title: Gloria: The Merlin and The Saint: From the Joan of Arc Tapestries
author:  Ann Chamberlin 
description: Chamberlin, moving from DAW for this third installment of the Joan of Arc Tapestries, again mixes above-average medievalism and convoluted narrative. She picks up Joan's historical career from her first appearance at the dauphin's raggle-taggle court through his coronation at Rheims as a fulfillment of Merlin's prophecy. Much of the story along the way is taken up by Joan's lifting the siege of Orleans by charismatically securing the loyalty of able lieutenants and by outright magic. The latter is provided by Father Jann, Merlin's heir in witchcraft, and Gilles de Rais (aka Bluebeard), a talented bon vivant who believes that Joan (or La Pucelle) is his destined true love. The battle sequences are formidable both in vividness and detail, as are the magic sequences. It takes some suspension of disbelief to accept Chamberlin's kinder, gentler Gilles de Rais (who has come down to us as a pedophile, mass murderer and Satanist), but the story is otherwise credible and absorbing if sometimes slow. At the end, the stage is set for La Pucelle's destined fate, and readers who have come this far will probably want to see it. <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: CONTENTS
  TITLE PAGE
  Copyright
  Dedication
  Part One BRADEN
  PLACE O'DESPAIR
  MORAL FORTITUDE
  INTERVIEW WITH THE DUKE
  A BRIGHT SPOT
  GET THEE GONE
  BODILY NEEDS
  SHORN
  RESTLESS NIGHTS
  THE WIG
  IN A NUTSHELL
  VESUVIUS ERUPTS
  LUNCHEON
  THE VISION
  A HIGHER PLANE
  AGONY
  MARGARET'S DREAM
  THE RETURN JOURNEY
  KNIGHT OF INBHIR NIS
  Part Two CALLUM
  A HEAVENLY BED
  AINSLIE TAVERN
  SWIRLING EMOTIONS
  DROWNING IS THIRSTY WORK
  HERE COMES THE BRIDE
  FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
  AN INCREDIBLE TALE
  THE BIGGEST SCOUNDREL IN CHRISTENDOM
  OLD FASHIONED LEGGINGS
  OATS
  IF WE HADNA DROWNED
  THE SHATTERED EWER
  A SLEEPLESS NIGHT
  DYN BARR
  ANTS
  THE SPIDER'S STICKY TRAP
  RETURN TO HOLYROOD
  HOUSE OF FINE REPUTE
  INVITATION TO A WEDDING
  THE ANGEL AND THE DEVIL
  
  THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
  NO ESCAPING DESTINY
  Part Three REUNION
  I'M NAY A THIEF
  CANONMILLS
  ENGRAVED ON HER HEART
  A FIT OF GIGGLES
  EPILOGUE
  ABOUT ANNA
  MORE ANNA MARKLAND
  FACT OR FICTION?
  
  HIGHLAND TIDES
  By
  ANNA MARKLAND
  CALEDONIA CHRONICLES BOOK II
  Copyright © Anna Markland 2015
  Cover Art