disturbance of people outside the convent, while vengeful cries were
heard amongst the indignant crowd. The groups became more and more
thronged, threatening voices were raised, a torrent of invaders
threatened the royal dwelling, when the queen's guard appeared, lance in
readiness, and a litter closely shut, surrounded by the principal barons
of the court, passed through the crowd, which stood stupidly gazing.
Joan, wrapped in a black veil, went back to Castel Nuovo, amid her
escort; and nobody, say the historians, had the courage to say a word
about this terrible deed.




CHAPTER V

The terrible part that Charles of Durazzo was to play began as soon as
this crime was accomplished. The duke left the corpse two whole days
exposed to the wind and the rain, unburied and dishonoured, the corpse
of a man whom the pope had made King of Sicily and Jerusalem, so that
the indignation of the mob might be increased by the dreadful sight.
On the third he ordered it to be conveyed with the utmost pomp to
the cathedral of Naples, and assembling all the Hungarians around the
catafalque, he thus addressed them, in a voice of thunder:--

"Nobles and commoners, behold our king hanged like a dog by infamous
traitors. God will soon make known to us the names of all the guilty:
let those who desire that justice may be done hold up their hands
and swear against murderers bloody persecution, implacable hatred,
everlasting vengeance."