, escaped the torture, and her sentence was deferred till the
day of her confinement.

As this beautiful girl was returning to prison, with many a smile for
all the handsomest cavaliers she could see in the crowd, she gave a sign
to Charles of Durazzo as she neared him to come forward, and since
her tongue had not been pierced (for the same reason) with an iron
instrument, she said some words to him a while in a low voice.

Charles turned fearfully pale, and putting his hand to his sword,
cried--

"Wretched woman!"

"You forget, my lord, I am under the protection of the law."

"My mother!--oh, my poor mother!" murmured Charles in a choked voice,
and he fell backward.

The next morning the people were beforehand with the executioner, loudly
demanding their prey. All the national troops and mercenaries that
the judicial authorities could command were echeloned in the streets,
opposing a sort of dam to the torrent of the raging crowd. The sudden
insatiable cruelty that too often degrades human nature had awaked
in the populace: all heads were turned with hatred and frenzy; all
imaginations inflamed with the passion for revenge; groups of men and
women, roaring like wild beasts, threatened to knock down the walls of
the prison, if the condemned were not handed over to them to take to the
place of punishment: a great murmur arose, continuous, ever the same,
like the growling of thunder: the queen's heart was petrified with
terror.

But, in spite of the desire of Bertram de Baux to satisfy the popular
wish, the preparations for the solemn execution were not completed till
midday, when the sun's rays fell scorchingly upon the town. There went
up a mighty cry from ten thousand palpitating breasts when a report
first ran through the crowd that the prisoners were about to appear.
There was a moment of silence, and the prison doors rolled slowly back
on their hinges with a rusty, grating noise. A triple row of horsemen,
with lowered visor and lance in rest, started the procession, and amid
yells and curses the condemned prisoners came out one by one, each
tied upon a cart, gagged and naked to the waist, in charge of two
executioners, whose orders were to torture them the whole length
of their way. On the first cart was the former laundress of Catana,
afterwards wife of the grand seneschal and governess to the queen,
Philippa of Cabane: the two executioners at right and left of her
scourged her with such fury that the bloo