Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/251

 ZEAL FOK AN ATTACK ON SEBASIOPOL. 221 CHAPTER XIV. By their own prowess, with the aid only of a ^^^^^' moral support from their great allies and the -ri T 1 iti The events actual presence of a lew youncj iingiish otticers, on the ^, ,. , , ^^ ^ ,^ • • Danube ro- the Ottoman soldiery had repelled the invasion; moved the , ., . , , . grounds of and, the defence of Turkey being accomplished in the war. a way very glorious to the Sultan, and the deliver- ance of the Principalities being secured, it sud- denly became apparent that the objects for which the Western Powers undertook the war had been already attained. And since (by the mere act of declaring war against the Czar) the Porte had freed itself from the obnoxious treaties which heretofore entangled its freedom, the condition of affairs was such that a prudent statesman of France or of England or of the Ottoman Empire might have well enough rested content. And in that condition of affairs the Emperor of Eussia must have acquiesced ; for having now learnt that he could not maintain an invasion of European Turkey, and being driven from the seas, he was cut off from all means of waging an offensive war against the Sultan except upon the desolate frou-