Grand Duke Alexis arrived and proceeded at once to the legation, where he was welcomed by Madame de Catacazy, elegant and charming in a gown of gold silk. As the Grand Duke entered the legation, Madame met him with a touch of his native traditional courtesy--in the gold salver on which was placed a round loaf of black bread surmounted by a golden salt cellar. The Prince took the uninviting loaf, broke it, and tasted it, in accordance with the Russian custom. The Grand Duke was cordially welcomed at the White House, and Monsieur de Catacazy treated with corresponding coldness. Sumner’s antipathy to the President and Secretary Hamilton Fish, to both of whom he had been discourteous, with his subsequent refusal to speak to either, brought about his removal as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. In less than two months, all difficulties were settled and the commissioners made a satisfactory treaty and returned. It stipulated that points at issue be submitted to a tribunal of arbitration composed of five members of different nationalities to sit at Geneva. In December, 1871, the tribunal met and each party to the dispute filed its statements. Bancroft Davis represented the United States, and William E. Evarts, Caleb Cushing, and Morrison R. Waite were the American counsel. When the question of damages was broached, a great hubbub followed in England, instigated by the opposition party to the government. The English press demanded that negotiations cease unless the claims of the United States were withdrawn, and naturally the situation became tense and critical. The American counsel maintained that the British government had agreed to submit points of dispute to arbitration, and a treaty had been made and accepted by the two nations to this effect. Feeling became so bitter in England that the two countries came near to war, and our own State Department was put to a severe test. Secretary Fish displayed most able diplomacy in that he yielded nothing of American national dignity and yet avoided false moves likely to irritate and complicate. Finally, the arbitrators exercised their right to decide that the claims were out of court and in their hands. Thus, neither nation needed to abandon its position, as neither was consulted. The arbitrators awarded damages to the United States to the amount of $15,500,000 in gold for the direct injury inflicted by the _Alabama_ and her consorts. England expressed due and proper regret, a few more words or clauses were added to the code of international law between the two countries, and peace and good feeling banished the threatening war clouds.