, consisting of ten
groups of batteries arranged in three lines on a front of
ten miles, formed the eastern bastion ; the centre, over
a front of twelve miles, consisted of eight groups in two
lines, while around Focsani they extended in a circle of
fifteen miles, forming fifteen groups in three rows. Un-
fortunately they had neither been planned with a view
to withstanding hostilities except from the north, nor
were they proof against the heavy artillery of modern
times, but they could still be utilized as bases for defence.
By the middle of January the enemy was held on this
line. The strength of the wings, protected by the moun-
tains on the north and the wide Danube to the south,
prevented the narrowness of the weaker centre being
rushed by the enemy, and unless the latter could wrest
the position of strength from the Roumanians among the
Carpathians to the north, or on the marshes of the Lower
Sereth, they had little chance of breaking through the
centre without subjecting their flank and rear to a
counter-attack.
* * * *
This first winter of war, unparalleled in -its arctic
severity, had gripped the land ; and the resistance of the
army, Russian as well as Roumanian, standing on their
new and stronger line, prevented any very active offensive
on the part of the enemy. The disaster and desolation
that had engulfed the beautiful and prosperous country
— now, more than ever, and tragically so, the Belgium of
AT BAY 235
the East — only served to quicken into stronger life and
endurance the spirit of the nation.
Steadily and staunchly the battered, starving and
decimated remnant of the army was withdrawn to be
reorganized. The devotion of all ranks, their burning
indignation against the insolence of the enemy's calcula-
tions, and his premeditated atrocities aroused among the
manhood and youth of the country a fine martial spirit.
The Government had taken the precaution of ensuring
that no males between the ages of sixteen and sixty should
remain in the occupied territory to become the slaves and
helots of the Hun. Under the untiring efforts of the
French instructors they were rapidly attainmg a high
state of soldier-like ethciency.
With the breaking up of the bleak misery of the cruel
winter, with its incredible tale of disease, starvation and
suffering, hope eternal, like the tender green shoots
forcing their way through the barren looking waste of
earth, was building up the hearts of Roumania's sons
anew. Strong in the belief of their ultimate destiny they
were keen to aflhrm their right to defend not only their
territory, but their country's name before the world and
history.
They were realizing to the full that what was required
in the stern test before them was an unshakable deter-
mination, an unflinching will to see the struggle through.
They looked to their political leaders as well as their
generals for a calmness, a foresight and sagacity that would
guide them safely, avoiding all false moves through the
last phase of their desperate struggle. Their enemy,
seeking to undermine their resistance in another way, had
launched a determined and insidious campaign of propa-
236 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
ganda amongst the military and civil population. This
was done through those Germans naturalized as Rou-
manian subjects, as well as German agents dressed as
Russians and speaking the language fluently, who en-
deavoured to persuade the people that as the country
was occupied and Russia ablaze with revolution from one
end to another, a separate peace, backed up as their
proposal was by deceptive promises of innumerable
advantages, was their surest dehverance and hope.
But serious though the phght of the nation was, tragic
the desolation and suffering, scant the succour or support
they could expect from their flaming and anarchical
neighbour Russia, yet our gallant little Ally, pressed
back to the uttermost Umits of her country, held her
head up bravely, defying the menace and mendacious
wiles of the enemy to make her break her bond.
Unsupported and alone the sixteen divisions which
represented Roumania's whole army had fought with the
superb courage of despair thirty-seven supremely eqicipped
divisions, the elite of the German Army. Even a Power
like Italy and her army, vaUantly as they had fought,
had nearly yielded to the onslaught of thirty-three divisions
composed of Austrians.
Of the 620,000 soldiers who had leapt to arms in
August, 1916, for the liberation of Transylvania, theirs
by heritage and blood, only a third remained. Over
200,000 had been killed or wounded, while about 100,000
had been taken prisoners, cut off in the retreat and sur-
rounded by the hosts of Falkenhayn and Mackensen.
Though the year ended in tragedy and disaster the
virile intrepid spirit of the nation endured. She felt her
sacrifice and suffering would not be in vain if by drawing
AT BAY 237
down upon herself the thirty-seven picked divisions of the
enemy's forces — which would otherwise have been em-
ployed on the Western front — she had helped the cause of
the Allies and contributed towards the superb and
historic triumph of the French at Verdun.
* * * *
But the army, exhausted by the incessant battles and
hardships of the long four months' retreat, was almost
worn out. Some few divisions, five in number, commanded
by General Averescu, supported by the Russian divisions,
continued to hold the front line on the Sereth, while the
remainder were withdrawn to the rear. France and
England took up the task of supplying the munitions and
material necessary to equip the exhausted forces, which in
the desperate struggle had been shorn of a considerable
proportion of their effectives, while a large quantity of
arms and munitions had fallen into the hands of the
enemy.
The work necessitated almost superhuman efforts ;
armaments and munitions had to come by sea to Arch-
angel, and then had to be transported across the whole
length of Russia from north to south. The depth of
winter, the disorganization and chaos consequent on the
revolutionary condition of Russia, the peculation and
insufficiency of raih\ ay transport made it a long uncertain
proceeding.
Roumania possesses only one railway line running
northwards, and that a single one connecting Moldavia
with Russia. This was the only route by which it was
possible to feed or succour the country. At Ungheni, the
frontier railway station, the congestion was indescribable.
The whole needs of a nation, and a nation destitute of
238 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
everything, had to pass over this soHtary Une. It was
her only avenue of supply, and it was tried to the utter-
most, for the Russian reinforcements were now pouring
in (great in bulk but lacking much in equipment), and the
lew roads deep in snow rendered transport by them
almost impossible.
The arrival of the Russian reinforcements permitted
General Averescu to divide the Roumanian Army into
two groups ; one was withdrawn to be reorganized,
while the remainder, constituting the Second Army,
continued to fight in the front line under his command.
General Averescu is a man of few words, and a severe
disciplinarian. He is tall and of very spare physique with
shrewd deep-set eyes set in a seamed thought-worn
brown face, over which lies an expression of melancholy.
His temperament is a stern and vigorous one, but his
sternness and strictness are mitigated by his strong sense
of justice and the intimate knowledge and interest he
shows in all ranks ; his readiness to acknowledge merit,
to promote gallantry and resource, and his prompt and
generally personal awards for bravery have inspired the
army and nation with a whole-hearted confidence in his
leadership.
A general overhaul of the various commands in the
army commanded his instant attention. A great number
of the generals who had taken part in the early part of
the campaign were relieved of their posts ; some were
given minor commands in towns, other pensioned and
some court -martialled. Young officers who had proved
their capacity and worth in the stern ordeals of the re-
treat were made divisional commanders, and staff pro-
motion by seniority was replaced by that of choice by
AT BAY 239
assured capacity. All ihis had an excellent efl'ect on the
spirit and confidence of the troops.
* * ♦ ♦
The French Military Mission which had arrixed at the
most tragic moments of the country's fate — the dark
days preceding the evacuation of the capital — had inspired
the nation with new hope and courage, and they had been
accorded a delirious welcome by the people. The ^Mission
was headed by General Berthelot, an officer who had
greatly distinguished himself at the battle of the Mame,
and primed with the vast experience of two years' inten-
sive warfare on the W'estern front, proved of the utmost
value in collaborating with General Averescu in re-
organizing the shattered Roumanian Army.
The work of drilling the new recruits proceeded
energetically. After a few months' drilling these were
gradually incorporated among the old units, and after
three or four weeks' drilling with the men of the Old
Army, were drafted to the front to replace other exhausted
groups who retired behind the fine for rest and re-
organization. The arms and munitions supplied were
different from those the Roumanian Army had hitherto
employed, and the troops had to be instructed in their
use. All this was accomplished in the face of almost
insuperable difficulties of equipment, housing, food, etc.,
and the desperate battle against disease of the most
virulent kind which had to be fought, and which, owing
to the want of food, clothing and medical stores, and
accentuated by the bitter winter weather, made the most
ghastly ravages among both officers and men. Yet in
spite of all this, withhi five months another army of seven
divisions was able to take its place in the firing line.
240 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
A speech from King Ferdinand at this time declared in
ringing accents that notwithstanding the tragedy of the
past Roumania would go on to victory with her great
AlUes, proud to fight with them. She had entered the
side of the Entente by reason of her Latin race and
tradition, for the freedom of her kinsmen, and because
if she neglected her mission her position would become
that of a vassal to another Power. It was a struggle
between his conscience and his heart, said the King, but
" my conscience triumphed. The Germans say, ' Ger-
many above all.' I said, * My duty above all.' "
But it needed all the courage and natural resiUence of
the nation to face the terrible conditions confronting
them of devastating disease, lack of food and the dis-
organization consequent on the retreat and which could
not be remedied at once. The Revolution in Russia had
flamed forth, its frenzy of military insubordination and
industrial upheaval, its ceaseless and futile orgies of
talk, ' blether ' as the practical Scot would call it — the
eternal never-ending committees of every description
consuming the precious hours of day and night and
paralysing all effort and action.
The Russian troops in Roumania, though not so de-
moralized as their brothers on the Russian front, were
sporting the Red Badge, and with the crafty insidious
help of German agents in their ranks were endeavouring
to spread the same canker of rot and dissatisfaction among
the ranks of the Roumanian soldiers.
But the Latin temperament of the Roumanians was a
tougher, less impracticable and visionary one than the
Slav. The chaotic conditions in Russia did not appeal to
them ; they had suffered too terribly to risk losing the
'A
AT BAY 241
little left them, and honour and loyalty were very dear
to them. The splendid and constitutional attitude of
the King and Queen, the unselfish devotion they had
shown their suffering people, soldiers and civiUans alike,
in these unprecedented days of misery, only served to
deepen their loyalty to the dynasty — more than ever
now Roumanian — and root it firmly in the heart of the
nation.
* ♦ ♦ *
A very touching and important link in the history of
the nation's racial sentiment and union was forged in
July, 1917, when a large number of Austrian prisoners of
Roumanian descent from the Banat and the Buko\-ina,
captured by the Russians in the earlier months of the
war, petitioned to be allowed their release and the honour
of fighting with their Roumanian brothers against their
former oppressors, and the privilege of striking a blow
for the union of their race. More than eighty thousand
of the total of prisoners had petitioned, and the first
draft arriving from Russia provoked an extraordinary
outburst of enthusiasm.
The Roumanians fully realized the signification of this
act. For these prisoners had enjoyed the most con-
siderate treatment in Russia, and it was a wonderful and
spontaneous evidence of the desire of the race for union
that had impelled them to incur afresh the dangers and
trials of the battle-field under the Roumanian flag, the
only one to them that counted.
The ceremony at which they took the oath of allegiance
was held in the open in the presence of the King, members
of the Royal Family, the Ministers, General Berthelot
and the Members of the French Mihtary Mission, and
k
242 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
General Tcherbatcheff, Second in Command of the
Russian Forces operating in Roumania.
Mass was celebrated under a sun that poured a gorgeous
benediction on to the packed and waiting multitude. As
soon as it was over a great wave of melody floated out
from the ranks of the " brothers from over the Car-
pathians." Deep and stirring the notes swelled forth,
first the Royal Hymn, then the patriotic song the " Des-
teapta-te, Romane diu somnul eel de moarte " (Awake,
thou Roumanian, from the sleep of death), written during
the Transylvanian Rising in 1848. The great burst of
music rolled forth in the dancing sunlight, pouring from
hearts surcharged and suffering, yet unconquerable in
their hope of freedom and reunion, and ready to give
their lives for it. It was a deeply touching moment, and
many a heart quickened and eye glistened tearfully at a
scene which symbolized the beginning of the realization
of their ancient dream, and which crowned in some small
measure all they had lost and suffered in endeavouring to
obtain.
The new troops, accompanied by French officers, these
splendid Allies who have upheld the banners of historic
France like Paladins, marched past the King amid
thunderous applause, carrying the flags of Transylvania,
Bukovina and the Banat, on which was inscribed " Long
live the King of all the Roumanians," " Long live the
King of Greater Roumania." The remainder of the day
was given up to a rapturous reception of the new troops,
in the Place Unirea, under the statue of Prince Cuza, the
first Prince of United Roumania, and also under that of
their great hero of earlier days, Michael the Brave.
Stirring orations to a great concourse of people were
,1:.
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AT BAY 243
delivered by the Prime Minister, Take Jonesco, Octavian
Cioga, the great writer, the Gabrielle d'Aiinunzio of the
Roumanian race, and lorga the historian.
Over in Paris another ceremony was taking place
testifying to the deep spirit of affectionate sympathy
between the races. At the Sorbonne a great manifesta-
tion, attended by the President of the Republic, M. Paul
Deschanel, the President of the Chamber, the Ministers,
members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of
the letters and arts of France, was held when the banner
of Roumania's great fighting Prince, Stephen the Great,
was handed over to M. Lahovary, the Roumanian
Minister in Paris.
Stephen, Roumania's national hero, stands for all that
is valorous in their history, and the manner in which the
banner fell into the hands of the French was almost that
of a chance discovery.
During the fighting of the Expeditionary Army of
Salonica the French occupied Mount Athos, and found in
the Bulgarian convent of Zographo the banner of the
great King, who in 1475 repulsed the Turks, and so saved
Moldavia. Though all the monasteries on famous Mount
Athos were left intact by the French, in marked contrast
to the spirit of a so-called Kultur displayed by their
Hunnish foes. General Sarrail considered that a Bulgarian
institution was the last place for the banner of the splendid
and valorous King to rest, and it was accordingly sent to
France for presentation to the Roumanian authorities.
The banner, which is still in good preservation, is of
velvet richly embroidered, and represents St. George,
Roumania's patron Saint, seated, armed and crowned by
two angels, one of whom hands him a sword and the
244 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
other a shield. Lying beneath his feet is a three-headed
dragon, which has been cut down before his throne.
In thanking the President, M. Lahovary mentioned his
country's eternal gratitude to France, who had under-
stood and encouraged all her efforts, and spoke of his
country's struggle to preserve her own nationality long
before anything had been heard of the " principle of
nationalities." Neither France nor Roumania were
asking for annexation, all they asked was the redemption
of brothers and sons from a pitiless foreign yoke.
♦ « ♦ ♦
King Ferdinand took a great step forward when
addressing his troops at the front, he promised drastic
constitutional reforms, the necessity for which had been
felt in the country for nearly twenty years. Various
attempts at reform had been made by different Govern-
ments, but none of them had been successful in really
improving the position of the peasantry. The reason for
this was the inadequate representation of the great
agricultural masses of the nation, the peasants being
represented by only twelve members, whereas the land-
owners had over 130 representatives. Naturally there
was little chance of the claims of the peasantry being
effectively secured.
When war was declared and the King summoned the
nation to arms, a magnificent rally was the response, not
a single peasant failed, and when disasters followed
quickly upon each other and the whole nation reeled
under the crisis of the retreat, most of the peasants
followed the army, boys even of thirteen and fourteen
joining the colours with a wonderful ardour of devotion.
Some of the big landowners, officers of the reserve, did
If
AT BAY 245
not, however, show the same fidelity to their country, and
under pretext of disagreement with the foreign poUcy of
the Government, remained behind with the enemy.
Happily the number of these contemptibles was small.
The 103'alty and devotion of the peasants to the king-
dom could no longer go unrewarded, and botli Chamber
and Senate have accepted the principle of universal
suffrage — a great advance from the archaic system of
representation by the Electoral Colleges which had
hitherto prevailed.
In addition to this the King also placed large estates
belonging to the Crown for disposal amongst the peasantry
who had splendidly faced every horror and hardship
without flinching. Further large grants of land were
voted by the Government to be divided among those who
had taken part in the war.
Much, however, still remains to be done, for events all
over the world have roused the democratic spirit, and in
view of what the peasants have done for Roumania during
the centuries, they are entitled to still wider reforms.
■» -ir ♦ *
By early summer the freshly reorganized Roumanian
Army was ready for action. Their plan was to pierce the
Austro-German line between the Danube and the Mol-
davian Carpathians, with the object of striking south of
Focsani in the direction of Ploeshti and Bucharest ;
deliver the capital, release the oil-fields from the hands
of the enemy and with the help of the Allies' Army at
Salonica threaten Bulgaria and Turkey.
Their offensive, starting in the Susitza and Putna
valleys, met with the most brilliant results. In the course
of a few days they advanced over twelve miles on a
246 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
twenty-mile front, storming positions of great strength,
capturing five thousand prisoners and nearly a hundred
guns. Unfortunately the Russian armies north were
showing their disorganization by abandoning positions
without putting up any defence. This affected the
Russian armies in Roumania fighting in the Carpathians,
who fell back also, rendering an invasion of Podolia and
Bessarabia more than probable. The position became so
threatening that it was found necessary for the Rou-
manians to abandon their offensive and to despatch a
considerable number of their troops to support and rally
the Russian forces — rather like a plucky minnow trying
to support a whale — ^but history had shown once before
what powerful help this little nation had been to the raw
Colossus in the Russo-Turkish war, and turned then
what had looked like a rout into a victory.
The enforced change in the plans of the Roumanian
general staff was an opportunity of which the Archduke
commanding the Northern Austro-German forces was
not slow in availing himself, and he at once attacked along
the weakened point between the Trotus and Oituz valleys
towards Ocna, and also along the Focsani-Marasesti rail-
way. It was a twofold thrust, primarily to cut the rail-
way line to Galatz and render it and Reni in Russia
valueless, and secondly to deprive Roumania of every
source of contact with Russia.
The Roumanians put up a desperate resistance, re-
peatedly counter-attacking, and capturing another two
thousand prisoners and several guns. During fourteen
days' fierce fighting they had to fall back a few miles,
but not before they had the satisfaction of knowing that
the enemy had used up fourteen divisions, which were
AT BAY 247
known to have sustained severe losses. Immediately
after this Mackensen launched his offensive on August 8th,
beginning on a front of over 25 kilometres between the
Sereth and the Gabrantzi mountain range. He attacked
with twelve divisions, ten German and two Austrian, not
including his German Alpine troops. The fourth Russian
Army offered but slight resistance, and he made rapid
progress until the First Roumanian Army opportunely
appeared upon the scene. At the same time, and with
a view to facilitating Mackensen's task, the First
Austrian Army — one of the group of armies commanded
by General Rohr, and under the supreme direction
of the Archduke Joseph — received orders on August
nth to launch an offensive in the direction of Onesti
on the river Trotus ; the aim of the two offensives,
the one under Mackensen and the other under General
Rohr, being to enclose in a great ' pincer ' movement the
Roumanian Army, and more especially the Second Army
of Averescu.
Both commanders made almost superhuman efforts to
advance, but the Roumanians, fighting superbly, with-
stood without faltering the most ferocious artillery bom-
bardment and massed attacks carried out with the
extreme of violence by Bavarians and Germans, with a
resistance and bravery of unparalleled ardour.
For ten days and nights the enemy hammered at the
wall formed by the Roumanian Army. Regardless of
losses he repeatedly sent wave after wave of massed
infantry which broke in front of the splendid Rounumiaji
defence. The valley was a tomb for thousands of tiie
enemy, and the superb fighting powers shown by the
Roumanians, who had sworn to die rather than be
248 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
captured, drew a well-deserved and spontaneous tribute
of admiration from the foreign officers who witnessed
their valour and stern obstinacy of defence. The young
officers, barely a month out of the schools, showed un-
surpassable bravery, and like the splendid young Cadets
during the Russian Revolution, fought like tigers.
One of the most splendid episodes of this gallant little
nation's fight to the death for the few miles of soil left
them, was the magnificent courage and devotion of the
battalions of women volunteers. Think of it, we women
of the Western world ! Many of us are doing splendid
work over here in factory, canteen and hospital, but out
there these brave women, sweethearts and sisters of the
sturdy peasant soldier, battled for everything that meant
sheer existence, with a heroism beyond all words. They
fought beside their men in the front lines with a dash,
such an unshakable fury of heroism that the Army Com-
manders declared that it had the effect of doubling the
attacking value of the regiments !
The Germans were determined to force the passage of
the river and had been ordered to cross, no matter at
what cost. Under a terrific bombardment supported by
dense waves of asphyxiating gases, three crack German
divisions attacked a single Roumanian division which
was defending the bridge at Cosmesti.
Their defence was heroic and, in the words of an on-
looker, " these peasant soldiers who had to face much
superior German forces, which had on their side the
advantage of surprise, is not surpassed by anything in
the deeds either of the Belgians or Serbians." They
fought unflinchingly " though whole regiments were
decimated by the fire of the German guns and machine
'¥
:*
AT BAY 249
guns. Officers and soldiers died in their positions,
refusing to withdraw or surrender. The French Captain
Vernueil, attached to a Roumanian regiment, lost his life
fighting with his Roumanian comrades."^
The final German effort was launched in the presence
of King Ferdinand and Prince Carol who shared the risks
of battle with their soldiers who fought so dauntlessly
that the enemy fled in disorder. Many prisoners, both
Germans and Austrians, were paraded before the King
next day when the goose step was entirely lacking, and a
more dejected-looking lot of " Proud Prussians " have
been rarely seen !
This great battle, which lasted for nearly three weeks,
was one of the most bloody of this great war, and without
doubt it was by far the most important of all the Rou-
manian campaign.
♦ * * *
Meanwhile in the conquered Roumanian territory the
enemy wreaked the full limit of his vengeance on the un-
happy people. Enough has leaked out to show us —
though it would seem well-nigh impossible — that the
Germans have outdone their Bulgar allies in ferocity and
ruthless oppression ; for they have added to the treacher-
ous savagery of the Bulgar temperament all the ferocity
of a scientific brutality.
The horrors committed are a tale that as yet cannot
be told. Dimly we know it as one of the most hideous
events of the war. Far worse than the occupation of
Belgium, for over there in the guarded silence of these
conquered Eastern lands the dead, the tortured, the
dying can tell no tales, send forth no anguished cry for
^ The Times correspondent with the Roumanian Army.
250 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
help. Things are done over there by these " wolfish,
bloody, ravenous " races that can only be matched in
hell.
They may be proud of their unique claim — the declass^
amongst the nations — for it can never be echpsed ! Such
an appalling chain of cruelty and destruction will for
ever mark them in the future as the pariahs among the
civilized Christian world, and should bar them for a
century at least from the circle of the civilized nations.
No human law or divine, no faintest sense of honour or
chivalry has penetrated their natures or affected their
systematically planned, and thoroughly organized orgy
of lust, cruelty and destruction. They have reduced
savagery to a science, which is inculcated in them from
birth.
As the men go forth to war their Kaiser bids them
" Give no quarter, take no prisoners ; let all who fall
into your hands be at your mercy." A token is hung
round their necks — as if in mockery of the Crucifix, the
holy symbol, that imperishably divine and wholly pity-
ing figure worn round the necks of the believers. This
calls upon them to " Strike your enemy dead ; the day
of judgment will ask no questions." No — no questions —
break all the commandments, violate the terrified and
tortured maidens, hack to death the mother with her un-
born babe, spit the little ones on to the point of the
bayonet, murder the helpless, destroy, lie, poison and
mutilate ! Your War Lord the all Highest, he will inter-
vene for all you may do with the Lord of Creation, his
" unconditional and avowed ally " on whom he " can
absolutely rely."
They brag of their mailed list, their shining sword with
AT BAY 251
strepitous fervour, and boast of their song of hate. Surely
it is time to apologize to the shades of the ancient Huns,
who would revolt at siring such descendants. Truer
words were never spoken than those in which Nietzsche
has said that " every crime against culture that has
been committed for a hundred years rests upon
Germany."^
A German paper has thus described this war — the
apogee of her civilization, that for which she has planned,
plotted and schemed ! " Der Tag " — the vow, the toast,
the purpose of this race !
"Ten million corpses: ten milUon men have ended.
The flowing blood of these murdered men, ten million
gallons steaming human blood, could substitute for a
whole day the gigantic water masses of the Niagara.
" All the rolHng stock of the Prussian railways would
not suffice to transport the heads only, all at once, of these
ten million murdered men.
" Civilization ! Make a chain of these ten million
murdered murderers, placmg them head to head and foot
to foot, and you will have an uninterrupted line measuring
ten thousand miles, a grave ten thousand miles long, en-
compassing all Germany, winding itself through fields
and woods, passing many a village and town, corpses
here and there, corpses everywhere, along valleys, too,
and rivers and seashore, ten thousand miles — not yards —
a gigantic grave all round Germany.
" Head to head, foot to foot, ten thousand miles of
corpses ! Civilization ! "
But a day must come, an aftermath nmst follow,
" though the hand of God is holden, the Ups of God are
* £tce Homu.
252 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
still," and justice, though its face is hidden, is still en-
throned, and
" When this night is ended and when new days begin
Bitterly shall your children pay for their father's sin-
The eyes of all shall mock you, lips as you pass be dumb :
Into the paths you follow no other guest shall come ;
You shall sit at the feast unfriended, you shall go from the
house unstayed,
You shall be on the earth a stranger till the debt that you
owe is paid." '
The Teuton and the Bulgar are the only two among
the world nations who have deified Hate, enthroning it as
a national worship, a hymn voiced by millions in prayer.
The German Hymn is well known, its High Priest was
honoured and profusely decorated by the All Highest.
Here is its twin soul, composed by the Bulgarian, Ivan
Arnaudoff, who calls himself the Pindar of Bulgaria !
" Let not one stone rest upon another, let not one child
suck from its mother's breast, not one old man lean upon
his grandson's shoulder.
"Throw their skulls to the dogs, let there remain on
the ruins your hand has sown only skeletons and ghosts.
" See a decrepit old man dragging his miserable years
in an effort to cheat death and your zeal.
" Fell him under your boot, tear out his troubled eyes
with a fork."
As to the unmentionable atrocities destined for the
women and young men they cannot be printed.
Is it possible that a people who voice such a diabolical
creed should be allowed to exist in Europe ; should be
permitted a place in the civilized portion of the globe ?
They should be transported to the distant steppes from
^ Harold Begbie.
AT BAY 253
which they migrated — Europe is no place for them and
their kind.
* ♦ « *
In the Roumanian territory occupied by these tyrants
incredible hardships were inflicted on their victims, and a
well-known Roumanian writer told me that by February,
1917, over 60 per cent of the mihtary prisoners had suc-
cumbed to starvation, cruelty and neglected disease,
while the lot of the civiUan was equally bad. Both ahke
had to work within reach of the Allies' artillery ten hours
a day, and were flogged when they fell down from lack of
food and exhaustion. Teams of ten to fourteen men were
harnessed to the heavy transport carts and ploughs,
instead of oxen, and every one from twelve to sixty-five
years old had to work on the roads, Sundays included,
without pay or food.
A huge levy of ten million pounds was demanded from
the occupied districts ; Bucharest paid three milhon
four hundred and forty thousand pounds, while the
country districts, from which the richer people had fled
and only the struggling peasants remamed, had to pay
between them the crushing burden of eight million
pounds. All cattle, grain, clothing, bedding, iron and
copper utensils were confiscated and the peasants had to
buy back at extortionate prices their own maize, given
them in daily rations of eight ounces for an adult and
three ounces for children — a starvation pittance for the
support of a cruelly over-worked existence.
The sown fields were all destroyed by these scientific
Jaiioos to a distance of thirty-five miles around the once
prosperous town of Braila, and information only is lack-
ing as to what further destruction and wicked desolation
254 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
has been perpetrated in the more distant territory from
which no word can come. Hostages such as the Attorney
General of the Supren;e Court of Bucharest and others of
high social standing were made to work at most degi'ading
tasks and publicly insulted and jeered at.
The women and girls were violated and removed from
any protection their family could afford them. In order
to provide the conqueror with comfortable quarters the
people were herded together, as many as thirty occupying
one small close room such as are to be found in the
cottages. The people looked like ghosts, and when one of
the villages was recaptured and General Vaitoiano com-
manding the 2nd Roumanian Army Corps entered it, the
poor wretches, faint and weeping, prostrated themselves
in gratitude before him, hardly believing the torments of
the long eight months' nightmare were over.
* * * -x-
And the cry goes up all over Europe, and far beyond :
" Why must such things be ? Why must the world be
drenched in blood and tears to feed the pride of a would-
be world conqueror, the insensate ambition, the lust of
power, of greed for dominion of a megalomaniac and a
military caste who have lit a fire that has devoured the
world with flame and torture ?
And what words can depict the scenes of sa\'agery and
destruction ; the suffering and atrocities they have let
loose on a world of peace and beauty !
Montenegro swept out, Serbia annihilated, Roumania
devastated ! The crowds of broken, famished peasantry
herded together, breeding disease and madness and worked
like slaves ! Those also of Belgium ! Torn from their
homes and sent to labour in exile, starved, decimated by
AT RAY 255
consumption, tliey are cast out to die when tlie uttermost
ounce of sweated labour has been squeezed out of their
poor emaciated bodies !
Hell at the Front — Misery in the reai' !
The millions of starving prisoners, ill-treated, abused,
bludgeoned or kicked to death. The foul poison gases,
germ traps, plots, lies ; everything that is remorseless,
diabolical !
The thunder of the moaning sea seems to roll out a
requiem across the lone wastes, for the souls of the women
and children sent to their death below by the German
chivalry of the deep ! The mournful sighing of the
evening breeze, whimpering eerily, brings the faint sound
of ghostly cries, from murdered and bombed little ones.
The slow merciless drip-drip o-f ram — the bitter tears of
wives and mothers. The shuddering dirge of autumnal
gales echoing drearily, chants the terrible tale of the
frenzied struggles, the piteous sobs of the girls — the
womanhood of outraged and desolated lands.
And over it all is heard the faint but never-ceasing rustle
of Passing Souls — the ghostly tread of warriors — that
mighty host of vahant, wonderful Youth, passing . . .
ever passing . . . offering the one supreme sacrifice !
Those brave spirits who " poured out the red sweet wine
of youth, gave up the years to be, of work, of joy and that
unhoped serene that men call age," who send forth their
mute message from the wrecked and desolated lands thry
died to save.
" you, that have rain and sun,
Kisses of cliildren and of wife,
And the good earth to tread upon,
And the mere sweetness that is hfe,
Forget not us who gave all these
For something dearer and for you ! "
256 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Dimly in our little dusty civilian souls we comprehend
the superb chivalry, the glory and fearlessness of those
who are stemming the flood of brigandage and barbarism.
Surely we can follow, if we only will, the gleaming torch of
faith and courage their souls bear forth so proudly as
they pass into the trembling Beyond !
And the Great Being, shrouded, enigmatical, broods
before the Mirror. The wild tide of struggling life blurs
it in swirling mists ; brief shafts of light, of glorious
doings, clear it for a moment. We think we see an answer
to the Eternal question.
But the mists close down again ; the shapes of life, the
forms of good and evil move to and fro, striving, struggling.
New souls come forth, born amid the welter and stress.
Creation never falters, never tires.
Far above, and beyond the grim reality of earth, with
its "haggard ugliness, its divine beauty, its depths of
Death and Life," a peace, a stillness reigns.
The veiled Being, mute, inscrutable, waits and
watches. Man's struggles his passions, his hopes, are
but as a moment in the vast Eternity of Time.
CHAPTER XIV
AND AFTER ?
Who counsels peace at this momentous hour.
When God has given dchverance to the oppress'd
And to the injured power ?
Who counsels peace, when Vengeance like a flood
Rolls on, no longer now to be repress'd ;
When innocent blood
From the four corners of the world cries out
For justice upon the accursed head ;
When freedom hath her holy banners spread
Over all nations, now in one just cause
United ; when with one sublime accord
Europe throws off the yoke abhorred.
And loyalty and faith and ancient laws
Follow the avenging sword ?
Woe, woe to England ! woe and endless shame.
If this heroic land
False to her feelings and unspotted fame,
Hold out the Olive to the Tyrant's hand.
Koherl Soiitkey. April, 1S14..
THESE heroic words \\'ere written a little over a
century ago when, as to-day, great issues were
hanging in the balance and the voice of the
battling peoples were called upon to declare
for the destiny of their children and their children's
children. Like a bugle call they ring out again over the
world, over a great continent WTiihing under a far \\ orse
torture and tyranny than ever Napoleon brought to their
forefathers.
Russia which had stood in the eyes of the ^\•orld as a
Hercules, an embodiment of vast potential power inert
perhaps, but by her righteous will and the help of her
s 257
258 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Allies slowly gathering a great momentum of adequately
equipped force — help given her in large measure by the
sweat and financial support of milUons of Allied workers
beyond the seas — was now stricken with paralysis.
The great Revolution of March which had started with
such high hopes, such proud dreams of a free, stable and
Liberal democracy had fallen a victim to the sinister
bribery and promises of a pro-German intrigue. Torn by
civil war and anarchy, Russia as an organized State was
ceasing to exist. Rapidly disintegrating she was slipping
back to her position in the Middle Ages.
Lenin was in power and was being pressed by the
German negotiators to barter the nation's splendid
patrimony, to detach great provinces of the Russian
State, to sacrifice the millions of lives laid down in defence
of them and the most honourable principles of inter-
national faith, to an ignoble surrender. What bitterness of
spirit must the real heart of patriotic Russia feel — a great
voiceless multitude — as impotent and helpless under an
anarchical and autocratic Government she sees her honour
being dragged in the dust at the bidding of the Hun !
" Russia," as one of her dreamers said, " led the way.''
" Chaos, anarchy, plunder, terrorism for the hour are
masters in that huge amorphic, unstable, race. Let us
not suppose because it is so extravagant that it means
nothing, and will soon be nothing but a hideous memory
— ^wild, impossible, anti-Social as Bolshevism is, remember
that it is the delirious orgy of a passion which is very
real, very wide, very deep — ^which has many forms and
in some form has an inevitable future."^
The news cf the fall of Kerensky had fallen upon
^ Frederic Harrison, Fertntghtly Review, ]An., 1918.
♦^1
S'H,
-J
W
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H
O
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tn
>-)
0}
s
5
o
o
AND AFTER ? 259
Roumania like a thunderbolt. With the fearful presage
of impending doom, with the biting memory of the recent
terrible defection which had contributed so greatly to the
tragic loss of three-quarters of her kingdom, she realized
only too bitterly what her abandonment by Russia would
mean, and how completely she lay at the mercy of that
country's good will and faith.
Notwithstanding the welter of anarchy, Kerensky had
certainly represented a sense of honour and a certain
stable authority ; and though too weak, too visionary a
nature to dam the overwhelming flood he had released —
now overspreading the coimtry and submerging great
landmarks, or to rebuild the tottering edifice of the State
disappearing amongst the waters — he at any rate was a
patriotic and honourable man, faithful to the integrity
and obligations of his country.
At first General Tcherbatscheff, the Commander-in-
Chief of the Russian Forces on the Roumanian and
Southern Russian Front, had been able to some partial
extent to keep the extreme virus of rot and desertion
from affecting the troops under his command. But by
November this semblance of order and allegiance had dis-
appeared, and Roumania had to face the fact of the
complete collapse of the Russian armies.
Like a gigantic wave thousands of disorderly Russian
soldiers were deserting the front and streaming homewards
to swell the starving mass of anarchical and disorganized
peasantry.
" Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful wild,
Up from the bottom, turned by furious winds and surging waves."
They swept over the country towards the east, and the
utter disorganization of these enormous crowds of rene-
gade troops was unspeakable. Day after day they poured
26o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO DAY
back in a steady unceasing stream, sixty thousand passing
through a station in one day alone ! They swarmed on
the trains till they were literally hidden under them ;
outside and in they hung like flies : the roof, steps, plat-
forms and on the engine itself, and even in the spaces
l^etween the wagons were utilized by putting boards
across the buffers. So desperate were thej^ in their crazy
flight, so utterly disorganized, that they travelled abso-
lutely empty handed, having discarded and cast aside
rifles, kit, everything ! Guns, munitions and vast stores of
equipment of every description, and worth many millions of
pounds, were simply left for the Germans to take. . . . What
an inglorious flight ! What a pusillanimous surrender !
They shovv^ed the utmost bitterness and hostility to
their Allies the Roumanian soldiers, who stuck loyally
to their trenches refusing to join in the mad Bolshevik
dance of anarchy and terrorism, and General Tcherbat-
cheff was threatened that if he did not resign he would
incur the same butchery and death as had been meted
out to General Dukhonin.
This wholesale desertion was uncovering the flanks of
the Roumanian armies — the tiny Httle heart of desolate
land on which some milhons of half-starved and fugitive
people were existing — there is no other word for their
terrible plight — was being exposed, and despair was
knocking at its very portal. Do we realize here in
England the hideous situation she found herself forced to
face, the terrible decision these Russian m.akers of a
separate peace were compelling her to take ! Forced by
the ruthless clutch of tragic circumstances to sign the
armistice imposed on her !
But the will of Russia does not imply that it is the will
AND Al'TER ? 261
of Roumania, and there is no Bolshevik poison as yet in
the sturdy heroic Roumanian race.
Yet what a bitter turn of the Wheel of Fate ! What a
cruel sacrifice of all she held most dear, most precious !
The resolute courage with which she had faced the
calamity of the retreat, the loss of her country ; the
Herculean efforts by which she had reorganized her
decimated army, and with the spirit of her people surging
up again, she had hoped to redeem the tragedy of the
past ! The valour, the splendid fighting qualities dis-
played in the briUiant offensive of the summer which had
given her every reason to hope that they would be able
to sweep forward and retake their capital !
All ! all ! all ! came crashing down like a house of
cards ! Surrounded by four enemy powers — with flaming
Russia behind — a Red Guard of terror and autocracy that
would refuse her the sanctuary of retreat were she forced
to retire, imagination could hardly conceive a ghastlier
fate for the little kingdom.
It was as if the whole of England had been forced to
retreat to Inverness, and there in the bleak sparely
cultivated north had to exist with little assurance of
help and with further retreat denied them.
How could the Allies help her — how was it possible to
send her the troops needed to help her hold her fronts —
replace the Russians deserting her ! How get the food,
munitions, the vitally necessary supplies through th(t
great disrupted Russian State — from farthest north to
the distant south — when robbery, crime and anarchy
were ruling supreme ! Few here realized the magnitude
of the little nation's isolation, the difficulty of Allied help
reaching her at this terrible moment. Little news came
262 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
through. The great heaving welter in Russia was a wall
which shrouded the little nation completely. Pluck,
bravery, courage ! She had them in plenty, but how were
they to feed her starving people — maintain her armies ?
Truly, God seemed to have turned His Face from them
and their ancient prayer : " May God never inflict on the
Roumanian the full measure of suffering he can endure "
was being tested through and through to the deepest
fibres of their natures. . . .
* ♦ * *
Forced by the overwhelming crumbling of Russia,
deserted by her quondam ally, isolated, stricken and
beyond the reach of succour : surrounded by the savage
menace of the plundering, blackmailing Powers, she has
had to yield, under force majeure — and for the moment—
to a tyrannical and infamously misnamed peace.
And Austria, that swollen octopus gorged to the
uttermost with the blood of those other suffering aHen
races she has sucked the soul and life from, greedily,
covetously reaches out a writhing tentacle towards the
hfe-stream of this land and with the Bulgar brood tears
out the pulsing throat and heart — her port, her mountain
ranges, her vast oil fields — from the quivering victim.
" The only alternative put before the unhappy country
was immediate peace or complete obliteration from the
map of Europe. If she did not conclude peace she would
be divided up between Bulgaria on one side and Hungary
on the other and extinguished from among the class of
independent nations." ^
Could a more relentless and savage fate be meted out
under the hypocrisy of a so-called peace by ostensibly
Christian Powers ?
♦ ♦ ♦ *
» The Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour.
AND AFTER ? 263
But the Book of Ancient and Divine Wisdom has said :
■" Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill
the soul," and those words ring out with never-dying
conviction at a moment of national agony as this.
Fear not — little nation ! Keep your hearts firm, your
heads high. The civilized races have sworn that full
impartial justice, justice done at every point and to every
nation shall be meted out.
However long the war may last the great free nations
have said that they will stand by their faithful Allies in
a spirit of immutable resolve until their territories are
evacuated, and the redemption of their enslaved children
is secured ; that they are fighting for " the principle of
justice to all people and nations ahke, and their right to
live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another
whether they be strong or weak . . . and to the vindica-
tion of this principle they are ready to devote their lives,
their honour and everything they possess."
Nothing else matters but this — to hold on to this aim
and to grimly fight to the finish. A security for Europe
impregnable and lasting is what we must have or die.
Never, never again must this hydra-headed monster of
unimaginable massacre and destruction, this hateful
thing of Kaiserism and Militarism be allowed to raise its
head and bathe the world in fire and blood again. The
very dead send forth their message to endure to the end !
" They claim our weapons, not our tears,
Dying they raised a single pica
That grimly strong we would avenge
And crown their grave with victory."
And Roumania who has battled so superbly against
overwhehning odds, under difficulties of discouragement,
264 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
isolation, treachery, starvation and disease which we
here in our strength and security can barely imagine,
must never, never be forgotten. For her as well as for
Serbia and Montenegro our word must be made good to
the uttermost, and our debt is all the more binding
because their fate — submerged and tortured under the
doom of an age — has been so terrible. Take Jonesco has
said : "In Roumania we are faithful to the Allies and
our v/ord. Our sufferings come last."
And indeed as one looks back through the centuries at
the heroic struggle made by the race, it is their sufferings
borne so uncomplainingly, their extraordinary tenacity
and vigour to endure that is the truest and most wonder-
ful surety for their destiny and future. Sometimes van-
quished, sometimes victorious, crushed or hopeful — all
has joined in forming their indomitable soul. Vv^ith
breasts bared to the fury of warfare, struggling to defend
their soil, sweating to pay the tribute extorted from
them ; dying only to rise again, persevering and tenacious
both for work and resistance to aUen influence, their
generous, tender, tolerant soul — which one might well
suppose might have become bitter, cruel, brutal under
such long tyranny — only clasped their national unity,
their faith, their hope in their destiny more closely.
Valiant, hopeful, steadfast, what might have they not
become had peace been their portion !
With heads erect they have withstood all oppression,
overcome all tragedies. Bending to the storm, bruised,
crushed or bent — they have never yet been broken.
Their kingly device : "By ourselves " founded after the
War of Independence in 1877, is an omen of endurance,
hope and ultimate redemption for our distant, stricken,
but heroic little ally — Roumania.
INDEX
Abdul Hamiil, Sultan, ri2
Acarnania, 90
Adam, Ion. poet, 45
Aehrenthal, Count, 136
Agrarian questions, 69 ; reforins,
62 ; revolts, 69 ; system, 13
Agriculture, 70
Akermann, convention of, 6t
Albania, 99
Alexandri, Vasilc, poet, 40, 66
Aluta, 229
Amusements, 17
Anastasiu, general, 173, 229
Angeel, poet, 44
Antiv;iri, 99
Apollodorus, architect, 49
Apulam (Karlsburg), 50
Arges, river, 103, 174
Arimoni (Wallaclis), 90, 99
Army organisation, 67
Arnaudoff, Ivan, Bulgarian poet.
Art : Byzantine, ecclesiastical,
and Venetian influence, 29, 31 ;
mystic symbolism, 30 ; art
treasures in the royal palaces,
25
Arz, Austrian general, 232
Asian, general, 103
Athanaric, \'isigothic King, 31
Athos, mount, 29, 243
Augustovo, 231
Aurelian, Roman emperor ;
dons Dacia, 50
Austrian offers refused,
Austrian schemes, 113,
ultimatum to S rbia. 130
.ban-
"» ;
Avars, 51
Averescu, 163, 174, 1S7, 228, 238
Azuga, 80
Baba Dagh (mt.), 82
Balkan War (191 3), 11 1
Banat, the, 241
Bassarab, 56, 79
Basta, Austrian general, 55
Beaumont and Fletcher (quoted),
75
Belgrade, 141
Belief in nature-spirits, 88
Berchtold, Count, 130
Berthelot, head of French milit ry
mission 195, 239
Bessarabia, 50, 59, 69, 109, 120,
129, 162
Beza, U., Vlach writer, 43
Bezpapovtsi, religious sect, S3
Biberstein, Baron von, 136
Birth ceremonies, 19
Bishops and clergy, 9
" Black earth," 70, 81
Bocitoare (professional wome.i
mourners), iS
Bohm-ErmoUi, Austrian general,
139
Boyars, 33, 56, 60, 6g, 97
Brad (branch of fir-tree), symbol
of fruitfulncss, 17
Braila, 70, 82, 176, 232
Bratiano, 72, 139, 141, 142, 163
Briand, M., 199
Briaulmont, Belgian engineer, 194,
234
Brussilof, 161, 170, 197
265
266 ROUMANIA: YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Bucharest (Bucuresci). 23, 33, 184
Buda-Pesth, 55
Bugeacul, 59
Bukovina, 50, 54, 59, 120, 161
Bulgaria, iii, 112
Billow, Prince, 136
Burian, Baron, 134
Biissche, von dem. Baron, 136, 143
Buzau, river, 53, 176
Byzantine influence, 94
Caf€s, 33
Calusare (national dance), 18
Camulung, 81
Cantacuzene, Michael, 159
Cantacuzdne, Sherban, 57
Ca()a (sheepskin coat), loi
^aracullas (Caracalla), Roman
emperor, 50
Caraculu, 173
Caragiale, dramatist, 42
Carmen Sylva, queen of Rou-
mania, 64
Carol (Charles of Hohenzollern),
King of Roumania, 63, 67, 73,
109, 130, 132, 137
Carp, politician, 136
Carpathians, 78, 120
Cerna, poet, 41
Cernavoda, 165, 167
Chamber of Deputies, 72
Charles of Hohenzollern. 5<;e Carol
Charms and spells, 7
Chendi, literary critic, 44
Clopnitza (monastery gate), 31
Cobza (kind of lute), 6
Cogalniceanu, 127
Colli ndes (carols), 21
Coiica (tiara), 15
Constantine, King of Greece, 141
Constanza, 71, 165, 169, 176
Convents, 31
Cosbuc, poet, 43
Cosmesti bridge, 248
Costume, national, 14
Cotroceni palace, its eld stone
crosses, 26, 27, 143
Coutzo-Vlachs, 99
Cozia, 79
Crainicianu, general, 136
Craiova, 172
Creanga, prose writer, 42
Crete, 91
Culcer, general, 163
' Curtea de Arges, 79 ; legend of
i cathedral, 66
j Cuza, Alexander, first Roumanian
prince, 62, 242 ; forced to ab-
dicate, 63
j Czernin, Count, 130, 134
Czernovitz, 232
Dacia, 49, 90 ; its ancient extent,
Dacians (Getae), 47 ; their re-
ligious beliefs, 48
raco-Romans, 90, 121
Danube, 77, 120 ; Delta restored
to Roumania by treaty of
Paris, 61
Darius, 48
Decebalus, 48
Declaration of neutrality, 133,
135 ; of war on Austria, 159
Delbriick, Hans (quoted), 117
Denys, monk, rules of Byzantine
art, 29
Deschanel, Paul, 243
Dimbovitza, 24, 103, 176
Dobrudja, 47, 69, 81-83, 85, 112.
120, 140, 163
Dogs, 7
Doina (popular ballad), 4
Doja, Georghe, 122
Domitian, 49
Dorna Vatra, 232
I>ragalina, general, 172
Dragosch, 51
I>ukhobors, 83
Dulcigno el Bassan, 99
Easter celebrations, 17
Eastern question, 108, 12S
INDEX
267
Egypt, German designs on, 117
Elassona, gg
Emancipation of peasants. 62
Emincsco, Michael, poet, 40
Enesco, musician, 42
England, earliest relations with,
75
Enver Bey. 112
Epictetus (quoted), 22g
Eugene. Prince. 53
Euxine (Black Sea), 47
Evil eye. 20
Falkenhayn, German general, 170,
173. I7<^. 200, 231
Fasting, 14
Ferdinand of Coburg. King of
Bulgaria, iii, 141, 105
Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, King
of Roumania, 67, 137, 143, 240,
241 ; his promised reforms, 244
Filipescu, 136, 141
Pilot (Scandinavian cross), 27
Focsani. 233, 245
Folk-lore. 20
Fota (petticoat), 11
Franz Ferdinand, murder of, 115,
130
Franz Joseph, Austrian Emperor,
114, 126
French influence, 34, g7 ; military
mission, 195, 239
French revolution, 61
Fiindank (guest room in monas-
tery), 31
Funerals, 19
Furstenberg, Prince, 136
Gabrantzi mts., 247
Galatz, 70, 233
Garleano, poet, 45
German policy and influence, i lo ;
secret treaty, no. 129, 132 ;
intrigues in Turkey, 112 ; Mittel
Europa policy, 115; proposed
canal between Danube and
North Sea. 116; propaganda,
130
Gcrok, general, z^z
Getac (Dacians), 47 ; religious
beliefs, 48
Ghika, Gregory, 59
Gipsies (Tsigan). o, 102
Giurgevo, 173
Gladstone on Austria, 123
Goga, Octavian, poet, 44, 243
" Golden Horde," S3
Goluchowski, Count, 136
Gortchakolf (quoted). Prince, 105
Gothic art remains, 31
Goths, 51, 92
Government and political parties,
72
Grain, great production of, 70
" Grccotciul," 95
Greek influence, 56, 93
Greek orthodox church, 9
Griffiths, Sir John Norton, 1 7G
Grigoresco, artist, 42
Gyimes Pass, 233
Harebonc, William, English mer-
chant and traveller, 75
Harvest-time, 7
Hasdeu, historian, 90
Hellenic influence, 93
Hermannstadt, 164, 228
Herodotus (quoted), 47
Hora (national dance), 7
Horcz, 79
Hospodars, 58
Houses, g
Hungarian oppression in Trans} l-
vania. 124-126
Huns, 51, 92
Hunyady, John, 53
Iliesco, general, 200
Intellectual culture, 32
lusif, poet, 44
" Iron Gates," 77, 173
Iskcr, river, 77
268 ROUMANIA: YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Jassy, 54, 79, 120, 220
Jews in Roumania, 104
Jonescu, Take. 72, 113, 124, 136.
141. 243
Jorga, historian, 43, 47, 243
Jostoff, general, 165
Julian the Apostate (quoted), 90
Kaledin, 232
Kara Orman, 168
Kerensky, 259
Kiderlen-Wachter, 136
Kilia, 77
Kissileff, Count (quoted), 95
" Knight's Castle," 78
Kosmali, traveller (quoted), 97
Kossovo, battle, 53
Koula (old houses), 10
Kovess, Austrian general, 232
Kiihne, German general, 175, 224
Kustendy (Kustendje). See Con-
stanza
Lahovary, 243
Language, 34 ; a bastard Latin,
50. 75. 121
Larissa, 99
Lauteri (gipsy troubadours), 6, 35
Lechitsky, general, iGi, 232
Legislature, 72
Lemberg, 139
Lenin, 258
Literature, 40 ; French influence,
32
Lithgow, William, English travel-
ler, 75
Lutsk (Luck), 232
Macedonia, 99
Mackensen, field- marshal, 138,
165, 1G8, 200, 231, 247
Madna Zana (water spirit), 88
Magyars, 121, 122
Maiorescu, Tito, critic, 42. 129
Mamaliga (maize porridge), 14
Mama padilrii, 83
Manesti, 224
Manole. Mesturel (play), 65
Marghiloman, 136
Marie, Queen of Roumania, 27, 32
Maros, river, 164
Mazepa, 83
Michael the Brave, 54, 242
Milos, Serbian hero, 122
Mineral wealth, 71
Mira (fortune teller). 6
Mircea. prince of Wallachia, 53
Modern Greeks, 91. 93
Moesia. 48
Moeso-Latins. 90
Momoloasa, 233
Moldavia, 50, 52
Molokans, sect. 83
Monasteries, 31
" Mosaic " Khazars. 105
Muntenia (= Wallachia), 50
Narev, 231
National characteristics. 36, 89
Navlon (passage-money for the
dead). 19
Neaylovic, river. 175
Negotiations with Russia, 138 ;
with Bulgaria, 140
Negrutzi, novelist. 42
Nekrassoff, Cossack rebel. 83
Ocna (Okna), 71. 246
Oil-wells destroyed. 177-183
Oituz valley, 246
Old Believers, 83
Old stone crosses, 32
Onesti, 247
Opinca (sandals), 14
Origin of the Roumanians, 47 ;
Dacian and Roman character-
istics, 49
Orsova, 229
I Osman Pasha. 68
Ovid (quoted), 48
Padule, 79
Pagan mythological ballads, 20
INDEX
269
Pagan rites, survival o£, 17-io
Pan, 88
Pan-pipes, 21
Panaghia Ikoii, 1 1
Pansclinos, Manuel, painter, 29
Paris, treaty of (1S56). Oi
Peasant women, 10, 39
Peles, Castel, royal palace, 80, 159
Petroleum, 71
Petrossa " Hen and Chickens, ' 30
Phanariots, 57, 95
Pindus, mt., 99
Plato (quoted), 88
Plaur (weed islands), 85
Plevna, 08
Pliny the elder (quoted), 47
Pliny the younger (quoted), 49
Ploesti, 176, 245
Podolia, 246
Popa (priest), S
Popular songs, 20
Population statistics, 123
Povesta (legends), 17
Prahova, 1 76
Prcdeal, 229
Presan, general, 163, 175, 228
Press, freedom of the, O3
Printing, 56
Protopopoff, 196, 200
Pruth, river, 60, 120, 220
Przeraysl, 139
Putna valley, 245
Radou Negrou (Rudolph the
Black), 51, 8i
Rain festivals, 18
Relics, 30
Religious faith, 9
Reni, 246
Reorganisation of the army, 239
Resboin (loom), 10
Rohr, general, 247
Roman influence, 90
Roman roads, 50
Roumania : area and geographi-
cal position, 119; recognized
as a kingdom (1881), 73
Roumanian place-names in Tra»-
sylvania, 122
Rosenau, old Saxon colony, 78
Rot hen Thurni Pass, 50, ih^, izt)
Royal Palace at Bucharest, 25
Rudolph the Black. See Radou
Negrou
Rusalu, festival of the dead, 19
Russia, earliest relations with
Houmania, 57 ; influence over
principalities, 61 ; ingratitude
for Roumanian help, O9
Russian Revolution, 240, 258
Rustchuk, igS
Sadoveanu, writer, 42
St. George, waterway, 77
Sarrail, general, 199, 243
Salina, 77
Salonika, its importance, 115, 131;
great Jewish centre, loO
Salt, 71
Scenery, 76, 79
Senate, 72
Serbia, guardian of the East, n8
Serajevo, 130
Sereth, 200, 224, 233
Shepherd life, 21
Silistria, 69, 140, 165
Sinaia, 80, 132, 159
Sistova, 198
Sixtus IV, Pope, 53
Slav influence, 93
Slavs, 51
Sobieski, 53
Soldier}', 229
Sosescu, general, 175
Soutzo, Michel, 97
Siana, loi
Stefan - al - Mare (Stephen the
Great), prince of Moldavia, 53 ;
Koumania's national hero, 243 ;
his banner found in Bulgarian
convent, 243
Stina (mountain-hut), 21
Striu valley, 228
Stuermer, Barcn, 196, 200
270 ROUMANIA: YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
Sturdza, Demetrius, 137
Superstitions, 20
Susitza valley, 245
Swastika, 27
Tannenberg, 231
Tarjul Jiu, 229, 233
Tartars in Dobrudja, 83
Tcherbatcheff, general, 242, 259,
260
Tchinivnik (official), 69
Teleajen, 176
Timber, 71
Timok, river, 78
Tisza, Count, 123
Tolgyes Pass, 164
Tombstones, 32
Tornos Pass, 164
Torzburg Pass, 229
Trajan, 48 ; his services to Dacia,
50 ; column, 49 ; wall, 82
Transylvania, 43, 50, 120-123, ^^^
Travelling, Roumanian fondness
for, 100
Treaty of Bucharest, 140
Tricala, 99
Trotus valley, 246
Tsellinga (patriarch), loi
Tulcea, 82, 232
Turnu Rosu. See Rothen Thurm
Pass
Turnu Severin, 63
Turtukai, 165
Underground mud huts, 10
Ungheni, 237
Union of Moldavia and Wallachia,
61
Universal suffrage, 245
Vasile Lupu (Basil the Wolf), his
cruel code of laws, 56
Verciorova (Kazan), 77
Verdun, 237
Vineyards, 70
Vlachs, 90
Voinesti, writer, 42
Voivodes, 79
Voltaire's works banned, 97
Wallachia, 5, 50-53, 121, 172. 232
Wallachs, 99-101
Winter in the Carpathians, 225
Wodna Zena (water spirit), 18
Weddings, 17
Women, 37 ; fighting volunteers
248 ; independent position, 15
Xenopol, historian, 42, 53
Yantra, river, 77
Zamolxis, 48, 90
Zamphiresco, novelist, 42
Zayonchovski, Russian general»
168
Zografo, convent, 243
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