The effect of the news upon Robert may be easily imagined. After staring, speechless, at his informant for a few minutes, there broke from him a cry of rage, and, turning his horse, he tore off at a gallop towards the Palazzo Durazzo. Here he found Duke Charles in the company of the Duchess Maria and informed them, as well as he could for fury, of what had taken place. It ended in Charles promising him that he would leave no stone unturned to prevent the necessary confirmation by the Pope of the union of Louis with the Queen; and that, so long as he, Charles of Durazzo, lived, no such confirmation should be put into practice. That same day he wrote to the Pope at Avignon asking for a Papal inquiry into the murder of Andrew of Hungary and laying before the Holy Father the names of those implicated in it; thus he hoped to obtain the deposal of Joan from the throne and the reversion of it to himself as husband of the next rightful heir, Maria of Anjou; also to ensure the destruction of the Empress of Constantinople as a participant in Andrew’s death. It was long before the Pope’s answer reached him, and when at last it did it was rather disappointing. For Clement VI replied with a Bull dated June 2, 1346, addressed to Beltram des Baux, Count of Monte Scaglioso and Chief Justice of Sicily, bidding him draw up a charge against the murderers of King Andrew—who were formally anathematized—and to punish them with the utmost severity. A secret codicil to the Bull, however, expressly forbade the Chief Justice to proceed against, or in any way to implicate in his handling of the case, either the Queen herself or any of her relatives. So, to avoid causing still more lamentable disorders in the already distracted kingdom, any such malefactors of the Blood Royal, added the Pope, would be dealt with later by himself, alone, as the Supreme Head of the Church and suzerain lord of the Kingdom of Naples. The Count of Monte Scaglioso showed himself no laggard in discharging the duty thus entrusted to his zeal and ability. Within three days from the reception of the Papal Bull, he was able to announce that the trial of the late King’s murderers would be held on the following day in the great hall of San Luigi in the Castel Nuovo, the same vast apartment in which Pope Celestino V had abdicated the pontificate in 1294. In the hall were seats for all the principal nobles of the kingdom round about that of the Chief Justice himself. The two accused persons were both men—Tommaso Pace, King Andrew’s valet, and Nicholas of Melazzo, the confederate of Charles of Durazzo and the same who had played the part of Judas, as well as that of “Omri who slew his master.” Both were brought from their prison to the Castel Nuovo to undergo a preliminary torture that should make them confess their guilt at once and so save the time and trouble of their judges.