The agreement was made in the gardens of Castel Nuovo, whither Charles
had repaired on the invitation of the queen and her aunt. To her cousin
of Durazzo Joan accorded the title so much desired of Duke of Calabria,
and Charles, feeling that he was hereby made heir to the kingdom,
marched at once on Aquila, which town already was flying the Hungarian
colours. The wretched man did not foresee that he was going straight to
his destruction.

When the Empress of Constantinople saw this man, whom she hated above
all others, depart in joy, she looked contemptuously upon him, divining
by a woman's instinct that mischief would befall him; then, having
no further mischief to do, no further treachery on earth, no further
revenge to satisfy, she all at once succumbed to some unknown malady,
and died suddenly, without uttering a cry or exciting a single regret.

But the King of Hungary, who had crossed Italy with a formidable army,
now entered the kingdom from the side of Aquila: on his way he had
everywhere received marks of interest and sympathy; and Alberto and
Mertino delta Scala, lords of Verona, had given him three hundred horse
to prove that all their goodwill was with him in his enterprise. The
news of the arrival of the Hungarians threw the court into a state of
confusion impossible to describe. They had hoped that the king would be
stopped by the pope's legate, who had come to Foligno to forbid him, in
the name of the Holy Father, and on pain of excommunication to proceed
any further without his consent; but Louis of Hungary replied to the
pope's legate that, once master of Naples, he should consider himself a
feudatory of the Church, but till then he had no obligations except
to God and his own conscience. Thus the avenging army fell like a
thunderbolt upon the heart of the kingdom, before there was any
thought of taking serious measures for defence. There was only one plan