Or had the "demonstration" failed, as Polar claimed?

If he had, his demonstration of the dagger's power had failed.

But it was a relatively uneventful day, as large-scale demonstrations failed to materialize.

The demonstration fails (or appears to) when the patient cries out.

The first such demonstration had failed, but they'd all been toddlers then and their memory of it was sketchy at best.

But large demonstrations failed to materialize.

I understand why the men at the Laboratory thought as they did, especially after your demonstration failed.

Or, rather, one man knew, from the wreckage of your laboratory, that your demonstration would not have failed had all the factors then operative been present.

When these demonstrations failed to produce results, monks even suggested boycotting Monlam to show their displeasure with the government.

A demonstration of a machine to produce naphtha from peat in court failed.