Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/207

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 1G5 flag. At all events, the Grand Vizier, in that chap. moment of weakness, suffered himself to cast a ' thought after the arm of the flesh, and to ask whether the Torte might expect the eventual ap- proach of the English squadron in the Mediter- ranean. Lord Stratford rebuked him. ' I replied,' said he, ' that I considered the position in its ' present stage to be one of a moral character, ' and consequently that its difficulties or hazards, ' whatever they might be, should be rather met ' by acts of a similar description than by demon- ' strations calculated to increase alarm and pro- ' voice resentment.' It was a new and a strange task for this Grand Vizier of a warlike Tartar nation to be called upon to defend a threatened empire by ' acts of a ' moral character;' but after all his reliance was upon the man. It might be hard for him to understand how the mere advantage of being in the right could be used against the Sebastopol fleet, or the army that was hovering upon the Truth ; but if he looked upon the close, angry, resolute lips of the Ambassador, and the grand overhanging of his brow, he saw that which more than all else in the world takes hold of the Ori- ental mind, for he saw strength held in reserve. And this faith was of such a kind, that, far from being weakened, it would gather new force from Lord Stratford's refusal to speak of material help. The Turkish Ministry determined to reject Prince Mentschikoif's proposals, and to do this in the way advised by the English Ambassador. All this