The wraith of an army reached the sea and the wraith of an army of non-combatants,--all of this suffering merely to find a haven from the advancing Teutonic armies! Perhaps those men were right who had refused to retreat, who had begged for death by a comrade's gun rather than have the dishonor of turning backs to the enemy. Though they saw that the conquest of Serbia was inevitable, it was hard to admit that they were beaten. At last, after all this hardship, when the poor Serbians reached the Adriatic, they found no food! Transports loaded with food had been sunk in the harbors! Weary, starving, they must wait a little longer. Was there ever before such a flight? The retreat of one civilized Nation before another; the flight of a whole people, Government, soldiers, non-combatants, and all because of the rumors of the terrors the pursuer would inflict if he caught his prey! At the sea they breathed more freely--they could look across the water and there, far, far beyond, lay the lands where for centuries the weaker had not been sorely oppressed. [Illustration: SERBIAN SOLDIERS ON THE BANKS OF THE DRINA] Then the wraith of an army began to hope; and on the island the soldiers were recuperating, and the little boys--a quarter of those who had poured into the great procession from all the roads, from every little village, from every town--the dead, would not swell the triumph of the victors. Those by the sea rested and grew stronger; and after a while the world began to hear that Serbia, deprived of her country, a Nation living in exile, was getting ready to claim her own. She was now one of the Allies. Her army could give an account of itself. "Poor Serbia!" they had said. "Plucky Serbia!" they were now saying, and it was even possible to imagine the world crying, "Lucky Serbia!" The soldiers recuperating at Corfu; the women working at Corsica making the wonderful embroideries that had given Serbia fame the world over; the downtrodden under the feet of the Conqueror, living in shattered dwellings in Serbian town and village, and praying, praying for the restoration of their homes, hiding their tears while they worked or prayed or nursed the sick--all, all working for Serbia. Then those people who recognize heroism, those people who admire patience and silent bravery, those people who long had cried, "Plucky Serbia!" who had long been working for Serbia, now worked the harder, and other workers joined them, until there were few sections of the globe where there was not a group working for Serbia. The remnant of the army, too, worked harder than ever, training, gathering strength, adding to its numbers,--and at last it was ready.