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All, however tyrannical themselves, had been obliged to choose

between the friendship or enmity of this tyrannical man, and it

fared ill with those who dared resist him. It was in vain to hope

to preserve neutrality or independence; his orders to do such or

such a thing, or to refrain, were arbitrary, and resistance was

useless. Recourse was had to him on all occasions, and by all

sorts of people, good as well as bad, for the arrangements of

their difficulties; so that he occasionally became the protector

of the oppressed, who could not have obtained redress in any

other way, public or private. He was almost always the minister

of wickedness, revenge, and caprice; but the various ways in

which he had employed his power impressed upon all minds a great

idea of his capability to devise and perform his acts in defiance

of every obstruction, whether lawful or unlawful.