Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/102

 CO ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF ISM CHAP. were peace or whether there were war, the exi- IV - gency of their Czar's military system would al- ways go on consuming their youth ; and since this engine of a vast standing army was destined to be kept up and to be fed with their flesh ami blood, they desired in their simple hearts that it should be used for a purpose which they believed to be holy and righteous. To a cause having all these sanctions the voice of prophecy could not be wanting. Seers foretold the destruction of the lurks by the men of the yellow hair. Yet, vast as it was in its aggregate force, the heart's desire of a whole nation would have been vague and dim of sight if it had not some famed city for its goal, or some outward and visible figure or sign to which the multitude could point as the symbol of its great intent. The people were not without their goal nor without their symbol, for the city whither they tended was the imperial city of Constantine, once mistress of the world, and the Cross that the Emperor had seen in the heavens was still the sign in which the Church said they must conquer. For such as were the politic few there was the Golden Horn, with its command of the Bosphorus and the Dar- danelles, and all its fair promise of wealth and empire. In the horizon of the pious multitude there rose the dome of St Sophia. Ambition was sanctified by religion. The most pious might righteously desire that the devotion of their mili- tant Church should be aided by the wisdom of the serpent, and the most worldly-minded states-