Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/88

 58 THE RENEWED EXPEDITION TO KEETCH. I'll a p. hut their dream was coherent, and not altogether IV unshared by the English commander. As al- ready they had given an earnest of their simple, rude 'foreign policy' by bringing in Russians as prisoners to the camp of the invader, so now — in arms, and on horseback — they offered him a warlike alliance with the once mighty Golden Horde. Sir George apparently thought they might prove to be in some sort the Spaniards, or even the tried Portuguese of his early and glorious days ; but ought he to have purchased the friend- ship of even the Golden Horde at so heavy, so painful a cost as that of allowing a town within easy reach of his camp to lie seething day after day, and even week after week, in the agonies of a slow doubtful strife with bands of men — not perhaps murderous, but — intent on destruction and pillage ? The enemy's forces had vanished without at- tempting resistance ; and, there being therefore no prospect of fights on the Kertchine Peninsula, it is hard to see how an alliance with its Tartar inhabitants could be of more worth to the invader than peaceful, friendly relations with a well- ordered seaport town (lying midway between his headquarters and his works near Fort Paul) which was yearning to receive at his hands the blessings of protection and government. If only for the sake of withdrawing irresistible temp- tations to crime from the reach of the Allied forces, there was seemingly reason enough for