Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/79

IN Till-: WAR AGAINST RUSSIA, 40 peace by takinrf care to be always along with cilAP, the French Emperor ; and ho so clung to the ' paradise created by a false maxim that he could not be torn from it. lie would not be roused from a dream which was sweeter than all waking thoughts ; and even now, to any man to whom he chanced to s]:)eak, he continued to say that there could not, there would not be war. Coming irom a Prime INIinister, such words as these did not fail to have a noxious weight with many who heard them, l^aron Brunnow, wo have seen, had looked deeper even at a much earlier period, and now again, no doubt, he took care to warn his master that Lord Aberdeen was under a pas- sionate hatred of war which deprived him of his competence to speak in the name of his country : but by other channels the words of our Prime jMinister were carried to the Emperor of Prussia, and, being very welcome to him, and co- inciding with his long - cherished notions, they tended to keep him in the perilous belief that Lord Aberdeen was speaking with knowledge, and that England, still clogged by her Peace Party, was unable to (m to war. VOL. IL V