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War was the effect of this retort, but the Turks gained nothing by it, and peace was soon made. The danger of the power of Austria came now to be fully recognised. After the Napoleonic wars, Austria had retained Cattaro and Spizza, and trouble now broke out over some land near Budua.
The Bay of Antivari is said to be the most picturesque place on the Albanian coast, surrounded as it is by lofty mountains, with trees almost hiding the minarets of the town, while, to the north, Spizza is perched on red rocks rising steeply from the water. There is a great waterfall, which appears to fall sheer into the sea, with a mill just at its foot.
Was this, then, Antivari, Montenegro's important seaport and the bone of contention with Austria? Right well has Austria maintained its control of this little port. One large house is that of the Austrian Vice-Consul, who lives in solitary state, watching everyone who passes through the port. Opposite, on the further horn of the bay, lies Spizza, an Austrian military station.
We might, indeed, be better pleased to see Trieste a free city, the southern fellow of Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg; but it must not be forgotten that the Archduke of Austria and Lord of Trieste reigns at Trieste by a far better right than that by which he reigns at Cattaro and Spizza.
Prince Petar led the Montenegrin force, and to the pain and surprise of the Great Serbian party they found that such was the reputation of the Montenegrin army that a very large part of the Serb population fled along with the Austrians without waiting to be "liberated." Even the Orthodox priest of Spizza fled, and the lot of those who remained was not too happy.
The easy terms accorded by the Prince to the garrison of Niksich brought their compensation a little later, when, the liberated garrison being besieged anew in the impregnable fortress of Spizza dominating the road from Dalmatia to Antivari, they gave in without a serious defense, satisfied with the honors of war.
Similar punishments were enacted for offences against the person; but homicide of a citizen brought the criminal to the halter. From Cattaro it is but a short distance to the southern boundary of the Austrian Empire on the Adriatic. A stone column between Spizza and Antivari marks the line. Two telegraphic wires are attached to this stone, one belonging to Austria, and one to Montenegro.
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