Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/252

 222 ZKAL FOR A.t CHAP, tiers of Armenia; and the prcssi.ic of tle naval V TV" _^ '__ blockade enforced against him by the Allies, to- gether with the torture of seeing the Baltic and the Euxine placed under the dominion of their fleets, would have more than sufficed to make him sign a peace. If France had been mistrfss of herself, or if England had been free from passion and craving for adventure, the war wou d have been virtually at an end on the day when the Eussian army completed its retreat from the country of the Danube and re-entered the Czar's dominions. How came it to happen that, rejecting the peace which seemed to be thus prepared by the mere course of events, the Western Powers deter- mined to undertake the invasion of a Eussian province ? Helpless- France was still lying under the men M-ho had French got her down on the night of the 2d of Decem- ber ; and it was in vain that her people at that time chanced to love peace better than war, for they had no longer a voice in State affairs. The French Ii^mperor still wielded the whole strength of the nation ; and, labouring to turn away men's thoughts from the origin of his power, he was very willing to try to earn for the restored Empire Course taken that kind of statiou and title which tlic newest of erenrii Rm- dyuastics may acquire by signal achievements in war. It was still of great moment to him to re- main in close friendship with England, and to use the alliance as an engine of war ; but he observed that there was a spirit on this side of the Channel