In due course the great airship arrived at Sofia, and its commander requested from the Czar that he should be given instructions as to what part of the battle front he should visit. The reply was that for the present he should remain where he was for the protection of Sofia, that is, Czar Ferdinand, from the dangers of an air raid. It is pleasant to reflect that the French aeroplanes came, nevertheless, and did no little damage to Ferdinand’s capital. Some day, perhaps, we shall know how the Czar comported himself during their visit. Such, then, is the military prowess of the man whom the Kaiser jeeringly termed “an illustrious War Lord.” Not even Ferdinand himself, with all his marvellous self-sufficiency, could miss the point of that arrogant sneer. And Ferdinand is a Bourbon, who “remembers nothing and forgets nothing.” It will be strange if the mighty War Lord does not one day repent him of jesting so open and ill-timed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FERDINAND IN EXTREMIS “_I am, with my army, happy that you have become ONE of US_.”—THE KAISER. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXVII FERDINAND IN EXTREMIS The entry of the Bulgarians into the Great War was sudden, fierce and effective. They threw themselves with characteristic ardour upon the Serbians, who, attacked from three quarters at once, defended themselves sternly. They could not expect to prevail against the overwhelming odds against them, but they took heavy toll of their oppressors, and especially of their detested foes the Bulgarians. The expedition of the Allied Powers from Salonica came too late to save Serbia, or even appreciably to delay her downfall. Once again the principal fighting against the French and British troops, who had advanced from Salonica in the hope of saving the railway to Nish, was done by the Bulgarians. They were as reckless as they were barbarous in their fighting, and though they drove the Allies back, they lost out of all proportion to the damage they inflicted. Thus in a very few weeks the Bulgarians had gained possession of the coveted portion of Thrace and Macedonia held by the Serbians, and were brought to a pause on the Greek frontier. In all this fighting, needless to say, Ferdinand had taken no part, except to issue some of those vainglorious proclamations of which samples have been quoted in previous chapters. With the Serbians utterly crushed and the Greeks quaking before the fear of an invasion and of the Allied forces encamped at Salonica, a period was reached in the Bulgarian operations. Sofia was converted into a city of mourning, and death was spread through all the Bulgarian villages. For the third time in a few years the young men of the country had been decimated.