Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/237

BETWEEN THE CZAll AND THE SULTAN. 195 It was afterwards explained that this plan of re- chap. sorting to violence without war was to be carried !_ into effect by occupying the Danubian Principali- ties, and holding them as a security for the Sultan's compliance. But, in the second week of June, the Despatch which brought to the Sultan a virtual alliance with England was already at Constantinople, and the English fleet was coming up from Malta to the mouth of the Dardanelles under order.s to obey the word of the English Ambassador. Be fore the moment came for despatching an answer to Count Nesselrode's summons, both the French and the English fleets were at anchor close out- side the Straits, in waters called Besica Bay. Thus supported, the Porte at once refused to give Russia the Note demanded; but, under Lord Stratford's counsel, it did this in terms of defer- ential courtesy, and in a way which left open a door to future negotiation. In all the capitals of the five great Powers, as Efforts to 7v« j effect an well as at Constantinople, great efforts were made accomm*. . . . dation. to bring about an accommodatron, and it is certain that at intervals, if not continually, the Emperor Nicholas sought the means of retreating without ridicule from the ground on which his violence had placed him. It might seem that this was a condition of things in which diplomacy ought to have been able to act with effect; but it is hard for any one acquainted with the Despatches to say that the Statesmen entrusted with the duty of labouring for this end were wanting in energy