It is simply impossible to obtain a clear narrative from
the Balkan Peninsula. According to one account, a general in- surrection is to break out in Macedonia next week, and accord- ing to another, the insurgent committees have abandoned this plan, replacing it by the project of a general guerilla war. One correspondent declares that Bulgarians are swarming into Macedonia, and commit horrible atrocities; while another reports that the passes are shut, and none but women can get though.' We are told on one day that the Albanians have accepted the Sultan's orders, and on another that they have threatened his agents with immediate death. What seems to be true is that the Macedonian leaders are half afraid of Russia, that Russia insists on the execution of an Albanian who murdered her Consul at Mitrovitza, and that the Sultan is distracted between fear of the Ambassadors and fear of the Albanian guard at Yil diz Kiosk. Both sides are circulating accounts of atrocities hardly credible, and both plunder or kill any villagers who re- fuse to obey almost impossible orders. Europe must still wait patiently for some more decisive event, which may be a rising in Bulgaria, where the Ministry is again threatening resig- nation.
