to his deposition, they met with a complete repulse.  An able and vigorous young Bulgarian, Stambuloff, was now fast rising in importance among the more resolute nationalists.  The son of an innkeeper of Tirnova, he was sent away to be educated at Odessa; there he early became imbued with Nihilist ideas, and on returning to the Danubian lands, framed many plots for the expulsion of the Turks from Bulgaria.  His thick-set frame, his force of will, his eloquent, passionate speech, and, above all, his burning patriotism, soon brought him to the front as the leader of the national party; and he now strove with all his might to prevent his land falling to the position of a mere satrapy of the liberators.  Better the puny autocracy of Prince Alexander than the very real despotism of the nominees of the Emperor Alexander III.

The character of the new Czar will engage our attention in the following chapter; here we need only say that the more his narrow, hard, and overbearing nature asserted itself, the greater appeared the danger to the liberties of the Principality.  At last, when the situation became unbearable, the Prince resolved to restore the Bulgarian constitution; and he took this momentous step, on September 18, 1883, without consulting the three Russian Ministers, who thereupon resigned[188].

[Footnote 188:  For the scenes which then occurred, see Le Prince Alexandre de Battenberg en Bulgarie, by A.G.  Drandar, pp. 169 et seq.; also A. Koch, Fuerst Alexander von Bulgarien, pp. 144-147.

For the secret aims of Russia, see Documents secrets de la Politique russe en Orient, by R. Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp. 49-65.  General Soboleff, Der erste Fuerst von Bulgarian (Leipzig, 1896), has given a highly coloured Russian account of all these incidents.]

At once the Prince summoned Karaveloff, and said to him:  “My dear Karaveloff—­For the second time I swear to thee that I will be entirely submissive to the will of the people, and that I will govern in full accordance with the constitution of Tirnova.  Let us forget what passed during the coup d’etat [of 1881], and work together for the prosperity of the country.”  He embraced him; and that embrace was the pledge of a close union of hearts between him and his people[189].

[Footnote 189:  See Laveleye’s The Balkan Peninsula, pp. 259-262, for an account of Karaveloff.]

The Czar forthwith showed his anger at this act of independence, and, counting it a sign of defiance, allowed or encouraged his agents in Bulgaria to undermine the power of the Prince, and procure his deposition.  For two years they struggled in vain.  An attempt by the Russian Generals Soboleff and Kaulbars to kidnap the Prince by night failed, owing to the loyalty of Lieutenant Martinoff, then on duty at his palace; the two ministerial plotters forthwith left Bulgaria[190].

[Footnote 190:  J.G.C.  Minchin, The Growth of Freedom in the Balkan Peninsula (1886) p. 237.  The author, Consul-General for Servia in London, had earlier contributed many articles to the Times and Morning Advertiser on Balkan affairs.]