‘At this moment, necessity and affection united call upon thee to prove thyself such a friend that the world may not call thee a faint hearted friend, of whom Aristotle speaks, in his 9th chapter of ethics: ‘Qui, inquit, fingit se esse amicum, et non est; pejor est eo qui facit falsam monetam.’ A faint friend is worse than a coiner of base money. Should some tell thee, that our opponent is of thy blood, and thy relation, thou oughtest, nevertheless, to abominate his crime, and do strict justice between two friends, according to what Aristotle says, in his second book of ethics: ‘Duobus existentibus amicis, sanctum est præhonorare virtutem.’—That is, It is praiseworthy to give the preference to virtue between two friends.
‘Thou rememberest the strong love that subsisted between thee and thy brother; not that I wish to obtain any favour by that remembrance, but solely to exhort thee to justice and truth. Alas! it would be of little value the being son or brother to a king, if such a cruel murder were passed over without any punishment inflicted on the guilty, nor any reparation made for it,—more especially as he who caused his death ought to have loved him as a brother; for in the holy Scriptures nephews and cousins-german are called brothers, as appears from the book of Genesis, where Abraham says to his nephew Lot, ‘Ne sit jurgium inter te et me, fratres enim sumus.’ Let there be no strife between thee and me, for we are brothers.
‘Saint James is also called the brother of our Lord, when they were only cousins-german. Thou mayest repeat to our adversary the words which God said to Cain, after he had murdered his brother, ‘Vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra.’ The voice of thy brother’s blood cries to me from the earth; and certainly in our case the earth and blood do cry.
‘There cannot be a man of common feelings who has not compassion for such a death as that of my late lord of Orleans; and it must not be wondered at if I compare our adversary to Cain, for in them I see many features of resemblance. Cain, moved by envy, slew his brother, because the Lord had accepted of his brother’s offerings, and had not received his sacrifice, because he was practising in his heart how he could kill his brother. In like manner, the duke of Burgundy, because my lord of Orleans was the more agreeable to the king, in his heart meditated his death, and in the end had him treacherously and infamously murdered, as shall be fully proven. As Cain, instigated by covetousness, committed his crime, so our adversary, urged on by similar passions, did the act we complain of, as shall be demonstrated from his conduct previous to and after the death of the late duke of Orleans. I find, likewise, that the word _Cain_, by interpretation, signifies, ‘acquired’ or ‘acquisition.’ By the same name our adverse party may be called, for vengeance is acquired by the king in body and goods; but let justice take its course, and events will happen according to the good pleasure of God. It therefore seems very reasonable that I compare the duke of Burgundy to Cain.