The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 129, December, 1908Various
History
The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 129, December, 1908
Various
Adventure stories -- Periodicals; English periodicals; History, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Voyages and travels -- Periodicals
Next morning, when the prisoners were brought back, the sitting was even
more agitated. The ex-Deputy Chulavitch was accused. He leapt to his feet,
and in a voice of thunder shouted that he had been betrayed--he had been
sold! Later on, however, he acknowledged that he had received thirteen
napoleons for his help in the plot. Various other prisoners were accused,
but all had answers and excuses at first. Some said they acted on behalf
of others. Others said they had taken no active part, but had only known
of the conspiracy. They would confess one day, and the next flatly deny
everything they had said before. Later on in the trial, however, they
found means of communicating with each other, and arranged on a line of
common action.
[Illustration: INSIDE THE PRISON AT CETINJE--THE CELL DOORS ARE GENERALLY
OPEN AND THE PRISONERS ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE EXERCISE IN THE YARD.
_From a Photograph._]
Few documents could be produced in evidence against the accused, but a
great sensation was caused by the reading of a letter from a Montenegrin,
now an officer in the Servian army, to his brother. In it he promised both
moral and material support for the plot and enclosed a thousand francs
from King Peter. At this there was profound silence in the court, and a
deep impression was left on the minds of the public.
A student named Voivoditch then gave the details of the plot. He had
brought bombs from Belgrade with the express intention of killing Prince
Nicholas and Prince Mirko. It was arranged that various Government offices
were to be set on fire and in the confusion bombs were to be thrown
against the palace, a small building which would be easily destroyed.
Then, acting on the lines of the Servian regicides, the Ministers and
principal people in Cetinje were to be assassinated and their houses
wrecked.
The trial lasted several weeks, for with fifty persons accused and
thirty-two prisoners to examine and hear, things cannot be done in a
moment. But the principal witness against the prisoners was a certain
Nastitch, a Servian journalist from Serajevo. He brought the gravest
charges against the Servian Government. As he had been present at the
manufacture of the bombs he said that he was entitled to speak with some
authority. Last year he was sent to Kragujevats State Arsenal by a Captain
Nenadovitch, cousin of King Peter, who gave him a letter to the Commander
from the Servian Crown Prince. In this letter the Prince begged the
Commander to allow Nastitch to stay ten days in the arsenal whilst the
bombs were being made. They were then given to him to be consigned to
Captain Nenadovitch in Belgrade, who told him that they were to be
employed in a patriotic enterprise. A little later he was informed that
the police had sequestrated the bombs, as Pasitch, the Prime Minister, had
been informed of his stay in Kragujevats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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