« Il faut pourtant que j’écrive un mot de politesse au commandant », lui dit le duc de Milan en le congédiant ; il écrit et lui remet une lettre de deux lignes ; puis il la lui redemande pour la cacheter.
'I must just write a few civil words to the governor,' the Duke of Milan said to him as he was sending him off. He wrote and handed our ancestor a note of a couple of lines; then he asked for it back to seal it.