The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: in opposition. All that had been gained by the demonstration at
Laulii was thus immediately cast away; de Coetlogon's prestige was
lessened; and it must be said plainly that Hand did less than
nothing to restore it. Twice indeed he interfered, both times with
success; and once, when his own person had been endangered, with
vehemence; but during all the strange doings I have to narrate, he
remained in close intimacy with the German consulate, and on one
occasion may be said to have acted as its marshal. After the worst
is over, after Bismarck has told Knappe that "the protests of his
English colleague were grounded," that his own conduct "has not
been good," and that in any dispute which may arise he "will find
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