Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/111

BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 69 carried on niton an extended line of operations. CHAT. in the country of the Danube his soldiery per- ' ished fast from sickness and want ; and although he had so well chosen his time that the Sultan was without an ally, and (having but lately put to death his own army) was in an ill condition for war, still he encountered so much of obstinate and troublesome resistance from the Turks, and was so ill able to cope with it, that at the instance, as is said, of his own Generals, he retired from the scene of conflict, and went back to St Petersburg with the galling knowledge that he was without the gifts which make an able commander in the field. He could not but see, too, that the military repu- tation of Russia was brought into great peril ; and, although in the following year he was rescued from the dangerous straits into which he had run, by the brilliant audacity of Diebitsch, by the skill of his diplomacy, and above all by indulgent for- tune, still he was so chastened by the anxiety of the time, and by the narrowness of his escape from a great humiliation, that he ceased to entertain*^ any hope or intention of dismembering Turkey, except in the event of there occurring a chain of circumstances which should enable him to act with the concurrence of other great Powers. But the Emperor knew that the pride of his people would be deeply wounded if any great changes should take place in the Ottoman Empire without bringing gain to Russia and accelerating her march to Constantinople; and therefore he lielieved that, until he Mas prepared to take a