More Italian Yesterdays

by Mrs. Hugh Fraser

“Vengeance!” they bellowed, forgetting in their desire for savagery how, but a short while before, they had groaned beneath the insolent brutality of that same Andrew of Hungary. “Vengeance, vengeance, vengeance!”—and from out the sombre interior of the cathedral the roaring gushed in a flood of terrible sound, filling all the streets with its clamour for blood. And, when the funeral was over, and the coffin had been put away in the place prepared for it in the left transept of the building, Duke Charles withdrew once more to his own palace, well pleased with what he had done, there to apply his energies to the work in hand.

Now it so happened that several of those who had conspired with Joan to make an end of her husband had lost no time in claiming the various rewards that they deemed to be due to them from her. Filippa Cabano and Robert her son, as well as her daughters of Terlizzi and Morcone and their husbands, redoubled in arrogance and in the daring of their clamour for honours and money; whilst Cancia, their lascivious instrument and the handmaid of their Sovereign, now secured from punishment by that Sovereign’s impotence even to protest against her shamelessness, turned the Castel Nuovo into a place without a name.

But of all Joan’s fellow-conspirators the one who asked her the most staggering price was her aunt, Catherine of Taranto, Empress of Constantinople, who asked that she should consent to announce her betrothal to Robert of Taranto, the Empress’s eldest son. To this insolent demand Joan could only summon sufficient strength to reply by asking a delay of three days in which to make up her mind upon the subject; which delay was granted her, the Empress only stipulating that Prince Robert, in the meantime, should be allowed to take up his quarters in the Castel Nuovo and to see and speak with Joan at least once a day.

No sooner, though, did it reach the ears of Charles of Durazzo that Robert of Taranto was installed in the Castel Nuovo as a preliminary to his betrothal to the Queen, than the Duke flung himself on to a horse and galloped furiously to the castle. On entering Joan’s presence, he spoke briefly and to the point. To begin with, she must create him Duke of Calabria in his own right, thereby acknowledging him to be the heir to the throne as the husband of her sister. And as to Robert of Taranto, Charles absolutely forbade her to marry him or any other man without his express permission; threatening that if she dared to do otherwise he would reveal to the whole world his knowledge of her participation in the murder of Andrew of Hungary. This he did because he had no intention whatsoever of allowing her to marry again and so providing, possibly, a direct heir to the throne other than his wife and himself. And again, Joan, helpless to refuse beneath her burden of remorse and of terror both for herself and for others, had no choice but to temporize as best she could.

There was now no other course open to her than that of an explanation upon the subject of her situation with the Empress of Constantinople.

The latter, however, on learning of Duke Charles’s opposition to the marriage of her son to Joan, declared her resolution of striking him a blow that should assuredly wound him frightfully both in his affections as well as in the esteem of the public, before whom, she assured Joan, he would be eternally dishonoured by it in the event of his refusing to listen to the voice of reason.

First of all, advised the Empress, Charles must be made acquainted with the fact that his veto of Joan’s espousal to Robert was without reason; for in very truth Joan was expecting shortly to become the mother of Andrew of Hungary’s posthumous child, who, in the natural course of things, must eventually succeed to the throne of Naples. Should Charles, however, in the face of this, persist in placing obstacles in the way of Joan’s marriage to Robert, then the blow of which mention had been made—albeit the Empress had not divulged its nature precisely—should be launched upon him. Furthermore, added the Empress, she herself would at once inform Charles of Joan’s expectation of soon becoming a mother.

Joan, it must be added, had told her aunt of Charles’s knowledge of the persons primarily responsible for Andrew’s death; so that the Empress should realize the peril that menaced her at the Duke of Durazzo’s hands.

Undeterred, though, by learning of his power over her, Catherine of Taranto betook herself immediately to the Palazzo Durazzo and boldly faced the arch-schemer. In wickedness and courage she was a match for him, and he knew it; so he received her news of the Queen’s condition with smooth words very delicately barbed and very poisonous. Thanking the Empress with every show of respectful gratitude for the honour that she had conferred upon him by coming thus in person with the all-important and all-welcome news, for himself he asked only the title of Duke of Calabria, which alone could enable him to watch over Joan’s interests properly, and those of her child. Should the Queen, he added, see her way to complying with his request, then he should no longer feel it his duty to bring all the accomplices of her husband’s murder to justice; since if Andrew of Hungary’s progeny were, in time, to occupy the throne, the murder itself would be rendered in a measure of no effect. In the event of Joan’s refusal, however, the inquiry already instituted in regard to the King’s assassins would be prosecuted to the bitter end without respect for any one whosoever—an eventuality which, as Charles pointed out to the Empress, with a diabolical smile, might be very unpleasant for several of their mutual friends. By which she was made to understand that Charles was perfectly aware of her own share in that detestable transaction.

In answer, the resourceful Empress, careful to appear suitably frightened by Charles’s hints, declared her willingness to do all she could to promote his wishes, begging only a little time in which to bring the Queen round to a more yielding frame of mind; a favour that Charles could not help but grant her. And so they parted with the mutual assurance of a complete understanding.