In the meantime, Prince Menschikoff conducted himself so mysteriously and so quietly at Constantinople, and Sir Hamilton Seymour received such positive assurances at St. Petersburg, that no one except the French _chargé d'affaires_, and perhaps the French Government, suspected the bad faith of Russia. It seems to have been the common talk in Pera and Galata that the Russian Minister was intent on obtaining from the Turks a secret treaty. But Prince Menschikoff went about the business in so strange a manner, that Rifaat Pasha, with whom he talked, did not appear to comprehend at what the Prince was driving. It was at this juncture that Lord Stratford de Redcliffe arrived. The first step of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was to discover the actual position of affairs and to learn how far the demands of Prince Menschikoff were moderate or threatening. On the day after he landed, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe saw the Grand Vizier and Rifaat Effendi; but while he learnt that there was some prospect of settling the tiresome question of the Holy Places, he could gain no distinct statement respecting the ulterior views of the Czar. Nevertheless they admitted the existence of ulterior demands, and they were pressing in their requests for advice. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe gave it willingly. He recommended them to keep the question of the Holy Places separate from the ulterior proposals, and he set before them a variety of considerations carrying comfort with them in case the ulterior demands took an inadmissible form. Next he saw the Sultan and offered his good offices, and, alluding to the secret Russian demands, said he was convinced the Sultan, in making reasonable concessions, "would be careful to admit no innovation dangerous to his independence." This from Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's lips meant more than the mere words convey. As a last resource he brought the Russian and Turkish Ministers face to face, and in a short time sent them away, and with them the settlement of the dispute, so that nothing remained but to embody the compromise in a firman. In little more than a fortnight after his arrival the points raised by Aupick in 1850 were put to rest, but out of them had grown a huger quarrel, which could only be appeased by an appeal to arms.