That I was reading this book it pleases my lord to interpret into a further sign of my intentions." She turned to him again, and to the appeal she made was joined that of Madonna Lucrezia.

He grew serious and put up his hand in a gesture of rare loftiness.
"I am more clement than you think," said he, "in having done so much.
For the rest, the restoration that you ask for him is one involving political issues you little dream of.

What is this ?" He had turned abruptly.

A servant was approaching, leading a mud-splashed courier, whom he announced as having just arrived.
"Whence are you ?" Giovanni questioned him.
"From the Holy See," answered the courier, bowing, "with letters for the High and Mighty Lord Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro, and his noble spouse, Madonna Lucrezia Borgia." He proffered his letters as he spoke, and Giovanni, whose brow had grown overcast, took them with a hand that seemed reluctant.

Then bidding the servant see to the courier's refreshment, he dismissed them both.
A moment he stood, balancing the parchments a if from their weight he would infer the gravity of their contents; and the affairs of Boccadoro were, there and then, forgotten by us all.