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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: with me that the unbridled people occasion me so much trouble. He is so
thoroughly convinced of the depth of my views, so extraordinarily
satisfied with the prudence of my conduct, that I must almost say the letter
is too politely written for a king--certainly for a brother.
Machiavel. It is not the first time that he has testified to you his just
satisfaction.
Regent. But the first time that it is a mere rhetorical figure.
Machiavel. I do not understand you.
Regent. You soon will.--For after this preamble he is of opinion that
without soldiers, without a small army indeed,---I shall always cut a sorry
figure here! We did wrong, he says, to withdraw our troops from the provinces
Egmont | 
