Of course this change of ministry did not mean that Bulgaria was then ready to make a separate peace with the Entente Allies.  Every Bulgarian knew that such an act would mean the abandonment of Bulgaria’s whole imperialistic dream and the immediate relinquishment of supremely prized Macedonia.  But it did mean that Bulgaria was discontented with her present situation and that she was resolved to take a more independent stand toward her Teutonic allies even though Germany was in the full flush of her great Western offensive and dreaming of a speedy entry into Paris.

[Sidenote:  The changes of fortune in the West.]

[Sidenote:  Peace demonstrations.]

[Sidenote:  The tales of Bulgarian prisoners.]

[Sidenote:  The capitulation.]

But just a month after Malinov’s accession came the dramatic shift of fortune in the West.  The German offensive broke down, and the Allies began their astounding succession of victories.  Instantly the Balkan situation altered.  Bulgaria knew that the spring offensive had been Germany’s supreme bid for victory.  To fill the ranks for the rush on Paris and the channel ports the last German veterans had been withdrawn from the East.  Gone were those field-gray divisions which had stiffened the Macedonian front and kept down popular discontent by garrisoning Bulgarian towns.  The peasant voice was at last free to speak, and it spoke in no uncertain terms for an end of the war.  Agrarian disturbances increased in frequency.  Peace demonstrations occurred in Sofia.  In fact, some of these demonstrations were tinged with revolutionary red.  Bolshevism, that wild revolt against the whole existing order to-day manifest in every quarter of the globe, had not passed Bulgaria by.  Of course there was the army, but the army itself was not immune.  By early July, Bulgarian deserters and prisoners taken on the Macedonian front were telling the Allied intelligence officers strange tales—­tales of midnight soldiers’ meetings at which “delegates” were chosen in true Russian fashion, and which Bulgarian regimental officers found it wisest to ignore.  Such was the situation in early summer.  By the first days of autumn Bulgaria was cracking from end to end.  It was in mid-September that General Franchet d’Esperey, the Allied commander, ordered the Macedonian offensive.  Small wonder that within a fortnight Bulgaria had surrendered and retired from the war.

[Sidenote:  Turkey’s doom sealed.]

The consequences of Bulgaria’s capitulation should be both momentous and far-reaching.  In the first place, Turkey’s doom is sealed.  Cut off from direct communication with the Teutonic powers save by the Black Sea water-route and staggering under her Palestine defeats, Turkey is now menaced at her very heart.  By the terms of the recent armistice Bulgaria has agreed to allow the Allies free passage across her territory, including the full use of her railways.  This means that the Allies can move through Bulgaria upon Turkish Thrace, the sole land bastion protecting Constantinople.  Turkey’s military situation is thus hopeless, and it is not impossible that before these lines appear in print Turkey will have followed Bulgaria’s example and will have thrown up the sponge.