On her side, Turkey undertook to grant reforms to the Armenians, and protect them from Kurds and Circassians, Russia further claimed 1,410,000,000 roubles as war indemnity, but consented to take the Dobrudscha district (offered to Roumania, as stated above), and in Asia the territories of Batoum, Kars, Ardahan, and Bayazid, in lieu of 1,100,000,000 roubles.  The Porte afterwards declared that it signed this treaty under persistent pressure from the Grand Duke Nicholas and General Ignatieff, who again and again declared that otherwise the Russians would advance on the capital[162].

[Footnote 162:  For the text of the treaty see Parl.  Papers, Turkey, No. 22 (1878); also The European Concert in the Eastern Question by T.E.  Holland, pp. 335-348.]

At once, from all parts of the Balkan Peninsula, there arose a chorus of protests against the Treaty of San Stefano.  The Mohammedans of the proposed State of Bulgaria protested against subjection to their former helots.  The Greeks saw in the treaty the death-blow to their hopes of gaining the northern coasts of the Aegean and a large part of Central Macedonia.  They fulminated against the Bulgarians as ignorant peasants, whose cause had been taken up recently by Russia for her own aggrandisement[163].  The Servians were equally indignant.  They claimed, and with justice, that their efforts against the Turks should be rewarded by an increase of territory which would unite to them their kinsfolk in Macedonia and part of Bosnia, and place them on an equality with the upstart State of Bulgaria.  Whereas the treaty assigned to these proteges of Russia districts inhabited solely by Servians, thereby barring the way to any extension of that Principality.

[Footnote 163:  Parl.  Papers, Turkey, No. 31 (1878), Nos. 6-17, and enclosures; L’Hellenisme et la Macedonie, by N. Kasasis (Paris, 1904); L. Sergeant, op. cit. ch. xii.]

Still more urgent was the protest of the Roumanian Government.  In return for the priceless services rendered by his troops at Plevna, Prince Charles and his Ministers were kept in the dark as to the terms arranged between Russia and Turkey.  The Czar sent General Ignatieff to prepare the Prince for the news, and sought to mollify him by the hint that he might become also Prince of Bulgaria—­a suggestion which was scornfully waved aside.  The Government at Bukharest first learnt the full truth as to the Bessarabia-Dobrudscha exchange from the columns of the Journal du St. Petersbourg, which proved that the much-prized Bessarabian territory was to be bargained away by the Power which had solemnly undertaken to uphold the integrity of the Principality.  The Prince, the Cabinet, and the people unanimously inveighed against this proposal.  On Feb. 4 the Roumanian Chamber of Deputies declared that Roumania would defend its territory to the last, by armed force if necessary; but it soon appeared that none of the Powers took any interest in the matter, and, thanks to the prudence of Prince Charles, the proud little nation gradually schooled itself to accept the inevitable[164].