ks to his strange marriage
with Marie of Durazzo. But this cowardly act of treason was not to go
unpunished. The wind rose with fury, and drove him towards Gaeta, where
the queen and her husband had just arrived. Renaud bade his sailors keep
in the open, threatening to throw any man into the sea who dared to
disobey him. The crew at first murmured; soon cries of mutiny rose on
every side. The admiral, seeing he was lost, passed from threats to
prayers. But the princess, who had recovered her senses at the first
thunder-clap, dragged herself up to the bridge and screamed for help,

"Come to me, Louis! Come, my barons! Death to the cowardly wretches who
have outraged my honour!"

Louis of Tarentum jumped into a boat, followed by some ten of his bravest
men, and, rowing rapidly, reached the ship. Then Marie told him her
story in a word, and he turned upon the admiral a lightning glance, as
though defying him to make any defence.

"Wretch!" cried the king, transfixing the traitor with his sword.

Then he had the son loaded with chains, and also the unworthy priest who
had served as accomplice to the admiral, who now expiated his odious
crime by death. He took the princess and her children in his boat, and
re-entered the harbour.

The Hungarians, however, forcing one of the gates of Naples, marched
triumphant to Castel Nuovo. But as they were crossing the Piazza delle
Correggie, the Neapolitans perceived that the horses were so weak and the
men so reduced by all they had undergone during the siege of Aversa that
a mere puff of wind would dispense this phantom-like army. Changing from
a state of panic to real daring, the people rushed upon their conquerors,
and drove them outside the walls by which they had just entered. The
sudden violent reaction broke the pride of the King of Hungary, and made
him more tractable when Clement VI decided that he ought at last to
interfere. A truce was concluded first from the month of February 1350
to the beginning of April 1351, and the next year this was converted into
a real peace, Joan paying to the King of Hungary the sum of 300,000
florins for the expenses of the war.

After the Hungarians had gone, the pope sent a legate to crown Joan and
Louis of Tarentum, and the 25th of May, the day of Pentecost, was chosen
for the ceremony. All contemporary historians speak enthusiastically of
this magnificent fete. Its details have been immortalised by Giotto in
the frescoes