Niccolò returned to the Rocca four times in two days, each time making his way up to his study and looking out at Dianora’s window, but she never reappeared. He thought incessantly about her. He tried to obtain an audience with Valentino, in order to get some news, and when he did not succeed, he cautiously asked his secretary a few discreet questions, but received only the vaguest of replies.
In the meantime he wrote to Florence with all the news he had acquired about the agreement between Borgia and his allies. The messengers galloped off into the mountains, the members of the Dieci met with the gonfalonier, the issues were discussed, and they wrote back to their envoy, who responded with additional information. Messengers came and went.
The Republic still hasn’t decided what they want Niccolò to say to the Prince.
On the second day, he finds a reply from Farneti in the hollow tree: the French spearmen have set up camp in the mountains. They could easily invade Tuscany from any point along the road that Niccolò traveled from Florence to Imola, or from a number of other places. The informant writes that the duke will be sending artillery via another route, and he offers a suggestion as to which one.
Farneti also included details about the topic of most interest to Niccolò. There are no cases of the plague at the Rocca. The Spanish woman, Lucina, was sent to a farm on the banks of the Santerno river out of precaution, but it wasn’t the much-feared illness that eventually killed her: she died because she had serious problems with her lungs. It would appear that Dianora Mambelli has the same symptoms but in a lighter form, and she is being kept at the Rocca. Luckily, there are no signs of plague here now, Farneti wrote, but if it does arrive, we can only hope that it will beset Valentino.
Niccolò feels encouraged. So Dianora is not seriously ill. He will see her again.