There were four raids on the East Coast in September, and on 13th October London and parts of the eastern counties were again attacked. In London alone thirty-two persons were killed and ninety-five injured, and the total casualties of that night were fifty-six killed and one hundred and thirteen wounded. A cry now arose that our aircraft should treat German towns to a dose of their own medicine; but there were many who believed that we ought not to repay evil for evil, and that reprisals would not bring the war any nearer to its close. The October raid was the last which took place during the year 1915. On twenty several occasions during that year the Zeppelins had paid visits to various parts of the East Coast of England. They had murdered no fewer than 199 people, and had inflicted injuries upon 421 others. CHAPTER L. THE OVERRUNNING OF SERBIA. December 1914 saw Serbia gloriously victorious; December 1915 saw her plunged in hopeless defeat, the remnants of her army on alien soil, her people in bondage, her aged king a fugitive. Since that August day when the Austrians "let slip the dogs of war" her peasant soldiers had fought like heroes. Thrice had Serbia been invaded, and thrice had she flung back the invader; but every success had drained her of lifeblood, and had brought the hour of her downfall nearer. She must have lost 150,000 men in action, and disease and pestilence had robbed her of another 50,000. The Serbian army was now only 200,000 strong, and there was no possible hope of increasing it. The Allies could not spare her reinforcements, nor did she ask for them. She felt that she could still hold her own, and perhaps she might have done so had not a neighbouring nation treacherously joined the enemy and flung a large and well-equipped army upon her flank. Serbia's eastern neighbour is Bulgaria. I have already told you that Bulgaria owes her very existence to Russia. In 1878, when the Russians were nearing Constantinople, they agreed to a treaty by which the province of Bulgaria was to be formed into a new state. In the next year the Bulgarians elected a German prince as their sovereign; but his attempts to increase his territory brought about a quarrel with Russia, and in 1886 he was forced to give up the throne and leave the country. A new prince was elected--another German, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In 1908 Ferdinand declared Bulgaria an independent kingdom, and became its first king.