Translation / modern text
Trzeb[?], 20 January 1698.
Most Illustrious and gracious Benefactor,
I cannot express my due gratitude for the favour which I undoubtedly owe to your support: my leased estates have been freed from military quartering. Humbly thanking you for this new benefit, I wish to repay it not in words but in deeds [the Latin play on “rem, rei, debere” is rendered by sense]. I therefore offer my service: command me to fulfil your will.
In your matter concerning an assignment to our voivodeships, I will leave nothing untried. My brother also does not wish to be an unprofitable servant. He appeals again to his patron, seeking justice, not favours, so that he may freely demonstrate his entire innocence and merit towards the Commonwealth under your protection. I too shall remain your humble servant until death.
Gurowski [abbreviated office].
[Address:] To His Excellency Count Jabłonowski, voivode of Ruthenia, my most honoured patron, in Lviv.
Original wording — transcription
Jaśnie Wielmożny Mci Dobrodzieiu,
Nie umiem wyrazić należytey ku WMci mm Panu Dobrodzieiowi wdzięczności, za tę łaskę, ktorą, nie wątpię, że promotiy WMci mm Pana otrzymałem, że dzierżawy moie są od Consystencyi uwolnione. Przy uniżonym za to nowe dobrodzieystwo podziękowaniu, nie słowy chcę nadgrodzić, ale rem, rei, debere, dla tego się w tym ad obsequia referuię:
[s. 8] Jube me facere voluntatem tuam. W sprawie WMci mm Pana, ratione assignaty do Woiewodztw naszych, nihil intentatum relinquam, lubo Brat moy nie chce też bydź inutilis servus. Recurrit teraz iterum ad Maecenatem, iustitiam, non favores, pro-
[s. 9] tenduiąc, aby miał libertatem deducendi wszystką innocentiam suam, Rzptey meritum. Te Protectore Dobrodzieiu, ktorego y Ia będę do śmierci Uniżony Sługa.
Gurowski [skrót urzędu]
w Trzeb: 20 Jan: 1698.
[s. 10, adres:] A Son Excellence Monseigneur le Comte Jablonowski Palatin de Russie, mon tres-honoré Patron. à Leopol.
Reading notes
Pages 7–10 examined: one letter on pp. 7–9 and its address on p. 10. Date read from the original. Place is abbreviated Trzeb: and not expanded to a particular settlement. The sender’s brother is not named; innocence is the position of the author and brother, not a judicial finding. The French address calls the recipient Ruthenian voivode. The address is not counted as a separate letter.
