Then Serbia had a vision of the men who had made her great--Vladimir,
who first showed that union is strength; Michael, her earliest King, and
Stephen Nemanya, who gave her a real kingdom, and Stephen Dushan, whose
dreams of a Serb Empire had given her glory; then Lazar Grebelyanovitch,
her brave and generous defender at Kossovo. Again, after her long sleep,
Karageorges, heroic and just, grandsire of King Peter; and last, Milos
Obrenovitch, whose cleverness had laid the foundation for much of her
present good.
Had she changed too quickly from the old patriarchal system before she
could rightly replace it? All this time, she now realized too well, she
had been only half-educated. It was easy enough for the great Nations to
criticize her, forgetful of the long past years when they were in her
condition, yet none of them could deny her her heroic past.
Then Serbia looked toward the sea. She no longer felt the pain of her
grief and her bruises; she was no longer alone. Friendly hands reached
out to her on every side, and beyond the sea lay noble England, and
strong Canada, and heroic France--Allies fighting for her, for her who
might never be able to reward them; and, nearer to her, she could see
fair Italy, magnificent Russia, and brave Montenegro and Roumania. All,
all had been fighting for her, for in fighting for liberty, they fought
for the oppressed of the whole world. They had been fighting her
battles--the battles of the days of her strength. And there, farther
off, was friendly America. For the moment she saw her ideal State--the
union of Serb countries into one independent National State--a Serbian
or a Croato-Serb monarchy.
Then, a shout, a clamor of voices, "Monastir! Monastir! Serbia! Serbia!"
Not a year since that awful retreat, and now the long exile was nearing
its end. King Peter, and the Crown Prince, the Government, the whole
Nation were hurrying home!
"There is no death without the appointed day," chants the old pesma.
Serbia will live!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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