Bidding the young couple take heart, Catherine of Taranto promised solemnly that, if they would but lend her the half of their forces and would content themselves with remaining for a week on the defensive in the Castel Nuovo, she would bring them at the end of that time a treasure such as they had never yet even imagined. To this proposal they perforce consented; and the Empress, leading half her son’s army, marched boldly out from Naples by the Porta Capuana, along the road towards Benevento, and so came by way of the Caudine Forks to the castle of Saint Agatha of the Goths, where Queen Joan’s former lover, Bertrand of Artois, and his father, old Count Charles, were still skulking from the law. Now when Count Charles perceived that troops were preparing to besiege him, and recognized their leader as the Empress, he sent out messengers to inquire her intentions in coming thus with a large force into his neighbourhood; to which Catherine replied, speaking as follows—her speech is translated literally: “My most beloved ones” (_Dilettissimi miei_), “pray report to our friend Charles that we desire to speak with him privately upon a matter of equal interest to us both; and that he need feel no uneasiness at seeing us come thus with an armed force to him, for we have done so expressly for a certain purpose, the which we will explain to him at our leisure. We know that he is confined to his bed with an attack of gout, and so we were not surprised that he did not come out in person to greet us. And so pray salute him from us and reassure him as to our intentions towards him; and say that we would fain enter to him—if such be his pleasure—with Master Nicholas Acciajuoli our privy councillor, and no more than ten of our soldiers, in order to confer with him upon a subject too important to be confided to messengers.” Completely deceived by the pernicious woman’s fair words as reported to him, Count Charles sent out his son Bertrand to receive her with all due ceremony, and to escort her to where he himself lay prostrate with illness. Their meeting was cordial in the extreme; after expressing the most heartfelt regrets at the venerable knight’s sad condition, the Empress so soon as they were alone together, lowering her voice, said that her object in so coming to him was to consult him in regard to the state of affairs in Naples and to enlist his active support on behalf of the Queen. At the same time, she went on to say, there being no immediate reason for her return to the capital, she would be more than grateful for the favour of being allowed to remain yet a few days with him at Saint Agatha, in order to profit by his advice, and to give him some account of all that had come to pass in Naples during his absence.