#i still haven't finished the book so I don't know how things with Dutourd will resolve

[ontologicalsynaesthesia]

Their friendship is everything to meeeee

It's so interesting that Jack actually knows very little about Stephen's past (and at this point they've known each other for 16 books and 10-15 years depending on how you want to count 1813 in the O'Brianverse), but he's completely fine with this! He just trusts Stephen anyway!

(And it's interesting to get this kind of emotional context for Stephen's distaste for Dutourd and his democratic/utopian demagoguery. Stephen is generally much more progressive-minded than the other major characters, but he has participated in revolutions in his time and has gotten thoroughly disillusioned.)