Even the Crimean War of 1854-56, which resulted in the liberation of Roumania from Ottoman rule, brought no relief to oppressed Bulgaria. The Turks seemed to persecute the Christians more terribly after it than before. In 1876 Gladstone’s vitriolic speeches, in the exposure of Turkish atrocities and demanding the emancipation of Bulgaria, were heeded, and the successful defence of Shipka Pass was not in vain. Bulgaria became a principality under Alexander; but, after a successful war with Servia as the aggressor, Russia instigated a conspiracy against him which led to his ultimate abdication. [Illustration: THE RUINED CHURCH OF SAINT SOPHIA, SOPHIA.] With glowing promises of promotion, Russia’s agents, Bendereff and Greuff by name, were bribed to influence Bulgarian officers to turn traitors to the Prince. Parts of two regiments and the cadets of the military college at Sophia, all more or less under the influence of liquor, invaded the palace on the night of August 21st, 1886, and ordered Alexander, at the point of drawn revolvers, to sign an illegible document which he was told was his abdication paper. He was forthwith carried aboard his own private yacht, taken down the river and delivered to the Russian authorities at Reni, where, for a time, he was held prisoner. Then Europe, indignant, lent a hand and secured his liberation. Re-entering Sophia on September 3, he assumed triumphant control, for his people, incensed beyond measure at such intrigue, awaited anxiously his home-coming. Bendereff and Greuff were tried and convicted by court-martial, but Russia, Germany and Austria demanded that they should be released. Upon the final abdication of Alexander, the Bulgarian Sobranje, or Parliament, elected unanimously Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the present ruling “Tzar of the Bulgars,” as his newly acquired title reads. As a part of the history of present-day Bulgaria, principally, and of the Near East, generally, it would be unwise to exclude from these pages a brief rehearsal of the late eruptions in that part of Europe, which have proven the futility of international treaties and, at the outset of the troubles, tended to shatter the pacific exertions of the Old World. This time Bulgaria exploded the percussion-cap, and the primary cause of the resulting imbroglio was a strike of the employees of the Orient Railway, which threads its way through the country from west to east, but which is really Turkish property, for it is operated under a concession from the Porte that does not expire until January 1, 1958, although it thrives under the protection of Austria, and is capitalized largely by Germany. Bulgarian troops occupied the railway line provisionally during the strike but, when an agreement was effected, refused to relinquish the road to the officers of the Oriental Railways Company. [Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE “TZAR LIBERATOR,” SOPHIA.]