But before this preposterous and long-delayed explanation was vouchsafed, the British Government had taken steps to prove that they were not in the mood to be trifled with, and that the subjects of the greatest naval power in the world were not to be shot down with impunity. To the intense satisfaction of the whole nation, an instant mobilization of the British fleets in European waters was ordered. The Home Fleet, which had been cruising away to the north of Scotland, was ordered south; the Channel Fleet, lying at Gibraltar, was warned to be in instant readiness for active service; and the Mediterranean Fleet was instructed to join up with the Channel Fleet with all speed. The naval dockyards were kept working night and day to prepare the reserve fleet for commission, and to be ready for the demands which an immediate outbreak of war might involve. In forty-eight hours every requisite preparation had been completed, and three fleets, any one of them capable of dealing faithfully with Admiral Rozhdestvensky's squadron, were ready for instant action. Directly in the path of the Baltic Fleet, now assembled at Vigo, lay the Channel Fleet under the command of Lord Charles Beresford, and so acute was the crisis that it seemed as if at any moment that fleet might be ordered to take the sea. Among the secret preparations made was the dispatch of four battleships from the Channel Squadron at Gibraltar to Portland and the assembly of all available submarines at Dover. What made the situation especially dangerous was the conflict which in this hour of desperate emergency was being waged between the Russian Admiralty and the Russian Foreign Office. The former department, which had done so much to aggravate the case of the _Malacca_ and to flout the assurances which had been given as to the withdrawal of the _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_, was now determined that no surrender should be made to the British demands for satisfaction in the matter of the North Sea outrage; and for several days the more pacific Foreign Office wrestled with these fire-eaters in vain. War between England and Russia, with the prospect of indefinite extension to other countries, seemed inevitable; but thanks largely to the friendly offices of the French Government, who, as the ally of Russia and the friend of Great Britain, had exceptional claims to act as an intermediary between the disputants, a settlement was at length arrived at. On the 28th of October, Mr. Balfour was able to announce to the world that that morning an agreement had been arrived at which averted all further apprehension of the rupture of peaceful relations. Great Britain and Russia had consented to refer the case in dispute to an impartial International Tribunal of Inquiry; the terms of the Convention, which were signed after much further negotiation on the 24th of November, being as follows:--