To the Comes Privatarum.

You have, I think, been led to impose a contribution of mares1 on these people by false information on the part of the inhabitants. What is going on is quite unfair. It cannot but be displeasing to your excellency, and is distressing to me on account of my intimate connexion with the victims of the wrong. I have therefore lost no time in begging year Lordship not to allow these promoters of iniquity to succeed in their malevolence.