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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: endeavoring to negotiate with the First Consul."
"Talleyrand was playing whist in the salon of Madame de Luynes," said
a personage who had been listening attentively to de Marsay's
narrative. "It was about three o'clock in the morning, when he pulled
out his watch, looked at it, stopped the game, and asked his three
companions abruptly and without any preface whether the Prince de
Conde had any other children than the Duc d'Enghien. Such an absurd
inquiry from the lips of Talleyrand caused the utmost surprise. 'Why
do you ask us what you know perfectly well yourself?' they said to
him. 'Only to let you know that the House of Conde comes to an end at
this moment.' Now Monsieur de Talleyrand had been at the hotel de
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