For
my part, I never supposed the joke would take such a serious turn all at
once. You know all this and much more; spare your lamentations, for, by
my word, they are getting very tiresome: let us prepare to die joyously,
as we have lived."

With these words she yawned slightly, and, lying down on the straw, fell
into a deep sleep, and dreamed as happy dreams as she had ever dreamed in
her life.

On the morrow from break of day there was an immense crowd on the sea
front. During the night an enormous palisade had been put up to keep the
people away far enough for them to see the accused without hearing
anything. Charles of Durazzo, at the head of a brilliant cortege of
knights and pages, mounted on a magnificent horse, all in black, as a
sign of mourning, waited near the enclosure. Ferocious joy shone in his
eyes as the accused made their way through the crowd, two by two, their
wrists tied with ropes; for the duke every minute expected to hear the
queen's name spoken. But the chief-justice, a man of experience, had
prevented indiscretion of any kind by fixing a hook in the tongue of each
one. The poor creatures were tortured on a ship, so that nobody should
hear the terrible confessions their sufferings dragged from them.

But Joan, in spite of the wrongs that most of the conspirators had done
her, felt a renewal of pity for the woman she had once respected as a
mother, for her childish companions and her friends, and possibly also
some remains of love for Robert of Cabane, and sent two messengers to beg
Bertram de Baux to show mercy to the culprits. But the chief-justice
seized these men and had them tortured; and on their confession that they
also were implicated in Andre's murder, he condemned them to the same
punishment as the others. Dona Cancha alone, by reason of her situation,
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 Char