If it had been no more than a matter of that, my old arms would have lent me strength enough.

But think you it would repay me for having seen my boy pinned by that monster's pike to the burning logs ?" "What is it, then, you ask of me ?" "If that letter were indeed the treasonable document we account it; if its treason should be aimed at Cesare Borgia--it could scarce be aimed at another--would it not be a sweet thing to obtain possession of it ?" "Aye, but when he wakes to-morrow and finds it gone--what then?
You know this Governor of Cesena well enough to be assured that he would ransack the castle, torture, rack, burn and flay us all until the missive were forthcoming." "That," he groaned, "is what deterred me.

If I had the means of getting the letter sent to Cesare Borgia, or of escaping with it myself from Cesena, I should not have hesitated.

Cesare Borgia is lying at Faenza, and I could ride there in a day.

But it would be impossible for me to leave the place before morning.