The Marko cycleMarko whose betrayal of his country seems wiped out by his immense prowesshas in a less degree this utter defeat of Servia as its background.

One of the chiefs of clans who were waiting at Cettinje for the plan of the southern campaign was Marko Millianoff, hereditary chief of the Kutchi, an independent Slav tribe on the borders of Albania, generally allied in the frontier operations with the Montenegrins.

While waiting I made the acquaintance of Marko, whom I found to be one of the most interesting characters I met in Montenegro.

Marko looked at it through the glass and found it to be mainly a provision train, for Medun was on the verge of starvation, the garrison having "shaken out the last grain of rice from their bags," to use the expression of the moment.

When Marko's men found the actual number of fighting men in the Turkish sortie, they decided to fight it out.

Marko fought retreating from the morning until about 2 P.M., when the Turks stopped to eat, having driven the Montenegrin force back and toward Medun about three miles.

That part of the country to the south of Skoplje fell completely under Turkish control; it was here that the famous national hero, Marko Kraljevi['c] (or King's son), renowned for his prowess, ruled as a vassal prince and mercenary soldier of the Turks; his father was one of the rebel princes who fell at the battle of the river Maritsa in 1371.

But he penetrated no further than Anatolikònthe Mesolonghiots' outpost village at the head of the lagoonsand the campaign was only memorable for the heroic death of Marko Botzaris the Suliot in a night attack upon the Ottoman camp.