Though we may capture a few towns, there is small chance of any great operations.

Indeed, methinks that it is by no means unlikely that Prince Thomas, seeing that his effort to rule Savoy in place of his sister-in-law, the duchess, is likely to end in discredit and loss to himself, will before long open negotiations with her.

Therefore you will be losing nothing by going.
It is to the duchess that I shall commend you rather than to my brother, who is unfortunately occupied by public matters, and is at present almost at war with Richelieu.
"He is a man of noble impulses, generous in the extreme, and the soul of honour, but he knows not how to conceal his feelings; and in these days no man, even the most powerful, can venture to rail in public against one who has offended him, when that man happens to be the cardinal.

I love my brother dearly, but I have mixed myself up in no way with his affairs.

I am an officer of the king, and as such I stand aloof from all parties in the state.