Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/147

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 105 There, moreover, came tidings that General Dan- CHAP. . VII. nenberg, then commanding the cavalry of the 5th. . corps d'armee, had pushed his advance-guard close up to the frontiers of Moldavia ; that funds had been transmitted to merchants in Moldavia and Wallachia for the purchase of rations ; and finally, that the fleet at Sebastopol was getting ready to sail at the shortest notice. In the midst of the alarm engendered by these demonstrations, Prince Mentschikoff began the du- ties of his mission ; and he so acted as to make men see that he was charged to coerce, and not to persuade. With his whole Embassy he went to the Panic in th« U p Divan. Grand Vizier's apartment at the Porte, but refused to obey the custom which imperatively required that he should wait upon Fuad Effendi, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. With him, as it was under- stood, the Ambassador declined to hold intercourse. Fuad Effendi, the immediate object of the affront, was the ablest member of the Government. He instantly resigned his office. The Sultan accept- ed his resignation. There was a panic. It was understood that Prince Mentschikoff was going to demand terms deeply humiliating and injurious to the Sultan, and that a refusal to give way would be followed by an instant attack. The Grand Vizier believed that the mission, far from being of a conciliatory character, as pretended, was meant, on the contrary, 'to win some import- ' ant right from Turkey, which would destroy her ' independence/ and that the Czar's object was 'to ' trample under foot the rights of the Porte and