"Dear Lazzaro, I did not look for you so soon." "Within an hour of your messenger's arrival I was in the saddle, nor did I pause until I had reached the gates of Pesaro.

I am here to serve you to the utmost of my power, Madonna, and the only doubt that assails me is that my power may be all too small for the service that you need." "Is its nature known to you ?" she asked in wonder.

Then, ere I had answered, she bade me rise, and with her own hand assisted me.
"I have guessed it," answered I, "guided by such scraps of information as from your messenger I gleaned.

It concerns, unless I err, the Lord Ignacio Borgia." "Your wits have lost nothing of their quickness," she said, with a sad smile, "and I doubt me you know all." "The only thing I did not know your brother has just told me--that you are to be wed before Christmas.

He has ordered me to write your epithalamium." She drew into step beside me, and we slowly paced the alley side by side, and, as we went, withered leaves overhead, and withered leaves to make a carpet for our fret, she told me in her own way more or less what I have set down, even to her brother's self-seeking share in the transaction that she dubbed hideous and abhorrent.
She was little changed, this winsome lady in the time that was sped.