There were other camps for special service, all of them well
arranged, and with plenty of facility for transport. Each of the
Federating Monarchs had a camp of his own, in which he had erected a
magnificent pavilion. For the Western King, who had acted as
Arbitrator in the matter of the Federation, a veritable palace had
been built by King Rupert--a sort of Aladdin's palace it must have
been, for only a few weeks ago the place it occupied was, I was told,
only primeval wilderness. King Rupert and his Queen, Teuta, had a
pavilion like the rest of the Federators of Balka, but infinitely
more modest, both in size and adornments.
Everywhere were guards of the Blue Mountains, armed only with the
"handjar," which is the national weapon. They wore the national
dress, but so arranged in colour and accoutrement that the general
air of uniformity took the place of a rigid uniform. There must have
been at least seventy or eighty thousand of them.
The first day was one of investigation of details by the visitors.
During the second day the retinues of the great Federators came.
Some of these retinues were vast. For instance, the Soldan (though
only just become a Federator) sent of one kind or another more than a
thousand men. A brave show they made, for they are fine men, and
drilled to perfection. As they swaggered along, singly or in mass,
with their gay jackets and baggy trousers, their helmets surmounted
by the golden crescent, they looked a foe not to be despised.
Landreck Martin, the Nestor of journalists, said to me, as we stood
together looking at them:
"To-day we witness a new departure in Blue Mountain history. This is
the first occasion for a thousand years that so large a Turkish body
has entered the Blue Mountains with a reasonable prospect of ever
getting out again."
July 1, 1909.
To-day, the day appointed for the ceremony, was auspiciously fine,
even for the Blue Mountains, where at this time of year the weather
is nearly always fine. They are early folk in the Blue Mountains,
but to-day things began to hum before daybreak. There were bugle-
calls all over the place--everything here is arranged by calls of
musical instruments--trumpets, or bugles, or drums (if, indeed, the
drum can be called a musical instrument)--or by lights, if it be
after dark. We journalists were all ready; coffee and bread-and-
butter had been thoughtfully served early in our sleeping-tents, and
an elaborate breakfast was going on all the time in the refectory
pavilions. We had a preliminary look round, and then there was a
sort of general pause for breakfast. We took advantage of it, and
attacked the sumptuous--indeed, memorable--meal which was served for
us.
The ceremony was to commence at noon, but at ten o'clock the whole
place was astir--not merely beginning to move, but actually moving;
everybody taking their places for the great ceremony. As noon drew
near, the excitement was intense and prolonged. One by one the
various signatories to the Federation began to assemble. They all
came by sea; such of them as had sea-boards of their own having their
fleets around them. Such as had no fleets of their own were attended
by at least one of the Blue Mountain ironclads. And I am bound to
say that I never in my life saw more dangerous craft than these
little warships of King Rupert of the Blue Mountains. As they
entered the Blue Mouth each ship took her appointed station, those
which carried the signatories being close together in an isolated
group in a little bay almost surrounded by high cliffs in the
farthest recesses of the mighty harbour. King Rupert's armoured
yacht all the time lay close inshore, hard by the mouth of the Great
Tunnel which runs straight into the mountain from a wide plateau,
partly natural rock, partly built up with mighty blocks of stone.
Here it is, I am told, that the inland products are brought down to
the modern town of Plazac. Just as the clocks were chiming the half-
hour before noon this yacht glided out into the expanse of the"
Mouth." Behind her came twelve great barges, royally decked, and
draped each in the colour of the signatory nation. On each of these
the ruler entered with his guard, and was carried to Rupert's yacht,
he going on the bridge, whilst his suite remained on the lower deck.
In the meantime whole fleets had been appearing on the southern
horizon; the nations were sending their maritime quota to the
christening of "Balka"! In such wonderful order as can only be seen
with squadrons of fighting ships, the mighty throng swept into the
Blue Mouth, and took up their stations in groups. The only armament
of a Great Power now missing was that of the Western King. But there
was time. Indeed, as the crowd everywhere began to look at their
watches a long line of ships began to spread up northward from the
Italian coast. They came at great speed--nearly twenty knots. It
was a really wonderful sight--fifty of the finest ships in the world;
the very latest expression of naval giants, each seemingly typical of
its class--Dreadnoughts, cruisers, destroyers. They came in a wedge,
with the King's yacht flying the Royal Standard the apex. Every ship
of the squadron bore a red ensign long enough to float from the
masthead to the water. From the armoured tower in the waterway one
could see the myriad of faces--white stars on both land and sea--for
the great harbour was now alive with ships and each and all of them
alive with men.
Suddenly, without any direct cause, the white masses became eclipsed-
-everyone had turned round, and was looking the other way. I looked
across the bay and up the mountain behind--a mighty mountain, whose
slopes run up to the very sky, ridge after ridge seeming like itself
a mountain. Far away on the very top the standard of the Blue
Mountains was run up on a mighty Flagstaff which seemed like a shaft
of light. It was two hundred feet high, and painted white, and as at
the distance the steel stays were invisible, it towered up in lonely
grandeur. At its foot was a dark mass grouped behind a white space,
which I could not make out till I used my field-glasses.
Then I knew it was King Rupert and the Queen in the midst of a group
of mountaineers. They were on the aero station behind the platform
of the aero, which seemed to shine--shine, not glitter--as though it
were overlaid with plates of gold.
Again the faces looked west. The Western Squadron was drawing near
to the entrance of the Blue Mouth. On the bridge of the yacht stood
the Western King in uniform of an Admiral, and by him his Queen in a
dress of royal purple, splendid with gold. Another glance at the
mountain-top showed that it had seemed to become alive. A whole park
of artillery seemed to have suddenly sprung to life, round each its
crew ready for action. Amongst the group at the foot of the
Flagstaff we could distinguish King Rupert; his vast height and bulk
stood out from and above all round him. Close to him was a patch of
white, which we understood to be Queen Teuta, whom the Blue
Mountaineers simply adore.
By this time the armoured yacht, bearing all the signatories to
"Balka" (excepting King Rupert), had moved out towards the entrance,
and lay still and silent, waiting the coming of the Royal Arbitrator,
whose whole squadron simultaneously slowed down, and hardly drifted
in the seething water of their backing engines.
When the flag which was in the yacht's prow was almost opposite the
armoured fort, the Western King held up a roll of vellum handed to
him by one of his officers. We onlookers held our breath, for in an
instant was such a scene as we can never hope to see again.
At the raising of the Western King's hand, a gun was fired away on
the top of the mountain where rose the mighty Flagstaff with the
standard of the Blue Mountains. Then came the thunder of salute from
the guns, bright flashes and reports, which echoed down the hillsides
in never-ending sequence. At the first gun, by some trick of
signalling, the flag of the Federated "Balka" floated out from the
top of the Flagstaff, which had been mysteriously raised, and flew
above that of the Blue Mountains.
At the same moment the figures of Rupert and Teuta sank; they were
taking their places on the aeroplane. An instant after, like a great
golden bird, it seemed to shoot out into the air, and then, dipping
its head, dropped downward at an obtuse angle. We could see the King
and Queen from time waist upwards--the King in Blue Mountain dress of
green; the Queen, wrapped in her white Shroud, holding her baby on
her breast. When far out from the mountain-top and over the Blue
Mouth, the wings and tail of the great bird-like machine went up, and
the aero dropped like a stone, till it was only some few hundred feet
over the water. Then the wings and tail went down, but with
diminishing speed. Below the expanse of the plane the King and Queen
were now seen seated together on the tiny steering platform, which
seemed to have been lowered; she sat behind her husband, after the
manner of matrons of the Blue Mountains. That coming of that
aeroplane was the most striking episode of all this wonderful day.
After floating for a few seconds, the engines began to work, whilst
the planes moved back to their normal with beautiful simultaneity.
There was a golden aero finding its safety in gliding movement. At
the same time the steering platform was rising, so that once more the
occupants were not far below, but above the plane. They were now
only about a hundred feet above the water, moving from the far end of
the Blue Mouth towards the entrance in the open space between the two
lines of the fighting ships of the various nationalities, all of
which had by now their yards manned--a manoeuvre which had begun at
the firing of the first gun on the mountain-top. As the aero passed
along, all the seamen began to cheer--a cheering which they kept up
till the King and Queen had come so close to the Western King's
vessel that the two Kings and Queens could greet each other. The
wind was now beginning to blow westward from the mountain-top, and it
took the sounds towards the armoured fort, so that at moments we
could distinguish the cheers of the various nationalities, amongst
which, more keen than the others, came the soft "Ban Zai!" of the
Japanese.
King Rupert, holding his steering levers, sat like a man of marble.
Behind him his beautiful wife, clad in her Shroud, and holding in her
arms the young Crown Prince, seemed like a veritable statue.
The aero, guided by Rupert's unerring hand, lit softly on the after-
deck of the Western King's yacht; and King Rupert, stepping on deck,
lifted from her seat Queen Teuta with her baby in her arms. It was
only when the Blue Mountain King stood amongst other men that one
could realize his enormous stature. He stood literally head and
shoulders over every other man present.
Whilst the aeroplane was giving up its burden, the Western King and
his Queen were descending from the bridge. The host and hostess,
hand in hand--after their usual fashion, as it seems--hurried forward
to greet their guests. The meeting was touching in its simplicity.
The two monarchs shook hands, and their consorts, representatives of
the foremost types of national beauty of the North and South,
instinctively drew close and kissed each other. Then the hostess
Queen, moving towards the Western King, kneeled before him with the
gracious obeisance of a Blue Mountain hostess, and kissed his hand.
Her words of greeting were:
"You are welcome, sire, to the Blue Mountains. We are grateful to
you for all you have done for Balka, and to you and Her Majesty for
giving us the honour of your presence."
