Dedicatory Letter.

We call you brave, but we also lament it: for you are reckless with a life upon which the safety of us all and the very lives of us all depend. Nor do we merely proclaim your Clemency mercy or leniency, which is known to the entire world; rather, we pray as humble suppliants that the Commonwealth Respublica; the state suffer no harm from the excessive indulgence of Caesar original: "Cæsaris indulgentiâ"; here the author uses "Caesar" as a title of supreme imperial honor for King William.

Let others seek after empty triumphs without the help of Mars the god of war; military struggle, or claim laurels without true Valor Virtus; manliness and courage. But for a great Leader or a brave Man who truly deserves honors, it is necessary that he count—if not his own wounds—at least his battles: those he waged, those in which he stood in the very midst, burning with zeal amidst swords and fires. And he who wishes to attain the praise of Clemency should not display to us or to our descendants the fires and ashes of cities and towns, nor the devastation of fields, as monuments to his mercy.

Furthermore, bad faith, broken treaties, and violated public oaths are unbecoming of a Great Man—those things which both divine law jus divinum and human law jus humanum have decreed to be binding and sacred among all nations, and which [the law] has willed to... The text cuts off here at the catchword "volue-", likely for the word "voluerunt" or "voluere", meaning "willed" or "desired"