e queen's hand, and that was by flattering the ambition
of Charles and in some sort submitting himself to his patronage. Robert
of Tarentum understood this, and ceased making court to Joan, who
received his devotion with cool kindness, and attached himself closely
to Charles, paying him much the same sort of respect and deference that
he himself had affected for Andre, when the thought was first in his
mind of causing his ruin. But the Duke of Durazzo was by no means
deceived as to the devoted friendship shown towards him by the heir
of the house of Tarentum, and pretending to be deeply touched by the
unexpected change of feeling, he all the time kept a strict guard on
Robert's actions.

An event outside all human foresight occurred to upset the calculations
of the two cousins. One day while they were out together on horseback,
as they often were since their pretended reconciliation, Louis of
Tarentum, Robert's youngest brother, who had always felt for Joan a
chivalrous, innocent love,--a love which a young man of twenty is apt to
lock up in his heart as a secret treasure,--Louis, we say, who had held
aloof from the infamous family conspiracy and had not soiled his hands
with Andre's blood, drawn on by an irrepressible passion, all at once
appeared at the gates of Castel Nuovo; and while his brother was wasting
precious hours in asking for a promise of marriage, had the bridge
raised and gave the soldiers strict orders to admit no one. Then, never
troubling himself about Charles's anger or Robert's jealousy, he hurried
to the queen's room, and there, says Domenico Gravina, without any
preamble, the union was consummated.

On returning from his ride, Robert, astonished that the bridge was not
at once lowered for him, at first loudly called upon the soldiers
on guard at the fortress, threatening severe punishment for their
unpardonable negligence; but as the gates did not open and the soldiers
made no sign of fear or regret, he fell into a violent fit of rage,
and swore he would hang the wretches like dogs for hindering his return
home. But the Empress of Constantinople, terrified at the bloody quarrel
beginning between the two brothers, went alone and on foot to her
son, and making use of her maternal authority to beg him to master his
feelings, there in the presence of the crowd that had come up hastily
to witness the strange scene, she related in a low voice all that had
passed in his absence.

A roar as of a wounde