Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/142

 100 OI1IGIX OF THE WAR OF 1853 chap, this discomfiture had inflicted upon pious zealots, , were coming home upon him, and from time to time in a fitful way were tormenting him, and then giving him a little rest, and then once more rekindling his fury. So he began to turn this way and that, in order that by turmoil he might smother the past, win back the self-respect which he had lost, and gain some counter-victory for his Church. He had already gathered heavy bodies of troops in the south of his empire ; he had a powerful fleet in the Euxine ; the Bosphorus was nigh. The Turks, trusting mainly to heavenly power, were ill prepared. No French or English fleets were in the Levant. Above all, that shady garden at Therapia, commanding the entrance of the Euxine, and seeming to be the fit dwelling- place for a statesman who watched against inva- sion from the North, was no longer paced by the English Ambassador. The great Eltchi was away. Many thought it was possible for the Czar to seize the imperial city, and treat with the anger of Europe from the Seraglio Point. But Nicholas, though he was capable of ventur- ing a little way into wrong paths, and was often blinded to the difference between right and wrong by a sense of religious duty, was far from being a lawless prince. His conscience, warped by Faith, would easily reconcile him to an act of violence against a Mahometan Power ; but he never ques- tioned that the fate of Turkey was a matter of concern to other Christian States as well as to his own ; and he did not at this time intend to take