He doffed his hat respectfully, and held out his right hand in which something was gleaming yellow.

It was the Borgia ring.
"Pesaro," was all he said.
I took the ring and thanked him, then bade him enter and refresh himself ere he returned, and I called old Silvio to bring wine.
"I am not 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.