army, under Halim Pasha. In early 1855, he was moved to the main front, seeing action at Eupatoria and finding himself advanced to the equivalent of a Brigadier General; he was also aide-de-camp to Omar Pasha. A lithograph by Gustav Bartsch and Johann Hesse honors his profile as a warrior, showing him (under the name Mouhlis Pacha) standing near Sultan Abdulmejid I, who is riding a steed. The Russians withdrew from Moldavia in 1854, leaving the Austrians to administer both Principalities as a buffer zone. The following year, an Austrian spy known as "Flavius" expressed concern about the growth of support for Sturdza in Wallachia, and claimed that he was being prepped to take over as Wallachian Prince. In May 1856, "Muklis" joined the Ottoman diplomatic mission tasked with implementing the Treaty of Paris in respect to Southern Bessarabia (which had been returned to Moldavia). The Commission president, Charles George Gordon, was much displeased with his arrival, noting that he was being quarrelsome and created additional hurdles in settling the border disputes. In his diplomatic capacity, Sturdza protested against the evacuation of Danubian Cossacks and their property from Bessarabian localities. He also boasted, to an incredulous audience, that he had personally obtained more territory for Moldavia in Bolgrad County. Sturdza himself returned to his native country and was reconciled with the new Prince, Grigore Alexandru Ghica. Under this regime, he finally renounced his claim to the Pedemonte reparations (September 1856). The Russian side had repeatedly refused to deal with Sturdza as a commission member, noting that he was a deserter from their ranks. Kogălniceanu welcomed the news, seeing them as proof that Russians had a good understanding of Sturdza's character: "this man will also desert from the Turkish colors, as he has done first with the Moldavian colors, and then with the Russian colors." 1858–1859 election Samples of diplomatic correspondence indicate that, in July 1856, the Beizadea had real chances of being appointed Caimacam (regent) of Moldavia, losing only narrowly to Teodor Balș, himself replaced in February 1857 by Bogoridi's son, Nicolae Vogoride. In April 1857, at Iași, Sturdza handed the final act on Moldavia's frontier to Vogoride. The waning of Russian influence now allowed room for the National Party, which supported a political unification of Moldavia and Wallachia, and their emancipation as an independent country. In 1855, this group opened a Masonic Lodge in Iași, which, by 1857, was