Great now was the activity displayed at the naval port, and arsenals of England and France. From Portsmouth and Southampton regiment after regiment were embarked--ships were commissioned faster almost than they could be got ready for sea--and additional reinforcements were despatched in all haste to Sir Charles Napier’s magnificent Baltic fleet, which sailed from Spithead on the 11th of March. CHAPTER XII. TREATY OF ALLIANCE. The Five Articles of the Treaty--War on the Danube--General Luders--The Pestilence--Decree of the Czar--Governor of Moscow --Loss of the Frigate Tiger--Captain Gifford--Black Sea Fleet --Duke of Cambridge--Arrival at Varna--Captain Hall--Admiral Plumridge--General Bodisco--Silistria--The Siege--Mussa Pacha --Evacuation of the Principalities by the Russians. On the 12th of March, 1854, the treaty of alliance between England, France, and the Porte, was signed by the representatives of those powers. The treaty consists of five articles. By the first, France and England engage to support Turkey by force of arms until the conclusion of a peace which shall secure independence of the Ottoman empire, and the integrity of the rights of the Sultan. The two protecting Powers undertake not to derive from the actual crisis, or from the negotiations which may terminate it, any exclusive advantage. By the second article the Porte, on its side, pledges itself not to make peace under any circumstances without having previously obtained the consent, and solicited the participation of the two Powers, and also to employ all its resources to carry on the war with vigor. In the third article the two Powers promise to evacuate, immediately after the conclusion of the war, and on the demand of the Porte, all the points of the empire which their troops shall have occupied during the war. By the fourth article the treaty remains open for the signature of the other Powers of Europe who may wish to become parties to it; and the fifth and last article guarantees to all the subjects of the Porte, without distinction of religion, equality in the eye of the law, and admissibility into all employments. To this treaty are attached, as integral parts of it, several protocols. One relates to the institution of mixed tribunals throughout the whole empire; a second is relative to an advance of 20,000,000fr. jointly by France and England; and a third relates to the collection of the taxes and the suppression of the _haratch_ or poll-tax, which, having been considered for a long time past by the Turkish Government as only the purchase of exemption from military service, leads, by its abolition, to the entrance of Christians into the army. The Russians continued to prosecute the war eagerly on the banks of the Danube, but any temporary success was more than counterbalanced by subsequent and more brilliant Turkish victories.