returning," the man informed me. "I am a courier riding to
Parma, whom Madonna charged with that message to you in passing."

Nevertheless he consented to rest him awhile and sip the wine we set
before him, and what time he did so I engaged him in talk, and led him
to tell me what he knew of the trend of things at Pesaro, and what news
there was of the Lord Giovanni. He had little enough to tell. Pesaro
was flourishing and prospering under the Borgia dominion. Of the Lord
Giovanni there was little news, saving that he was living under the
protection of the Gonzagas in Mantua, and that so long as he was content
to abide there the Borgias seemed disposed to give him peace.

Next I made him tell me what he knew of Filippo di Santafior and Madonna
Paola. On this subject he was better informed. Madonna Paola was well
and still lived with her brother at the Palace of Pesaro. The Lord
Filippo was high in favour with the Borgias, and Cesare lately had been
frequently his guest at Pesaro, whilst once, for a few days, the Lord
Ignacio de Borgia had accompanied his illustrious cousin.

I flushed and paled at that piece of news, and the reason of her summons
no longer asked conjecture. It was an easy thing for me, knowing what I
knew, to fill in the details which the courier omitted in ignorance from
the story.

The Lord Filippo, seeking his own advancement, had so urged his sister
upon the notice of the Borgia family--perhaps even approached Cesare--in
such a manner that it was again become a question of wedding her to
Ignacio, who had, meanwhile, remained unmarried. I could read that
opportunist's motives as easily as if he had written them down for my
instruction. Giovanni Sforza he accounted lost beyond redemption, and I
could imagine how he had plied his wits to aid his sister to forget
him, or else to remember him no longer with affection. Whether he had
succeeded or not I could not say until I had seen her; but meanwhile,
deeming ripe the soil of her heart for the new attachment that should
redound so much to his own credit--now that the House of Borgia had
risen to such splendid heights--he was driving her into this alliance
with Ignacio.

Faithful to the very letter of the promise I had made her, I set out
that same night, after embracing my poor, tearful mother, and promising
to return as soon as might be. All night I rode, my soul now tortured
with anxiety, now exalted at the supreme joy of seeing Madonna, which
wa