Suddenly they began to fire, for no apparent reason, which habit is apt to be startling to a nervous traveller on his first journey.  But our youthful driver let fly an answering shot; on inquiring he told us that it was to encourage the horses.  Afterwards we never rode or drove any distance in the country without our revolvers, so that we too might help in the encouragement.

That afternoon Rijeka presented a brilliant picture.  On entering the town hundreds of peasants were congregated round the cattle-market on the outskirts, but it was on the broad street by the river bank that the most animated scene was to be witnessed.  Every Montenegrin town should be seen on a market day, for then the peasants from far and near, in their best clothes and rifles over their shoulders, flock to the town with cattle and sheep and field produce.  Rifles are usually carried when going on a long journey, particularly in the vicinity of Albania.  This is partly as a sign of allegiance to their Prince, but chiefly because Montenegro stands ever before a sudden mobilisation.  Should the soldier peasant hear the alarm, he must make his way at once for the rendezvous as speedily as possible, without detour.  Further, hundreds of armed Albanians from the borders are always in their midst, as was the case to-day.

Rijeka is a very busy little place, being the half-way village between the capital and Podgorica, and is still more important as the starting-point of the little steamer which plies twice weekly down the lake to Scutari.  The river runs between lovely green hills rising straight from its banks, wooded and luxuriant, reminding one not a little of the Thames at Cookham.

The Prince has a small palace just beyond the town, and spends the coldest winter months here, where he escapes the rigours of the climate in Cetinje.  About half-an-hour’s walk is the ancient fortress of Obod, famed in history as the site of the first printing-press (destroyed very soon by the Turks) in the Balkans, and indeed one of the first in the world, for Caxton was only a few years ahead.  The fact speaks for the ever forward striving spirit which has animated Montenegro’s rulers since its very foundation, and which only the rigours of pitiless warfare have hindered.

On leaving the pretty little township, we had considerable difficulty in forcing our way through the flocks which continually blocked the road.  All the way we ploughed through herds of cattle and stampeding sheep and goats, much to the disgust of their shepherds.  These men, chiefly vicious-looking Albanians, with loosely-slung rifle, and round their waist a bandolier of cartridges, lend a wildness to the lonely road which is likely to mislead the new-comer; and should one of them empty his revolver light-heartedly in the air, to be answered by another some distance away, the impression is considerably heightened.