With the Serbs in Macedonia

26o WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
— and Serbian affairs had second place.
But what of that ? Though Serbia may have
''
been unlucky in always having a bad Press/'
victories against the Turks came over the wires
though during the War her story may have
missed gripping the imagination of the populace,
time and history must do her justice. If she
was the beginning, she was also the beginning
of the end. The first real victory of the War,
Rudnik, was hers, and the victory that began
the final break-up was Serbian as well. One
after the other Germany's Allies followed the
Bulgarian lead, and the World found itself in
the throes of the greatest anti-climax in history.
The Stage had been set for a great curtain.
But the principals slunk off like the musicians
in that piece of Haydn's where one by one the
orchestra blow out their candles and depart.
The War ended not on a thunderous chord of
Victory, but in an eerie silence— an Armistice
that was miscalled a Peace. There was shouting
and there were bells, but at the back of most
people's minds there was bewilderment, disappointment
— anti-climax, in short.
The early days of 1919 were curiously peaceful
and disturbed. The play had gone wrong ; the
players were at sixes and sevens. Humanity's
chief craving was apparently still its old
pathetic one— to be good. It wanted a religion