Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/388

 35G THE COURSE RIGHTLY TAKEN BY AUSTRIA chap, croachments of 1853 which had given offence to XII • ' Germany, and besides by the fact that, with mighty forces entangled in a far-distant region, France was hardly for the moment so able as she might otherwise be to support the Empire of Austria against encompassing enemies. What defeated the efforts of diplomacy to end the war at this time was, in short, a point of soldierly honour arising from the frustration of efforts to carry Sebastopol ; and the notion of assuming that Austria, who had had nothing to do with the siege, should be expected to act as a Power affected by this special exigency, was of course altogether untenable. Consistently with the new determination, Aus- tria hastened to relieve her Exchequer from any further continuance of the burthensome sacrifices she had been making in preparation for war, and abandoned that attitude of armed menace which she long had maintained against Eussia. It was natural that this course of action, though no less right than wise, should provoke great impatience in England, and the more so perhaps since it happened that Lord Palmerston, then our Prime Minister, had long shown towards the much-challenged Empire of Francis Joseph a curious, persistent antipathy. With, however, a store of good humour which seemed inexhaust- ible, the now disarming Austria clung fast to the notion of her being joined to the Western Powers by some gentle sort of Alliance. Not fearing the High Court of Ridicule, she even gave them her