Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/141

 BETWEEN THE CZAR ANL> THE SULTAN. 99 inaction. CHAPTER VII. But when a man's mind has once been thrown chap. forward towards action, it gains so great a mo- _ mentum that the ceasing of the motive which first disturbed his repose does not instantly bring him to a stand. The Czar had found himself The pain of suddenly deprived of his ground of war against the Porte by the embarrassing success of Count Leiuingen's mission, and in the same week lie was robbed of his last hope of the alliance which he most desired by the failure of his overtures to England. He gave up the idea of going to war, and policy commanded that for a while he should rest ; but already he had so acted that rest was pain to him. He could not but be tortured with the thought that the furtive words which he had uttered to Sir Hamilton Seymour on the 21st of February were known to the Queen of England and to several of her foremost statesmen. More- over, in a thousand forms, the bitter fruits of the delivery of the key and the star of Bethlehem, and the tidings of the triumph which the Latins had gained over his Church, and of the agony which