Decoud, who has relentlessly argued that everyone acts from private, subjective motives, and that no one can truly share the cause of another, is hoisted here on his own petard. This is the turning point for him in the novel; if he had convinced the parliamentarians to make a stand, there would have been no need to send the silver to sea; he might have remained in Sulaco and, pending Barrios' successful return, married Antonia in his new State. But the ideal of Separatism that he launched is continuing past the point of his control; no unification can now occur, even for his own cause.