vol. 1, p. 3

[To one] in the renown of famous ancestry, in the vigour of a great mind,
and in the glory of warlike virtue most noble,
Far outstanding in action, in council and in constancy,
tested equally in challenging and and in favourable situations
Having grasped simultaneously the universal arts of peace and war
and for experience of affairs and indeed for every
kind of virtue
approved by his Prince
A Soldier
Dom. Patrick o Donghaile of the Irish Regiment
under the Catholic King [ ]
second to the tribune, prefect of the watch,
to his kinsman in short
[ ]

Noble Soldier, while the poets usually, not without mystery, [ ] Pallas [Athene = Minerva] Chief of War and sister of Mars [ ], what [ ] unless [ ] between them the interests and skills of each? And indeed I wonder, just as he without her guidance rages [ ] with a blind sword, so she deprived of his protection is easily overcome and her boldness and [ ] bereft of his [ ] languishes and lies impotent.
[ ]
For this will not the alliance of my literacy and your art of command suffice?
Why therefore should not mutual agreement follow? For neither will my plump Minerva put herself in danger from anywhere else, more opportunely than [ ] she ought to seek protection from Mars, but neither for myself is this imaginary battle undertaken [ ] a better reward than [to take] you as my patron [ ] whether the nobility of your ancestors or your own [ ] virtue. In you indeed, whom if not God himself, Mars certainly [ ] to undergo his gifts brilliantly and enthusiastically, wondrous Nature and Virtue have conspired [to unite] all their gifts and all the adornments which [ ] a soldier beyond [ ].