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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: explain the causes of that opinion. The life, morals, and fidelity of
Piombo made him obnoxious to most courtiers. In spite of the fact that
delicate missions were constantly intrusted to his discretion which to
any other man about the court would have proved lucrative, he
possessed an income of not more than thirty thousand francs from an
investment in the Grand Livre. If we recall the cheapness of
government securities under the Empire, and the liberality of Napoleon
towards those of his faithful servants who knew how to ask for it, we
can readily see that the Baron di Piombo must have been a man of stern
integrity. He owed his plumage as baron to the necessity Napoleon felt
of giving him a title before sending him on missions to foreign
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