Whoever is less secure about your prosperity does indeed seem to distrust the divine promise. But if you weigh my mind with solid consideration, you will understand that an easy pardon is due to my cowardice on account of excessive trepidation. For since all who truly claim the name of Catholics ought now to supplicate God with ever-watchful prayer, that to you—who will render back our vows unimpaired and whole—He may both faithfully join what is near and happily subject what is adverse. And so, amid the manifold necessity of affairs, may there befall you, Christ fighting for you, on both sides both the portion which is desired and the victory which is owed.
Wherefore, if a time of anxiety has diminished the favor of my memory as it wavers in your mind, I, your special servant—not daring indeed to offer a greeting, but awaiting your welfare from the Lord—have with a mind sufficiently suspended and attentive dispatched the service of this present page, anxious first for your health, then for that of the army. Wherefore, although in God's name we learn good news through whoever passes by, you can nonetheless, most pious lord, conjecture how much sweeter it will be to me—just as that acknowledgment of your holy affection feeds me through whoever reports it—so may a reply gladden me, in which, in place of a kind of presence, I may attain your words in lieu of your countenance, and merit to kiss your subscription in lieu of your hand.