Meanwhile Ferdinand was preparing for a treacherous attack upon the forces of his Allies. The Bulgarian armies were concentrated upon the Macedonian borders, and secret preparations of great elaboration were pushed forward. At midnight on June 29, the Serbians and Greeks along the entire front were suddenly and violently attacked. As they had not expected this act of treachery, they were driven back in wild confusion. But they soon rallied, and at the same time Bulgaria had to submit to an invasion from the fresh troops of Rumania. Turkey again moved forward, and the Bulgarians found themselves unable to resist the combination of enemies against them. Ferdinand was forced to sign the disadvantageous Treaty of Bucarest. Thus Ferdinand’s treachery met its due reward. What it cost Bulgaria at the time will now be related. What it will eventually cost Bulgaria cannot yet be detailed, but it is certain that the peasant State has not yet paid a tithe of the price of ranging itself on the side of the Huns. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FERDINAND THE MARTYR “_If God and my foes grant me life, we shall go on, and my children, my successors, will follow the road on which I have been the pioneer._”—FERDINAND OF BULGARIA. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXI FERDINAND THE MARTYR The Treaty of Bucarest was followed in Bulgaria by what Ferdinand, in an interview with a British newspaper correspondent, pathetically described as a “schemozzle.” You may remember that among his many accomplishments a facile use of Yiddish speech takes high rank. And really, considering how furiously the Bulgarians had fought, and how freely they shed their blood, it is not surprising that they were angry with him. All their neighbours had got something substantial, even Rumania, which had not taken up arms against the Turks. And Bulgaria was the poorer by a substantial slice of territory extorted from Ferdinand by his Rumanian neighbours. The Turks had regained possession of Macedonia, including the city of Adrianople. The Greeks had the coveted ports of Salonica and Kavalla on the Ægean. The Serbians, though they had not found their way out to the Adriatic, had Thrace, and a long railway line from Belgrade through Uskub, with an outlet through Greek territory to Salonica. Each of the ten Bulgarian political parties blamed one of the leaders of another party, but all united in giving chief part of the blame to Ferdinand himself. And in this, there can be no doubt, they were quite right.