However, in the first days of 1814 the Austrians arrived and the
French, in their reduced condition, could hold out no longer. 1813 had
been a fatal year for Napoleon. The Montenegrin Bishop had addressed a
stirring appeal to the Bocchesi and others in September. "Slavs!" he
wrote. "Glorious and illustrious population of the Bocche di Cattaro,
of Dubrovnik and Dalmatia! Behold the moment to seize arms against the
destroyer of Europe, the universal foe who has attacked your religion,
ruined your churches.... He has put his taxes on the blood of your
veins and even on the corpses of your parents! What injustices has he
not committed?... Behold the hour of vengeance.... Croatia is
delivered, and Carniola, Triest, Istria, Rieka and Zengg. What else do
you wait for, O valiant Slavs of Dalmatia, of Dubrovnik and of Kotor?
By land the army of the Emperor of Austria, by sea that of the King of
England enter Dalmatia. They have taken Zadar and have arrived at
Makarska." ... [The Austrians, as a matter of fact, entered Dalmatia a
month after this proclamation was issued. The Bishop has allowed the
prophet in him to prevail over the chronicler.] "I am there," he
continues, "with my Montenegrins, ready to go where peril has to be
faced. The glory of the traitor Bonaparte has remained at Moscow and
Smolensk: no longer need we tremble before the Tyrant....
"Given at our Headquarters at Budva, 12/24 September 1813.
PETER, Bishop."
DISASTER FOR NAPOLEON AND THE SOUTHERN SLAVS
1813 was a fatal year for Napoleon and for this first attempt to build
a Yugoslavia. It was a fatal year for the first effort to construct
again a Serbian State. Burning with the hope of liberation, no less
than four Serbian armies had assembled and advanced victoriously
against the Turk. One of the most outstanding episodes was the heroic
death of Stephen Sindjelinić at Tšegar, near to Niš. As he
was in a hopeless case, no reinforcements having come, he told his men
that they must die, but as the Turks outnumbered them so more of these
must perish than of Christians. He waited till the Turks pressed
closely round him and then fired the magazine. In vengeance for this
deed the Turks piled up a pyramid of Serbian soldiers' heads; they
called it Tchele-Koula (Tower of Skulls), and for many years it was at
Niš a veritable Turkish monument. King Milan built a wall around
it; afterwards it was removed. And so the Serbs continued their long
fight. It seemed to some of them that the authority of Kara George had
grown excessive. They convoked a national assembly, which decided to
set up a Ministry of six and a tribunal. Kara George was--in agreement
with his Ministers--to nominate the prefects of the various
departments. While the Serbs were settling these internal matters,
Russia made her peace in 1812 with Turkey. As for Serbia, it was
arranged that the new fortresses would be demolished and the towns be
occupied by Turkish garrisons. Thus all that Serbia had won, and at
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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