from Avignon; and in this brief he
himself guarantees your good faith.

"We give you your full and entire liberty, and henceforth we shall only
endeavour to keep you among us by prayers and protestations. Go then,
madam, if that is your pleasure, but before you leave these lands, which
will be plunged into mourning by your withdrawal, leave with us some hope
that you forgive the apparent violence to which we have subjected you,
only in the fear that we might lose you; and remember that on the day
when you cease to be our queen you sign the death-warrant of all your
subjects."

Joan reassured the archbishop and the deputation from her good town of
Aix with a melancholy smile, and promised that she would always cherish
the memory of their affection. For this time she could not be deceived
as to the real sentiments of the nobles and people; and a fidelity so
uncommon, revealed with sincere tears, touched her heart and made her
reflect bitterly upon her past. But a league's distance from Avignon a
magnificent triumphal reception awaited her. Louis of Tarentum and all
the cardinals present at the court had come out to meet her. Pages in
dazzling dress carried above Joan's head a canopy of scarlet velvet,
ornamented with fleur-de-lys in gold and plumes. Handsome youths and
lovely girls, their heads crowned with flowers, went before her singing
her praise. The streets were bordered with a living hedge of people; the
houses were decked out; the bells rang a triple peal, as at the great
Church festivals. Clement VI first received the queen at the castle of
Avignon with all the pomp he knew so well how to employ on solemn
occasions, then she was lodged in the palace of Cardinal Napoleon of the
Orsini, who on his return from the Conclave at Perugia had built this
regal dwelling at Villeneuve, inhabited later by the popes.

No words could give an idea of the strangely disturbed condition of
Avignon at this period. Since Clement V had transported the seat of the
papacy to Provence, there had sprung up, in this rival to Rome, squares,
churches, cardinals' palaces, of unparalleled splendour. All the business
of nations and kings was transacted at the castle of Avignon.
Ambassadors from every court, merchants of every nation, adventurers of
all kinds, Italians, Spaniards, Hungarians, Arabs, Jews, soldiers,
Bohemians, jesters, poets, monks, courtesans, swarmed and clustered here,
and hustled one another in the streets. There wa