call for the domination of the conqueror; the viceroy
protested his submission to the Porte and his desire for peace, and
meanwhile Ibrahim Pasha marched forward.

The Porte counted on its fleet to guard the Dardanelles, but it needed
an army and a commander to oppose Ibrahim Pasha, who again defeated the
Turks at Oulon-Kislak. He then advanced towards the plains of Anatolia,
where he met Rashid Pasha.

It was now December, 1830, and the atmosphere was heavy with a thick
fog. The armies opened fire on each other on December 21st, with the
town of Koniah in the background. The grand vizier was at the head of
close on sixty thousand men, while the Egyptian army only comprised
thirty thousand, including the Bedouins. The fighting had continued for
about six hours when Rashid Pasha was taken prisoner; the news of his
capture spread along the Turkish lines and threw them into disorder,
and the Egyptians remained masters of the field, with twenty pieces of
mounted cannon and some baggage: the Turks had lost only five hundred
men, while the Egyptian losses were but two hundred.

The battle of Koniah was the last act in the Syrian drama. The sultan's
throne was shaken, and its fall might involve great changes in the
politics of the world. Ibrahim Pasha was only three days' journey from
the Bosphorus, and the way was open to him, with no Turkish army to
fight and the whole population in his favour. In Constantinople itself
Mehemet Ali had a powerful party, and, if the West did not interfere,
the Ottoman Empire was at an end. However, European diplomacy considered
that, in spite of its weakness, it should still weigh in the balance of
the nations.

Trembling in the midst of his harem, Sultan Mahmud cried for help, and
Russia, his nearest neighbour, heard the call. This was the Power that,
either from sympathy or ambition, was the most inclined to come to his
aid. The Emperor Nicholas had offered assistance in a letter brought
to the sultan by the Russian General Mouravieff, and a Russian squadron
appeared in the Bosphorus with eight thousand men for disembarkment. The
Russians, however, agreed not to set foot on shore unless Mehemet
Ali should refuse the conditions that were being proposed to him. The
viceroy refused the conditions, which limited his possessions to
the pashalics of Acre, Tripoli, and Seyd, and which seemed to him
incompatible with the glory won by his arms.

The sultan did not wish to give up Syria, but that