Leontios Makhairas described John Visconti’s desperation when he had to write to King Peter I about the scandal in his household:
“My thrice-honoured lord, first I recommend myself to you: it is my duty to your lordship that your lordship should know that our thrice high lady the queen your revered wife is well, and also your brothers, and they desire greatly to have the good fortune to see you. As to the news which there is in the island, accursed be the hour when it came into my head that I must write to you, and three times accursed the day when you left me guardian of your house, that I must soil your heart by telling you the news. In spite of all, my desire is to keep silence, yet I fear lest your lordship come to hear it from someone else, and I be denounced and punished. And so I report it (to your lordship,- and would that I were a dumb man,) – and I beseech God and your lordship that you do not take it in bad part. Men have told the story in the town that your lamb has gone astray and been with the ram, and they say that the Count of Roukha (has stretched out his hand to your dish and) is deeply in love with our lady the queen: But to me this seems to be false. And if it were mine to rule, I would seek out whence and from whom this story has come, and would take measures that no one should dare to tell such shameful tales. (And therefore) I humbly pray your majesty by God, (not to be angry with me that, when I heard this in the discharge of the office you gave me, I sent word to your majesty of what I heard. And I pray to God that your lordship come here and examine into the matter, and I be found a liar, and the man be punished, who has dared to say such a thing. And I pray God that your majesty may have a long and happy life. Written in the town of Nicosia, the thirteenth day of December 1368, after Christ.”