They lived not so much by religion or by loyalty as by the fates of worldly fortune.

In his secret despatches Diabolus was wont to address Captain Anything as My Darling; and be sure you recruit your Switzers well, Diabolus would say; but when the real stress of the war came, even Diabolus cast Captain Anything off.

And thus it came about that when both sides were against this despised creature he had to throw down his arms and flee into a safe skulking place for his life.
1.

In that half-papist, half-atheistic country called France there is a class of politicians known by the name of Opportunists.

They are a kind of public men that, we are thankful to say, are not known in Protestant and Evangelical England, but they may be pictured out and described to you in this homely way: An Opportunist stands well out of the sparks of the fire, and well in behind the stone wall, till the fanatics for liberty, equality, and fraternity have snatched the chestnuts out of the fire, and then the Opportunist steps out from his safe place and blandly divides the well-roasted tid-bits among his family and his friends.