"We shall need you soon, to write an epithalamium." "You are to be wed, Magnificent ?" quoth I at last, at which he laughed consumedly.
"Nay, we shall need the song for my sister's nuptials.

She is to wed the Lord Ignacio Borgia, before Christmas." "A lofty theme," I answered with humility, "and one that may well demand resources nobler than those of my poor pen." "Then get you to work at once upon it.

I will have your chamber prepared." He sent for his seneschal, a person--like most Of the servants at the Palace--strange to me, and he gave orders that I should be sumptuously lodged.

He was grown more splendid than ever in the prosperity that seemed to surround him here at Pesaro, in this Palace that had undergone such changes and been so enriched during the past two years as to go near defying recognition.
When the seneschal had shown me to the quarters he had set apart for me, I made bold to make inquiries concerning Madonna Paola.
"She is in the garden, Illustrious," answered the seneschal, deeming me, no doubt, a great lord, from the respect which Filippo had indicated should be shown me.

"Madonna has the wisdom to seek the little sunshine the year still holds.