It wasn’t that he refused to bow to the lust for power; he refused to bow to nonmeaning. He somehow knew that, fragile as our existence may be, however ineffectual our interrogation of the world, there is nevertheless something that has more meaning than the rest.
When Belpo dies, Casaubon examines the way that he was killed, for refusing to lie to the Diabolicals by telling them where his made-up map to the source of all magic is. He dies while elevating himself above his lot in life, by never sharing a secret that would be worthless the second it was revealed.
