He promised us horses for the
morrow. The carriages had all gone to fetch the English officers. We
asked him about Alessio, and he assured us that the telephone message
had been received saying that they were waiting. We asked him several
times until he grew angry and said--
"Do you doubt my honour, then?"
Before we went to bed the hotel proprietor came to us.
"Do you pay or the Government?" asked he; and seemed very relieved when
we told him that we paid. The Montenegrins are neither loved nor trusted
here.
The next morning the horses came, but very late. In the crowd watching
our departure was an old Albanian without a moustache. That was a
strange sight; we looked harder. It was a woman. She must have been one
of those who had sworn eternal virginity, and so achieve all a man's
privileges, even eating with them instead of getting the scraps left
over from the meal. But the punishment of death awaited her if she
failed her vow. Here was one, chuckling and grinning at some of us in
our attempts to mount the weird saddles and weirder steeds which had
been provided.
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