ever onward, plot succeeding plot, towards the
object he was bent upon securing, and never deviated one hair's-breadth
from the path he had marked out, but only acted with double prudence
after each victory, and with double courage after each defeat. His cheek
grew pale with joy; when he hated most, he smiled; in all the emotions of
his life, however strong, he was inscrutable. He had sworn to sit on the
throne of Naples, and long had believed himself the rightful heir, as
being nearest of kin to Robert of all his nephews. To him the hand of
Joan would have been given, had not the old king in his latter days
conceived the plan of bringing Andre from Hungary and re-establishing the
elder branch in his person, though that had long since been forgotten.
But his resolution had never for a moment been weakened by the arrival of
Andre in the kingdom, or by the profound indifference wherewith Joan,
preoccupied with other passion, had always received the advances of her
cousin Charles of Durazzo. Neither the love of a woman nor the life of a
man was of any account to him when a crown was weighed in the other scale
of the balance.

During the whole time that the queen had remained invisible, Charles had
hung about her apartments, and now came into her presence with respectful
eagerness to inquire for his cousin's health. The young duke had been at
pains to set off his noble features and elegant figure by a magnificent
dress covered with golden fleur-de-lys and glittering with precious
stones. His doublet of scarlet velvet and cap of the same showed up, by
their own splendour, the warm colouring of his skin, while his face seemed
illumined by his black eyes that shone keen as an eagle's.

Charles spoke long with his cousin of the people's enthusiasm on her
accession and of the brilliant destiny before her; he drew a hasty but
truthful sketch of the state of the kingdom; and while he lavished
praises on the queen's wisdom, he cleverly pointed out what reforms were
most urgently needed by the country; he contrived to put so much warmth,
yet so much reserve, into his speech that he destroyed the disagreeable
impression his arrival had produced. In spite of the irregularities of
her youth and the depravity brought about by her wretched education,
Joan's nature impelled her to noble action: when the welfare of her
subjects was concerned, she rose above the limitations of her age and
sex, and, forgetting her strange position, li