Though separated from them by the colors he fights under, they remain united by old associations; but the exigencies of party forbid him to meet them.

If their intercourse continued, it would awaken suspicion; people would imagine that some dishonorable bargain was going on; his friends would be held to be traitors desirous to sell themselves, and he the corrupt minister prepared to buy them.

He has, therefore, been obliged to break off friendships of twenty years' standing, and to sacrifice attachments which had become a second nature.
Sometimes, however, the minister still gives way to his old feelings; he receives or visits his friends privately; he shuts himself up with them, and talks of the times when they could be open friends.

By dint of precautions they have hitherto succeeded in concealing this blot of friendship against policy; but sooner or later the newspapers will be informed of it, and will denounce him to the country as an object of distrust.
For whether hatred be honest or dishonest, it never shrinks from any accusation.

Sometimes it even proceeds to crime.