However it may be convenient for us to like the treason, yet we must be
very destitute of honour not to hate and abominate the traitor. And
accordingly history furnishes us with many instances of kings and great
men who have punished the actors of treachery with death, though the
part they acted had been so conducive to their interests as to give them
a victory, or perhaps the quiet possession of a throne. Nor can princes
pursue a more just maxim than this; for a traitor is a villain of no
principles, that sticks at nothing to promote his own selfish ends; he
that betrays one cause for a great sum of money, will betray another
upon the same account; and therefore it must be very impolitic in a
state to suffer such wretches to live in it. Since then this maxim is so
good, and so likely at all times to be practised, what stupid rogues
must they be who undertake such precarious dirty work! If they miscarry,
it generally proves fatal to them from one side or other; if they
succeed, perhaps they may have the promised reward, but are sure to be
detested, if suffered to live, by the very person that employs them.