That same evening the sentence,to the great joy of all,was proclaimed,that Joan was innocent and acquitted of all concern in the assassination of her husband.But as her conduct after the event and the indifference she had shown about pursuing the authors of the crime admitted of no valid excuse,the pope declared that there were plain traces of magic,and that the wrong-doing attributed to Joan was the result of some baneful charm cast upon her,which she could by no possible means resist.At the same time,His Holiness confirmed her marriage with Louis of Tarentum,and bestowed on him the order of the Rose of Gold and the title of King of Sicily and Jerusalem.Joan,it is true,had on the eve of her acquittal sold the town of Avignon to the pope for the sum of 80,000florins.
While the queen was pleading her cause at the court of Clement VI,a dreadful epidemic,called the Black Plague--the same that Boccaccio has described so wonderfully--was ravaging the kingdom of Naples,and indeed the whole of Italy.According to the calculation of Matteo Villani,Florence lost three-fifths of her population,Bologna two-thirds,and nearly all Europe was reduced in some such frightful proportion.The Neapolitans were already weary of the cruelties and greed of the Hungarians,they were only awaiting some opportunity to revolt against the stranger's oppression,and to recall their lawful sovereign,whom,for all her ill deeds,they had never ceased to love.The attraction of youth and beauty was deeply felt by this pleasure-loving people.Scarcely had the pestilence thrown confusion into the army and town,when loud cursing arose against the tyrant and his executioners.Louis of Hungary,suddenly threatened by the,wrath of Heaven and the people's vengeance,was terrified both by the plague and by the riots,and disappeared in the middle of the night.
Leaving the government of Naples in the hands of Conrad Lupo,one of his captains,he embarked hastily at Berletta,and left the kingdom in very much the same way as Louis of Tarentum,fleeing from him,had left it a few months before.
This news arrived at Avignon just when the pope was about to send the queen his bull of absolution.It was at once decided to take away the kingdom from Louis's viceroy.Nicholas Aeciajuoli left for Naples with the marvellous bull that was to prove to all men the innocence of the queen,to banish all scruples and stir up a new enthusiasm.
The counsellor first went to the castle of Melzi,commanded by his son Lorenzo:this was the only fortress that had always held out.
The father and son embraced with the honourable pride that near relatives may justly feel when they meet after they have united in the performance of a heroic duty.From the governor of Melzi Louis of Tarentum's counsellor learned that all men were wearied of the arrogance and vexatious conduct of the queen's enemies,and that a conspiracy was in train,started in the University of Naples,but with vast ramifications all over the kingdom,and moreover that there was dissension in the enemy's army.The indefatigable counsellor went from Apulia to Naples,traversing towns and villages,collecting men everywhere,proclaiming loudly the acquittal of the queen and her marriage with Louis of Tarentum,also that the pope was offering indulgences to such as would receive with joy their lawful sovereigns.Then seeing that the people shouted as he went by,"Long live Joan!Death to the Hungarians!"he returned and told his sovereigns in what frame of mind he had left their subjects.
