A persistent rumour is circulating in Eastern Europe that the
Cesarewitch is to marry the eldest daughter of the Prince of Montenegro. The rumour is intermittently denied, and Prince Nicholas says the honour is too great for him ; but it receives countenance from the remarkable honours paid to him on his arrival in St. Petersburg. He was treated as a crowned head, and met by the Czar in person. We should not mention the rumour, but that, if correct, it will be of high political importance. The Montenegrin dynasty, though no doubt sovereign in a petty State for nearly three hundred years, is not of the rank into which Czars marry ; and if a Princess of the House is selected, we may depend upon it that Prince Nicholas is the Russian candidate for either Bulgaria or Servia. He is a man of great ambition, much courage, and some soldierly skill, and has the advantage that he is nearly beyond assassination. His subjects would die round him like High- landers round a chief. He is, however, getting Westernised, learns languages, wants to see the Paris Exhibition, and is always applying for loans to improve Montenegro,—all which means a gradual deterioration in strength of character. A Prince of that sort is a hero in an Albanian fustinella, and nobody in trousers.
