struggled to get them,
signing to the executioners to show which part of the victims' bodies
they preferred.

Robert of Cabane, the grand seneschal, the Counts of Terlizzi and
Morcone, Raymond Pace, brother of the old valet who had been executed the
day before, and many more, were dragged on similar carts, and both
scourged with ropes and slashed with knives; their flesh was torn out
with red-hot pincers, and flung upon brazen chafing-dishes. No cry of
pain was heard from the grand seneschal, he never stirred once in his
frightful agony; yet the torturers put such fury into their work that the
poor wretch was dead before the goal was reached.

In the centre of the square of Saint Eligius an immense stake was set up:
there the prisoners were taken, and what was left of their mutilated
bodies was thrown into the flames. The Count of Terlizzi and the grand
seneschal's widow were still alive, and two tears of blood ran down the
cheeks of the miserable mother as she saw her son's corpse and the
palpitating remains of her two daughters cast upon the fire--they by
their stifled cries showed that they had not ceased to suffer. But
suddenly a fearful noise overpowered the groans of the victims; the
enclosure was broken and overturned by the mob. Like madmen, they rushed
at the burning pile,--armed with sabres, axes, and knives, and snatching
the bodies dead or alive from the flames, tore them to pieces, carrying
off the bones to make whistles or handles for their daggers as a souvenir
of this horrible day.

CHAPTER VI

The spectacle of this frightful punishment did not satisfy the revenge of
Charles of Durazzo. Seconded by the chief-justice, he daily brought
about fresh executions, till Andre's death came to be no more than a
pretext for the legal murder of all who opposed his projects. But Louis
of Tarentum, who had won Joan's heart, and was eagerly trying to get the
necessary dispensation for legalising the marriage, from this time
forward took as a personal insult every act of the high court of justice
which was performed against his will and against the queen's prerogative:
he armed all his adherents, increasing their number by all the
adventurers he could get together, and so put on foot a strong enough
force to support his own party and resist his cousin. Naples was thus
split up into hostile camps, ready to come to blows on the smallest
pretext, whose daily skirmishes, moreover, were always followed by som