Who would believe him the honest champion of his country who was a traitor to his friends?
Thus, indeed, "The native hue of resolution Was sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought!" And he who should have been by nature a leader of the time became only its spectator.

Yet Adrian endeavoured to console himself for his present passiveness in a conviction of the policy of his conduct.

He who takes no share in the commencement of civil revolutions, can often become, with the most effect, a mediator between the passions and the parties subsequently formed.

Perhaps, under Adrian's circumstances, delay was really the part of a prudent statesman; the very position which cripples at the first, often gives authority before the end.

Clear from the excesses, and saved from the jealousies, of rival factions, all men are willing to look with complaisance and respect to a new actor in a turbulent drama; his moderation may make him trusted by the people; his rank enable him to be a fitting mediator with the nobles; and thus the qualities that would have rendered him a martyr at one period of the Revolution, raise him perhaps into a saviour at another.
Silent, therefore, and passive, Adrian waited the progress of events.