Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/160

 130 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND CHAP, while the happy dream ceased, and he had the - torment of hearing the four Powers confess that, if for a moment they had differed from Lord Stratford, it was because of their erring nature. Then, fired by the Turkish declaration of war, and stung to fury by the hostile use of the AVestern fleets which the French Emperor had forced upon the English Government, the Czar gave the fatal orders which brought about the disaster of Sinope. After his first exultation over the sinking of the ships and the slaughter, he apparently saw his error, and was become so moderate as to receive in a right spirit the announcement of the first decision that had been taken by the English Cabinet when the news of the catastrophe reached it. But only a few days later, he had to hear of the grave and hostile change of view which had been forced upon Lord Aberdeen's Government by the French Emperor, and to learn that, by re- solving to drive the Eussian flag from the Euxine, the maritime Powers had brought their relations with his empire to a state barely sliort of wa)'. After this rupture, it was no longer possible for him to extricate liimself decorously, unless by exerting some skill and a steady command of temper. He was unequal to the trial ; and al- though, in politic and worldly moments, he must have been almost hopeless of a good result, he could not bear to let go his hold of the occupied provinces under the compulsion of a public threat laid upon him by England and France. With the conduct of the Turkish Government