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Updated: June 17, 2025
Under the shade of the trees, discreetly apart from the merrymakers who were celebrating the Mass of a departed comrade, we sat in the customary ring and were served with coffee. It was a pleasant hour, and as the Voivoda, who was a bit of a wit, if somewhat irreverent, said, "This is better than inside."
But our fugitive continued his request at intervals for the rest of the time that he was with us. At Velika, a collection of half a dozen houses, very charmingly situated in a valley, we halted and rested for many hours while the Voivoda transacted business and received reports from a very young officer who held this dangerous command.
The fact that it borders on Albania is significant, and accounts for its fighting qualities. Voivoda Marko was largely instrumental in bringing about the last war with Turkey, which was so successful to Montenegro, when the Kuć, Podgorica, Nikšić, the entire provinces of East Montenegro, the Brda, and the sea-coast from Antivari to Dulcigno were won and confirmed to Montenegro.
"Oh no," answered the officer, "they only want the man, not you." "Still, you are not going to hand back the man, are you?" I asked in Italian. "We must hear what the Voivoda says," said the adjutant, shrugging his shoulders.
As we led our horses across a rickety wooden bridge, the Voivoda called to us and said we were now about to enter Albania, and spoke of the temporary armed alliance between England and Montenegro, which remark seemed to please him greatly.
For thee he will do it, and so I can die fighting a good fight, and perhaps can kill two or three of my enemies first. To-day I have wounded one." "I will ask the Voivoda," I replied, "though I doubt if I have any influence with him. Ask him thyself." I did ask the Voivoda, but he said the thing was impossible. He had no rifles to give away.
The office of the Governor, or Voivoda, to give him his proper Montenegrin title, corresponding to our word Duke, is therefore no sinecure. His position calls for more diplomacy and acumen than any other in the country. A false move, a thoughtless action or word could plunge the tribes of Northern Albania and Montenegro in a fierce warfare.
Besides the Voivoda, we were accompanied by his adjutant, a lieutenant in the standing army, who had studied in Italy, and an escort of about six men, armed with modern magazine rifles. Later on, this escort was materially increased. About three hours' ride up the magnificent valley of the Lim brought us to a khan, and here we found another half-dozen men awaiting us, and another officer.
It was not till I took very energetic measures that he would stop, which amused the Voivoda immensely. P.'s horse was ill in fact, it was his last journey. A few days afterwards he died from inflammation of the lungs, contracted at Velika that day. We went for a few days' shooting on the Vasojevićki Kom, and were handed over by the Voivoda to one called Vaso, a rich peasant of the district.
Thus his first opera, "Voivoda," composed in 1866, evidently had his ideal, Mozart, clearly in mind. It is a somewhat curious fact that Tschaikowsky, who was almost revolutionary in other forms of music, should go back to the eighteenth century for his ideal of opera. Soon after it was completed "Voivoda" was accepted to be produced at the Moscow Grand Theater.
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