interpreted at Stamboul as
an insult to the Sultan. The Grand Vizier, rushing to the conclusion
that his master was in imminent danger, induced Colonel Rose, the
British Charge d'Affaires, to order the Mediterranean Fleet, then at
Malta, to proceed to Vourla. The Admiral, however, refused to lend
himself to the panic, and sent back word that he waited instructions
from London, a course which was afterwards approved by the Cabinet. The
commotion at Stamboul was not lost upon Napoleon, though he knew that
the English Cabinet was not anxious to precipitate matters. Eager to
display his newly acquired power, he promptly sent instructions to the
French Fleet to proceed to Salamis. Meanwhile Prince Menschikoff, who
had adopted a more conciliatory attitude on the question of the Holy
Places, with the result that negotiations were proceeding
satisfactorily, assumed shortly before the arrival of Lord Stratford a
more defiant manner, and startled the Porte by the sudden announcement
of new demands. He claimed that a formal treaty should be drawn up,
recognising in the most ample, not to say abject, terms, the right of
Russia to establish a Protectorate over the Christian subjects of the
Porte. This meant, as Lord Clarendon pointed out at the time, that
fourteen millions of people would henceforth regard the Czar as their
defender, whilst their allegiance to the Sultan would become little more
than nominal, and the position of the Turkish ruler would inevitably
dwindle from independence to vassalage.

[Sidenote: TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS]

Lord Stratford at once took the bull by the horns. Acting on his advice,
the Porte refused even to entertain such proposals until the question of
the Holy Places was settled. Within a month, through Lord Stratford's
firmness, Russia and Turkey came to terms over the original point in
dispute; but on the following day Menschikoff placed an ultimatum
before the Porte, demanding that, within five days, his master's claim
for the acknowledgment of the Russian Protectorate over the Sultan's
Greek subjects should be accepted. The Sultan's Ministers, who
interpreted the dramatic return of Lord Stratford to mean that they had
England at their back, declined to accede, and their refusal was
immediately followed by the departure of Prince Menschikoff. Repulsed in
diplomacy, the Czar, on July 2, marched forty thousand troops across the
frontier river, the Pruth, and occupied Moldavia and Wallachia. T