Herald

Heralds are men who tell the populations of cities about recent news, laws, taxes, etc. They came about due to the lack of an effective means of information transfer, and were precursors to today's communication system.

Heralds will appear on the map as long as Ezio's notoriety is not at 0%.

In Assassin's Creed II, if Ezio commits crimes, the heralds will begin to tell people to beware of a mysterious man. Ezio can bribe these heralds with 500 florins to decrease his notoriety by 50%.

The money you bribe the heralds can be steal back from him, however, that will increase Ezio's notoriety by a small amount. Another option is to kill the herald without alerting the guards, then you may steal back the money from his dead body.