Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-08-03
A MONTENEGRO TALE.

he prfdeu nlmSe1 upon counting among
his ancestors the illustrious George
Tschernowitch, the prince who, in 1916,
retired to Venice after abdicating his
z principally in favor of the metropolitan
Germanos
first encountered Peter Petrowitch
at the house of the Able Meignan, the
worthy chaplain of Saint Louis of
France, where this Montenegrin priest
had come for the purpose of asking alb
solution for crime at the hands of the
pope. He was a man in the prime of
life, but with more the air of brigand
about him than that of priest-an air
which in nowise belied his nature.
But bark to the details of Monte
negrin vengeance, one of many, beside
which the tragic recitals of Corsican
vendettas are but stories for children.
Public opinion, according to COLOMBIA,
brought about the feud between the
Capulets and the Montagues, but even
then the peace officers We're there to
compel the belligerents to return their
guns to the racks from which they had
taken them. In the country of Petro-
witch, however, the law sanctions ven
geance. eff you find among you cow
ard" textually declares the Montenegrin
code, published as the result of the war
of "a, "take from him at once either
. arms or life; he is worthy of neither,
and shall no more enjoy the public es-
TEEN. AT the same time attach
about his waist woman's apron, to
show that mans heart no longer beats
within his body"
The hate was old between the two
houses of Tschernowitch and Jegosch.
1t was brought about by the grandsire
of Jegosch, who had said one day, at
reunion of choice spirits, that the de-
scendants of the illustrious George
"came from the loins of a gypsy"
For tlIee generations blood ran like
water to efface the insult, and, for
time, it seemed forgotten; then the
brother of Peter Petrowitch was killed
by Dimitri Jegosch on the morning of
his marriage with the daughter of the
noble line of Radovitsch. AS Natalie
Radovitsch, of course. had no children.
and her husband no other brother than
Peter Petrowitch, it was he, naturally
he, the priest-to whom had descended
this ancient vengeance of the Tscherno-
witch
The old principality of Montenegro
was composed-in addition to the Mon
tenegrin noble families-of five villages
adhering to the old Greek church and
five villages to the Roman. Peter Petro-
witch was priest of one of these last
named mountain churches. 1t was,
therefore, his own church in which he
had conducted the funeral services of his
brother, and beside the coffin of the dead
he had listened with beating heart to the
species of vocero pronounced by the wife
at the side of the lifeless husband. vo-
cero which recalled in detail the insults
received by the Tschernowitch In bygone
times at the hands of the Jegosch.
''The coward!" she cried. HE did
not even give me the time to become
mother! Too well he knew that son Of
mine and of thine would have grown up
with the single purpose of extinguishing
his race, and he fancies he has finished
with his debt, because there remain to
exact the price of blood but widow and
priest! But a widow who is now a
Tschernowitch and a priest who is still
of thy raeei"
Kneeling at the foot of the body, Peter
was praying with passionate fervor, be-
seeching God to gather the soul of his
brother into Paradise and to give him
the strength to resist temptation.
But that same day, when erect upon
the steps of the altar, he closed the mass
to speak to the people the funeral ora
ton, his text, the phrase from the domi-
nical prayer: Forgive us our sins, o
Lord, as we forgive those who sin against
u.s." freezing silence responded to the
words of pardon, and the wife of the
victim, rising from her knees with a
gesture of protestation, went from the
church to await the cortege before the
door.
From that instant, life was made in
tolerable to Peter Petrowitch. On mar
ket mornings, when he passed before the
shops of his parishioners. they turned
their heads to avoid saluting him. In
church, they rendered him as usual their
accustomed homage, but SO coon as he
came from the presbytery, he saw him
self exposed to renewed insults, even
the servants of the church, the people
of the choir, the chorister boys and sa-
tristan refusing to address him word
beyond the necessities of the service.
He walked with bowed head under the
weight of public scorn, yet still decided
to hold TO the end to his role of priest.
Perhaps he might have continued to re-
sist to the end, but for an insult more
cruel than all the rest, and which
brusquely put to flight all thought of
resignation.
He received it, this insult, ON the feast
day of the holy apostles Peter and Paul,
from his sister-in-law, whom he had not
seen since the funeral ceremony, and in
o casket brought to him by the hands of
domestic. He opened 1t, to find before
him the pistol of his dead brother, one
which he had carried always in the hoL
ster at his saddle. Beside the pistol lay
woman's apron, richly embroidered,
and pinned upon it that slip from the
Montenegrin code, which Peter but too
well remembered: "If you find among
you coward, take from him his arms
or his life and tie a woman's apron about
his waist
At the bottom Natalie had added the
single word, "Choosew
The priest uttered a cry of mingled
rage and sorrow, and, leaving the casket
as it had come, was soon at the house of
his sister-in-law.
'.Thou knowest what wish!' she
cried, on seeing him enter and without
waiting for him to speak; ''thou knowest
it well, Peter Petrowitchr' and, throwing
herself upon her knees in front of him.
she clasped his cassock beseechingly.
'But this blood" he saidat last, re-
garding her with somber gaze, "this
blood thou wishest to be shed-knowest
thou not it will rebound upon thine own
head?"