The controversy continued into early 1881, with notable passages of irony and humour, ending – something rare in Portugal – in a mutual and willing embrace that did not deny the distance standing between the two polemicists. In addition to all this were their two very distinct conceptualisations of homeland and patriotism: that of Pinheiro Chagas was nationalist, rhetorical and rooted in the past. For Eça de Queiroz, it was dynamic, critical and more focused on the present and future.

Chagas also applied twice, unsuccessfully, for the position of chair of Modern Literature (1865 and 1872). In 1872, when Teófilo Braga was selected, he presented a thesis entitled Desenvolvimento da Literatura Portuguesa (Development of Portuguese Literature, Lisbon, 1872), in which he contradicted the theory of ethnic unity of the Portuguese supported by Teófilo. While Teófilo identified this ethnic foundation with the Mozarabs, Chagas spoke of the Hispano-Gothic, neo-Latin race, that would have comprised different nationalities in the Middle Ages. In his view, the mixing of the Portuguese with the "foreign races" would have fortified and refined them (Desenvolvimento da Literatura Portuguesa, pp.12-13). In response to Chagas' objections in relation to the Mozarabs, Teófilo replied bluntly: "Would it not be a sad spectacle to have a debate with someone who is unaware of the high integrity of science?” He also rejected the term "Hispano-Roman race" he had adopted. The dispute ended there. Chagas' critical position in relation to the Mozarab theory was closer to the more substantiated position of Antero and Oliveira Martins.

Adolfo Coelho also publicly adopted a favourable position on Teófilo and lashed Pinheiro Chagas with harsh words: "a translator of novels by Alexandre Dumas, an apish imitator of Octave Feuillet, an uncritical compiler of something applauded by the mutual praise society and that they saw fit to call History of Portugal, an author of witty serials to make the reader laugh, a perfect nonentity (...) called Pinheiro Chagas" (On the History of Portuguese Literature by Teófilo Braga – Letter from the Author, 1872). Later, in 1888, following the brutal assault on Chagas outside parliament (the aggressor was the anarchist Manuel Joaquim Pinto), the unsuspecting Oliveira Martins would paint a very different picture of the then journalist at O Repórter, placing him in the "front row" of Portuguese literature, recognising his "talent, work and virtue," a combination that Martins considered rare in those times (“O atentado contra Pinheiro Chagas”, O Repórter, 8-2-1888, vol.I, p.181).

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