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.  Charles, her foster son, loved her as a mother, and she was the confidante of his two wives in turn, especially of the second wife, Marie of Valois.  And as the quondam laundress had in the end learned all the manners and customs of the court, she was chosen at the birth of Joan and her sister to be governess and mistress over the young girls, and at this juncture Raymond was created major-domo.  Finally, Marie of Valois on her deathbed commended the two young princesses to her care, begging her to look on them as her own-daughters.  Thus Philippa the Catanese, honoured in future as foster