Ther ys no more, Mayster Wryttell, but I commyth all thys wrytyng unto your dyscrescyon; and as ye thynk best acordyng to such menys desyre as have entretyd you therin, and for my moyst avayle, I pray you, sir, soo doo, and I shall se un to your besynes and labour, that ye shall have cause to do for me in tyme comyng, and as the brynger herof shall tell you. And I pray God have you in Hys kepyng.
Wryten at London, the x. day of Septembr.
[Footnote 41-1: [From Fenn, iv. 372.] See preliminary note to last letter. We have adopted a different punctuation from that of Fenn in some parts of this letter.]
[Footnote 42-1: This most probably was James Hobart, who, in 1478, was Lent-Reader at Lincoln’s Inn, and in 1487 Attorney-General.--F.]
[Footnote 42-2: George Neville, Archbishop of York.]
[Footnote 42-3: The original MS. was indistinct in these places.]
[Footnote 43-1: The words ‘zour zoyng’ (your going) seem to be redundant.]
[Footnote 43-2: Sir Humphrey Talbot was a Captain at this siege, under the Duke of Norfolk.--F.]
[Footnote 43-3: The original MS. was indistinct in these places.]
[Footnote 44-1: Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Cardinal.]
[Footnote 44-2: Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex.]
[Footnote 44-3: Here the original MS. was indistinct.]
I grete you wele, letyng you wete that your brother and his felesshep stand in grete joperte at Cayster, and lakke vetayll; and Dawbeney[45-2] and Berney[45-3] be dedde, and diverse other gretly hurt; and they fayll gunnepowder and arrowes, and the place sore brokyn with gonnes of the toder parte, so that, but thei have hasty help, thei be like to lese bothe ther lyfes and the place, to the grettest rebuke to you that ever came to any jentilman, for every man in this countre marvaylleth gretly that ye suffre them to be so longe in so gret joperte with ought help or other remedy.
The Duke hathe be more fervently set therup on, and more cruell, sith that Wretyll, my Lord of Claraunce man, was ther, than he was befor, and he hath sent for all his tenaunts from every place, and other, to be ther at Cayster at Thorysday next comyng, that ther is than like to be the grettest multitude of pepill that came ther yet. And thei purpose them to make a gret assaught--for thei have sent for gannes [_guns_] to Lynne and other place be the seeys syde--that, with ther gret multitude of gannes, with other shoot and ordynaunce, ther shall no man dar appere in the place. Thei shall hold them so besy with ther gret pepill, that it shall not lye in their pore within to hold it ageyn them with ought God help them, or have hasty socour from you.