and in her lover's arms. He threw one withering look on Marie, who
interceded tearfully for her sister, and pressing Robert's hand with
warmth, vowed that so long as he lived Louis should never be Joan's
husband.

That same evening he shut himself up in his study, and wrote letters
whose effect soon appeared. A bull, dated June 2, 1346, was addressed
to Bertram de Baux, chief-justice of the kingdom of Sicily and Count
of Monte Scaglioso, with orders to make the most strict inquiries
concerning Andre's murderers, whom the pope likewise laid under his
anathema, and to punish them with the utmost rigour of the law. But a
secret note was appended to the bull which was quite at variance
with the designs of Charles: the sovereign pontiff expressly bade the
chief-justice not to implicate the queen in the proceedings or the
princes of the blood, so as to avoid worse disturbances, reserving, as
supreme head of the Church and lord of the kingdom, the right of judging
them later on, as his wisdom might dictate.

For this imposing trial Bertram de Baux made great preparations. A
platform was erected in the great hall of tribunal, and all the officers
of the crown and great state dignitaries, and all the chief barons, had
a place behind the enclosure where the magistrates sat. Three days after
Clement VI's bull had been published in the capital, the chief-justice
was ready for a public examination of two accused persons. The two
culprits who had first fallen into the hands of justice were, as one
may easily suppose, those whose condition was least exalted, whose lives
were least valuable, Tommaso Pace and Nicholas of Melazzo. They were led
before the tribunal to be first of all tortured, as the custom was. As
they approached the judges, the notary passing by Charles in the street
had time to say in a low voice--