n her own bosom. Ever since James of Aragon came to Naples, the unhappy
princess, married with a dagger at her throat, had desired to purchase
her liberty at the expense of crime. Followed by four armed men, she
entered the prison where Robert des Baux was still suffering for a fault
more his father's than his own. Marie stood before the prisoner, her
arms crossed, her cheeks livid, her lips trembling. It was a terrible
interview. This time it was she who threatened, the man who entreated
pardon. Marie was deaf to his prayers, and the head of the luckless man
fell bleeding at her feet, and her men threw the body into the sea. But
God never allows a murder to go unpunished: James preferred the queen to
her sister, and the widow of Charles of Durazzo gained nothing by her
crime but the contempt of the man she loved, and a bitter remorse which
brought her while yet young to the tomb.

Joan was married in turn to James of Aragon, son of the King of Majorca,
and to Otho of Brunswick, of the imperial family of Saxony. We will pass
rapidly over these years, and come to the denouement of this history of
crime and expiation. James, parted from his wife, continued his stormy
career, after a long contest in Spain with Peter the Cruel, who had
usurped his kingdom: about the end of the year 1375 he died near Navarre.
Otho also could not escape the Divine vengeance which hung over the court
of Naples, but to the end he valiantly shared the queen's fortunes.
Joan, since she had no lawful heir, adopted her nephew, Charles de la
Paix (so called after the peace of Trevisa). He was the son of Louis
Duras, who after rebelling against Louis of Tarentum, had died miserably
in the castle of Ovo. The child would have shared his father's fate had
not Joan interceded to spare his life, loaded him with kindness, and
married him to Margaret, the daughter of her sister Marie and her cousin
Charles, who was put to death by the King of Hungary.

Serious differences arose between the queen and one of her former
subjects, Bartolommeo Prigiani, who had become pope under the name of
Urban VI. Annoyed by the queen's opposition, the pope one day angrily
said he would shut her up in a convent. Joan, to avenge the insult,
openly favoured Clement VII, the anti-pope, and offered him a home in her
own castle, when, pursued by Pope Urban's army, he had taken refuge at
Fondi. But the people rebelled against Clement, and killed the
Archbishop of Naple