Chapter I: Page

FROM MELBOURNE TO SOFIA.

Autobiographical--My Wanderjahr--First Glimpse of
Servians--Rome--A Prospective Mother-in-law--Sad Result of
eating Chops--A Spanish Poet--The Chance of a Lifetime--How I
seized it--Garcia's Gold Watch--The Via del Poppo--Off to
London--Engaged by the Turkish Government--Vienna
revisited--Stamboul--Origin of the Crescent--Misserie's
Hotel--The Turkish Character--A Splendid Belvedere--View from
the Seraskierat Tower--Scutari and Florence
Nightingale--Stamboul by Day and Night--Scene in a
Bazaar--Three Sundays a Week--A Trip to Sweet Waters--Veiled
Beauties--I am gazetted to a Regiment--An Official Dinner--Off
to the Front--A Compulsory Shave--My Charger--The March to
Sofia--My First Patient--Prescription for a Malingerer--Mehemet
Ali--My Soldier Servant--Diagnosing my Cases--Bulgarians at
Home--At Sofia--MacGahan the War Correspondent--Learning
Turkish--A Dinner in Camp--Leniency to Bulgarians--A Lady
Patient--So near and yet so far--From Pirot to Nish--The
Wounded--My First Operation 1

CHAPTER II.
THE PRELIMINARIES TO THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

Prince Czetwertinski--A Romantic Career--His First
Commission--A Retrospect--The History of a Noble Pole--From
Monte Carlo to Brisbane--A Prince as a Deck Hand on a
Schooner--A Bush Tutor--He returns to Europe--The Load of
Poverty--Lighter to Bear in Australia--A Big Win at
Flemington--School Teaching in Batavia--Back to New South
Wales--Death at Wagga--The Vale of Moravia--The Hot
Spring--Bulgarian Blanchisseuses--Slavonian Folk-songs--How the
Turks sing--A Bulgarian Sámadh--Foley's End--Infuriated
Scavengers--A Mysterious Disturbance--Rough-and-tumble
Fighting--A Turkish Hercules--Capturing a Prisoner--A Solitary
Ride--A Bulgarian Farrier--Back to Sofia--Christmas in the
Snow--A Maize Cob for a Christmas Dinner--Orkhanieh to Sofia--A
Doctor frozen to Death--Bitter Experiences--Salutary Effects of
a Good Dinner 32

CHAPTER III.
THE IMMINENCE OF WAR.

Off to Widdin--Strong Fortifications--Osman Pasha in
Command--The Kalafatians at Work--Dr. Black--A Discreditable
Englishman--Shooting on Sight--An Arrest and a Release--"Life
off Black"--Egyptian Troops arrive--Zara Dilber Effendi--Osman
Pasha's Ball--A Memorable Function--I get Plenty of
Partners--Military Wall-flowers--The Ladies of Widdin--The
Dance before the Fight--Three Beautiful Roumanians--An Angry
Grandfather--Lambro Redivivus--Preparing for the Campaign--Some
Forcible Dentistry--Religion of the Turks--The
Wrestlers--Visitors from Kalafat--I pay a Return Call--Across
the Danube into Kalafat--Dinner with the Roumanians--Pumping
the Guileless Stranger--A Futile Effort--Frank Power--Nicholas
Leader--Edmund O'Donovan--Wild Duck Shooting 56