Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/180

 150 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND CHAP, search for the man or the men whose volition was , governing the crowd, the e3-e falls npon the tower- ing form of the Emperor Nicholas. He was not single-minded, and therefore his will was unstable, but it had a huge force ; and since he was armed with the whole authority of his Empire, it seemed plain that it was this man, and only he, who was bringing danger from the North. And at first, too, it seemed that within his range of action there was none who could be his equal ; but in a little while the looks of men were turned to the Bosphorus, for thither the Czar's ancient adver- sary was slowly bending his way. To fit him for the encounter, the Englishman was clothed with little authority except what he could draw from the resources of his own mind and from the strength of his own wilful nature. Yet it was O presently seen that those who were near him fell under his dominion, and did as he bade them, and that the circle of deference to his will was always increasing around him ; and soon it appeared that though he moved gently, he began to have mas- tery over a foe who was consuming his strength in mere anger. When he had conquered, he stood, as it were, with folded arms, and seemed willing to desist from strife. But also in the West there had been seen a knot of men possessed, for the time, of the mighty engine of the French State, and striving so to use it as to be able to keep their hold, and to shelter themselves from a cruel fate. The volitions of these men were active enough, because they were toiling for their lives. Their