The date chosen for the Archduke's visit to Sarajevo was most unfortunate. On that day, in the year 1389, the Serbs[19] of Servia, which then included Bosnia, suffered the most terrible defeat in all their history. In the battle which was then fought, treachery was at work, and the best and bravest of their race perished on the battlefield. The Serbs have never forgotten the story of how their sires were slaughtered on the "Field of the Blackbirds." Even now their bards sing national songs which tell of the glorious deeds of those who fell at Kossovo,[20] and call upon the Serbs of to-day to spare neither "land, nor gold, nor son, nor wife, nor limb, nor life" in upholding the freedom of their race. * * * * * Amidst the high Alps a pistol shot may start an avalanche high on the snowy mountains. Slowly it moves at first; soon it gathers speed, and at last it comes crashing down with terrible force upon the quiet homesteads in the valley. So did the pistol-shot of a schoolboy in far-off Bosnia start an avalanche which has swept down upon Europe, leaving death and destruction and untold misery in its train. [Illustration: Austrian soldiers on the bank of the Danube, opposite to Belgrade. [_By permission of the Sphere._] [Footnote 1: _Mes-sē´na_, town of Sicily on the Strait of Messina, which lies between the island of Sicily and the toe of Italy.] [Footnote 2: The Great Powers are the leading nations of the world. They are rich in men and money, and keep up large armies or navies, or both. Great Britain, the United States of America, Germany, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and, since 1905, Japan, are the Great Powers.] [Footnote 3: A letter sent by one government to another, referring to some matter which is in dispute between them.] [Footnote 4: _Ar-ma-ged´on._] [Footnote 5: People of partly Finnish and partly Turkish descent, now the ruling people in Hungary. There are nearly ten million people speaking the Magyar language.] [Footnote 6: Descended from the people who live in the north-east of Asia Minor.] [Footnote 7: _Bel-grād´_.] [Footnote 8: _Bos´nia_.] [Footnote 9: _Her-tse-go-vē´na_.] [Footnote 10: Means the Ox Ford.] [Footnote 11: _Dar-da-nelz´_.] [Footnote 12: _Tre-es´tā_.] [Footnote 13: _Sal-on-ē´ka_.] [Footnote 14: _E-jē´an_.] [Footnote 15: _Ra-goo´za_.] [Footnote 16: _Mos´tar_.] [Footnote 17: _Al-ba'nia_, a country on the coast of the Adriatic Sea to the south and west of Servia.] [Footnote 18: _Sa-ra-yā´vo_.] [Footnote 19: We speak of Servia and Servians, but it is more correct to say Serbia and Serbs.] [Footnote 20: _Kos´so-vo_, battlefield to the west of Pristina. (See map on p. 8.)] CHAPTER II. THE SEETHING WHIRLPOOL.