It was her brother, who, seeing himself in a dangerous and unenviable position, had secretly suggested flight to her, urging her to repair to her kinsman Giovanni Sforza at Pesaro.

Her flight, however, must have been speedily discovered and the Borgias, who saw in that act a defiance of their supreme authority, had ordered her pursuit.
But for me, she concluded, that pursuits must have resulted in her capture, and once they had her back in Rome, willing or unwilling, they would have driven her into the alliance by means of which they sought to bring her fortune into their own house.

This drew her into fresh protestations of the undying gratitude she entertained towards me, protestations which I would have stemmed, but that she persisted in them.
"It is a good and noble thing that you have done," said she, "and I think that Heaven must have directed you to my aid, for it is scarce likely that in all Italy I should have found another man who would have done so much." "Why, what, after all, is this much that I have done ?" I cried.

"It is no less than my manhood bade me do; no less than any other would have done seeing you so beset." "Nay, that is more than I can ever think," she answered.

"Who for the sake of an unknown would have suffered such inconveniences as have you?
Who would have returned as you have returned to advise me of the defection of my grooms?
Who, when other escort failed, would have gone the length of journeying all this way to render a service that is beyond repayment?
And, above all, who for the sake of an unknown maid would have submitted to this travesty of yours ?" "Travesty ?" quoth I, so struck by that as to interrupt her at last.
"What travesty, Madonna ?" "Why, this garb of motley that you donned the better to fool my pursuers and that you still wear in my poor service." I turned in the saddle to stare at her, and in the moonlight I clearly saw her eyes meet mine.