Whatever crimes might be charged against Charles, his past conduct might appear to be condoned by the act of negotiating with him.
Similarly the triumvirs after Philippi condoned her enthusiasm for the cause of Brutus.
Siegfried's whole character and career is, indeed, annihilated in the clumsy progress towards this consummation; but Shakespeare might have condoned worse plots for the sake of so noble a result; and indeed Wagner's awkwardness arises mainly from fear of committing oversights.
But his political follies might have been condoned.
His religious unorthodoxy was condoned because he never scoffed; his political heresies, after their first effect was over, seemed harmless from the very want of logic and practical spirit in them, while part at least of his literary secret was the common property of almost every one who attempted literature.
