The plot would not have" been so despicable had it been only to glorify an egotistical young man, but its true purpose was to eliminate the Baton's slavemaster, who would necessarily be blamed for the uadragged slave. Possibly Hawat hoped to use the evil to accomplish his good-because die slave came within a hairsbreadth of besting the Baron's nephew. Another puzzle is Hawat's role in Feyd-Rautha's assassination attempt OB the Baron. Knowing the Baron's preference for boys Hawat conspired with Feyd-Rautha to send the Baron a beguiling slave boy with a shielded needle planted in his thigh- And yet, Hawat warned the Baron before the assassination could take place. The Mentat seemed to be playing both ends against the middle for some game of his own. Hawat's mysterious and sometimes ambiguous behavior white in Haritonnen service can best be explained in the light of his intense loyalty to House Atreides. Given the depraved Baron Harkonaen's method of operation-to tie subordinates, from whom he shrewdly knew he could never expect loyalty, to him through some devious means-Hawat coaid count on no less. Wife his Mentat powers he most certainly knew, or at least suspected, that he had been poisoned and lived only as long as. it was the Baron's whim to administer the antidote. Burning, nay obsessed, with the desire for vengeance on the enemies of his beloved Atreides, Hawat walked the path of expediency; he complied with the Baron's orders, joined his conspiracies, designed his plots, no matter how nefarious-ail to one dedicated end: the gton-ous day he could strike the annihilating blow against those who had crushed his cherished House.