"
_Author_. "Your highness may rest assured that had I known that, I
should not have failed to go. At Tronosha I saw a similar festival,
and I am firmly convinced that no peasantry in Europe is freer from
want."
_Prince_. "Every beginning is difficult; our principle must be,
'Endeavour and Progress.' Were you pleased with your tour?"
_Author_. "I think that your Highness has one of the most romantic
principalities in Europe. Without the grandeur of the Alps, Servia has
more than the beauty of the Apennines."
_Prince_. "The country is beautiful, but I wish to see agriculture
prosper."
_Author_. "I am happy to hear that: your highness's father had a great
name as a soldier; I hope that your rule will be distinguished by
rapid advancement in the arts of civilization; that you will be the
Kara Georg of peace."
This led to a conversation relative to the late Kara Georg; and the
prince rising, led me into another apartment, where the portrait of
his father, the duplicate of one painted for the emperor Alexander,
hung from the wall. He was represented in the Turkish dress, and wore
his pistols in his girdle; the countenance expressed not only
intelligence but a certain refinement, which one would scarcely expect
in a warrior peasant: but all his contemporaries agree in representing
him to have possessed an inherent superiority and nobility of nature,
which in any station would have raised him above his equals.
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