ABSTRACT
To these wordes answerd Hector right sobrely and swetely, saying, 'My fader and my ryght dere and soverayn lord, ther is none of aIle your sones but that hit semeth to hym thyng humayne to desyre vengeance of thyse injuryes. And also to us that ben of hyghe noblesse a lytyll injurye ought to be grete. As hit is so that the qualyte of the persone groweth and mynnyssheth, so oughte the qualyte of the injurye.1 And yfwe desyre and have appetite to take vengeance of our injuryes, we forsake not ne leve the nature humayne, ffor in lyke wyse do and usen the dombe bestes in the same manyere, and nature enseigneth and gyveth hem therto. My ryght dere lord and fader, ther is none of aIle your sones that oughte more to desyre the vengeance of the injurye & deth of our ayeul or granfader 2 than I,
190 that am the oldeste. But I will yf hit plese yow that ye considere in this empryse not onely the begynnyng but also the myddell and the ende to what thyng we may come here after, ffor otherwhyle lityll prouffyten some thynges well begonne that come unto an evyll ende. Than me thynketh that hit is moche more alowable to a man to absteine hym for to begynne thinges wherof the endes ben daungerous and wherof may come more evyll than good, ffor the thynge is not sayd ewrous or happy unto the tyme that hit come unto a good ende. I saye not thyse thynges for ony evyll or cowardyse, but onely to the ende that ye begynne not a thyng, and specyally that thynge that ye have on your herte to put hit lightly in ewre, but that ye fyrst be well counceyllyd ... Exyone is not of so hyghe pryse that hit behoveth alle us to put us in peryll and doubte of deth for her. She hath ben now longe tyme there, where she is yet. Hit were better that she parforme forth her tyme, that I trowe hath but lityl tyme to lyve, than we sholde put us aIle in suche peryllys. And mekely I beseche yow not to suppose in no maner that I saye these thynges for cowardyse, but I doubte the tournes of fortune and that under the shadowe of thys thynge she not bete ne destroye youre grete seignourye, and that we ne begynne thynge that we ought to leve for to eschewe more grete myschyef' &c:.
