_To our right trusty and intierly welbeloved John Paston, Esquyer._
[Sidenote: Year uncertain]
Right trusty and right intierly welbeloved, we grete you hertly wele.
And it is so, as ye know wele your self, we haf and long tyme haf had
the service of Thomas Denyes, by continuance wherof we wend to haf had
his attendaunce at our lust; and nevertheless we haf so strictly
examynid his demenyng that we fele and pleynly conceyve that the love
and effeccion which he hath to a gentilwoman not ferre from yow, and
which ye be privy to, as we suppose, causith hym alwey to desire toward
your cuntre, rather than toward suych ocupacion as is behovefull to us.
We write therfore to yow, prayng yow hertly as ye love us, that it like
you to do that labour at our instaunce be suych men [_mean_] as your
wisdom can seme, to meve that gentilwoman in our behalf for the wele of
this mater, undirtakyng for us that we wole shew our bounte to thaym
bothe, if it plese hir that this mater take effect, so that be reason
she shall haf cause to take it in gree. And if the comyng thider of our
persone self shuld be to plesir of hir, we wole not leve our labour in
that: wherfore we pray you that ye wole do your part heryn, as ye wole
we do for yow in tyme comyng, and that ye se us in hast. The Holy
Trinite kepe yow. Wretyn at Wevenho, the xvij. day of May.
The Erle of Oxenford.