I am the queen,and I must yield myself up for the good of my subjects.""Will you forbid me,madam,"replied Dona Cancha in a kind,affectionate tone--"will you forbid me to name Bertrand of Artois in your presence,that unhappy man,with the beauty of an angel and the modesty of a girl?Now that you are queen and have the life and death of your subjects in your own keeping,will you feel no kindness towards an unfortunate one whose only fault is to adore you,who strives with all his mind and strength to bear a chance look of yours without dying of his joy?""I have struggled hard never to look on him,"cried the queen,urged by an impulse she was not strong enough to conquer:then,to efface the impression that might well have been made on her friend's mind,she added severely,"I forbid you to pronounce his name before me;and if he should ever venture to complain,I bid you tell him from me that the first time I even suspect the cause of his distress he will be banished for ever from my presence.""Ah,madam,dismiss me also;for I shall never be strong enough to do so hard a bidding:the unhappy man who cannot awake in your heart so much as a feeling of pity may now be struck down by yourself in your wrath,for here he stands;he has heard your sentence,and come to die at your feet."The last words were spoken in a louder voice,so that they might be heard from outside,and Bertrand of Artois came hurriedly into the room and fell on his knees before the queen.For a long time past the young lady-in-waiting had perceived that Robert of Cabane had,through his own fault,lost the love of Joan;--for his tyranny had indeed become more unendurable to her than her husband's.
Dona Cancha had been quick enough to perceive that the eyes of her young mistress were wont to rest with a kind of melancholy gentleness on Bertrand,a young man of handsome appearance but with a sad and dreamy expression;so when she made up her mind to speak in his interests,she was persuaded that the queen already loved him.
Still,a bright colour overspread Joan's face,and her anger would have fallen on both culprits alike,when in the next room a sound of steps was heard,and the voice of the grand seneschal's widow in conversation with her son fell on the ears of the three young people like a clap of thunder.Dona Cancha,pale as death,stood trembling;Bertrand felt that he was lost--all the more because his presence compromised the queen;Joan only,with that wonderful presence of mind she was destined to preserve in the most difficult crises of her future life,thrust the young man against the carved back of her bed,and concealed him completely beneath the ample curtain:she then signed to Cancha to go forward and meet the governess and her son.
But before we conduct into the queen's room these two persons,whom our readers may remember in Joan's train about the bed of King Robert,we must relate the circumstances which had caused the family of the Catanese to rise with incredible rapidity from the lowest class of the people to the highest rank at court.When Dona Violante of Aragon,first wife of Robert of Anjou,became the mother of Charles,who was later on the Duke of Calabria,a nurse was sought for the infant among the most handsome women of the people.After inspecting many women of equal merit as regards beauty,youth;and,health,the princess's choice lighted on Philippa,a young Catanese.woman,the wife of a fisherman of Trapani,and by condition a laundress.This young woman,as she washed her linen on the bank of a stream,had dreamed strange dreams:she had fancied herself summoned to court,wedded to a great personage,and receiving the honours of a great lady.Thus when she was called to Castel Nuovo her joy was great,for she felt that her dreams now began to be realised.Philippa was installed at the court,and a few months after she began to nurse the child the fisherman was dead and she was a widow.Meanwhile Raymond of Cabane,the major-domo of King Charles II's house,had bought a negro from some corsairs,and having had him baptized by his own name,had given him his liberty;afterwards observing that he was able and intelligent,he had appointed him head cook in the king's kitchen;and then he had gone away to the war.
During the absence of his patron the negro managed his own affairs at the court so cleverly,that in a short time he was able to buy land,houses,farms,silver plate,and horses,and could vie in riches with the best in the kingdom;and as he constantly won higher favour in the royal family,he passed on from the kitchen to the wardrobe.The Catanese had also deserved very well of her employers,and as a reward for the care she had bestowed on the child,the princess married her to the negro,and he,as a wedding gift,was granted the title of knight.
From this day forward,Raymond of Cabane and Philippa the laundress rose in the world so rapidly that they had no equal in influence at court.After the death of Dona Violante,the Catanese became the intimate friend of Dona Sandra,Robert's second wife,whom we introduced to our readers at the beginning of this narrative.
