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 Acciajuoli 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.

Joan borrowed money wherever she could, armed galleys, and left Marseilles with her husband, her sister, and two faithful advisers, Acciajuoli and Spinelli, on the 10th of September 1348.  The king and queen not being able to enter at the harbour, which was in the enemy’s power, disembarked at Santa Maria del Carmine, near the river Sebeto, amid the frenzied applause of an immense crowd, and accompanied by all the Neapolitan nobles.  They made their way to the palace of Messire Ajutorio, near Porta Capuana, the Hungarians having fortified themselves in all the castles; but Acciajuoli, at the head of the queen’s partisans, blockaded the fortresses so ably that half of the enemy were obliged to surrender, and the other half took to flight and were scattered about the interior of the kingdom.  We shall now follow Louis of Tarentum in his arduous adventures in Apulia, the Calabrias, and the Abruzzi, where he recovered one by one the fortresses that the Hungarians had taken.  By dint of unexampled valour and patience, he at last mastered nearly all the more considerable places, when suddenly everything changed, and fortune turned her back upon him for the second time.  A German captain called Warner, who had deserted the Hungarian army to sell himself to the queen, had again played the traitor and sold himself once more, allowed himself to be surprised at Corneto by Conrad Lupo, the King of Hungary’s vicar-general, and openly joined him, taking along with him a great party of the adventurers who fought under his orders.  This unexpected defection forced Louis of Tarentum to retire to Naples.  The King of Hungary soon learning that the troops had rallied round his banner, and only awaited his return to march upon the capital, disembarked with a strong reinforcement of cavalry at the port of Manfredonia, and taking Trani, Canosa, and Salerno, went forward to lay siege to Aversa.