My reverence for you would incline me to hold silence, but my indignation obliges me to speak out.

How has Silvanus acted ?" (Under the name of Silvanus he couches that of Petrarch, in allusion to his love of rural retirement.) "He has forgotten his dignity; he has forgotten all the language he used to hold respecting the state of Italy, his hatred of the Archbishop, and his love of liberty; and he would imprison the Muses in that court.

To whom can we now give our faith, when Silvanus, who formerly pronounced the Visconti a cruel tyrant, has now bowed himself to the yoke which he once so boldly condemned?
How has the Visconti obtained this truckling, which neither King Robert, nor the Pope, nor the Emperor, could ever obtain?
You will say, perhaps, that you have been ill-used by your fellow-citizens, who have withheld from you your paternal property.

I disapprove not your just indignation; but Heaven forbid I should believe that, righteously and honestly, any injury, from whomsoever we may receive it, can justify our taking part against our country.

It is in vain for you to allege that you have not incited him to war against our country, nor lent him either your arm or advice.