me up with his
incredible tale. Charles made him say it twice over, so impossible did
Louis's audacious enterprise appear to him. Then quickly changing from
doubt to fury, he struck his brow with his iron glove, saying that as the
queen defied him he would make her tremble even in her castle and in her
lover's arms. He threw one withering look on Marie, who interceded
tearfully for her sister, and pressing Robert's hand with warmth, vowed
that so long as he lived Louis should never be Joan's husband.

That same evening he shut himself up in his study, and wrote letters
whose effect soon appeared. A bull, dated June 2, 1346, was addressed to
Bertram de Baux, chief-justice of the kingdom of Sicily and Count of
Monte Scaglioso, with orders to make the most strict inquiries concerning
Andre's murderers, whom the pope likewise laid under his anathema, and to
punish them with the utmost rigour of the law. But a secret note was
appended to the bull which was quite at variance with the designs of
Charles: the sovereign pontiff expressly bade the chief-justice not to
implicate the queen in the proceedings or the princes of the blood, so as
to avoid worse disturbances, reserving, as supreme head of the Church and
lord of the kingdom, the right of judging them later on, as his wisdom
might dictate.

For this imposing trial Bertram de Baux made great preparations. A
platform was erected in the great hall of tribunal, and all the officers
of the crown and great state dignitaries, and all the chief barons, had a
place behind the enclosure where the magistrates sat. Three days after
Clement VI's bull had been published in the capital, the chief-justice
was ready for a public examination of two accused persons. The two
culprits who had first fallen into the hands of justice were, as one may
easily suppose, those whose condition was least exalted, whose lives were
least valuable, Tommaso Pace and Nicholas of Melazzo. They were led
before the tribunal to be first of all tortured, as the custom was. As
they approached the judges, the notary passing by Charles in the street
had time to say in a low voice--

"My lord, the time has come to give my life for you: I will do my duty; I
commend my wife and children to you."

Encouraged by a nod from his patron, he walked on firmly and
deliberately. The chief-justice, after establishing the identity of the
accused, gave them over to the executioner and his men to be tortured in
the pu