A "People's Deputation" of mountaineers, without any official notice or introduction, arrived at the Castle late in the evening in the manner established by Rupert's "Proclamation of Freedom," wherein all citizens were entitled to send a deputation to the King, at will and in private, on any subject of State importance.

This deputation was composed of seventeen men, one selected from each political section, so that the body as a whole represented the entire nation.

They were of all sorts of social rank and all degrees of fortune, but they were mainly "of the people." They spoke hesitatingly--possibly because Teuta, or even because I, was present--but with a manifest earnestness.

They made but one request--that the Queen should, on the great occasion of the Balkan Federation, wear as robes of State the Shroud that they loved to see her in.

The spokesman, addressing the Queen, said in tones of rugged eloquence: "This is a matter, Your Majesty, that the women naturally have a say in, so we have, of course, consulted them.