Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/70

40 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND CHAP, mitting in other ways a great strategic fault ; and ^^' he also inferred that political reasons and imperial vanity would make the Czar cling to his error. He also knew that, for the rest of that year, the Czar, being kept back by the engagements which lie had taken, by his fear of breaking with the four Powers, and above all, by the insufficiency of his means, would abstain from any further inva- sion of Turkey, and would even be reluctant to alarm Europe by allowing the least glimpse of a Eussian uniform to appear on the right bank of the Danube. Omar saw that the river had thus become a political barrier which protected the Turks from the Eussians, without protecting the Eussians from the Turks. He could, therefore, overstep the common rules of the art of war; and disporting himself as he chose on the line of the 'Danube, could concentrate forces on his extreme left, without any fear for his centre or his right. uis autumn Therefore, in the early part of the autumn, ttud winter . ,. , i rn i • -i • i.^ cttinpaigns. a large portion ot the Turkish army was quietly drawn to Widdin, a town on the right bank of the river, in the westernmost angle of Bulgaria ; and, on the lifth day from the declaration of war, Omar Pasha was over the Danube, entrenching himself at Kalafat, and so established that he faced towards the east, and confronted the extreme flank of the intruding army.* Trom that moment Nicholas ceased to be the undisturbed holder of the terri- tory which he had chosen to call his ' material • 28th October 1853. The decluratiou of war became absolute on the 23a.