Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/191

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 149 It has been seen that, without reason, and with- CHAT. XI out communication with the English Ministers *. — (though it professed to be acting in unison with chang<£ fth8 them), the French Government had ordered the Toulon fleet to approach the scene of controversy by advancing to Salamis ; and it was whilst the indignation roused by this movement was still fresh in the mind of the Emperor Nicholas that the despatches had been framed. Moreover, at the time of sending of the despatches, the Czar knew that by the day they reached the shores of the Bosphorus, the man of whom he never could think with temper or calmness would already be at Constantinople, and he of course understood that, in the way of diplomatic strife, his Lord High Admiral the Serene Prince Governor of Finland was unfit for an encounter with Lord Stratford. He seems, therefore, to have determined to extricate his Ambassador from the unequal conflict by putting an end to what there was of a diplomatic character in the mission, and urging him into a course of sheer violence, which would supersede the finer labours of negotiation. From the change which the despatches wrought in Prince Mentschikoffs course of action, from the .steps which he afterwards took, and from the known bent and temper of the Czar's mind, it may be inferred that the instructions now received by the Eussian Ambassador were somewhat to this effect: — 'The French fleet has been ordered tenor of i,. , fresh de- < to Salami's. The Emperor is justly indignant, gpatche