LEOPARDS AND LILIES

By the author of Knight Without Armour and The Lady For Ransom, a novel of King John's England tells the story of proud young Margaret's two marriages and reflects an alert scholarship. When her first husband's death necessitates a new guardian for her son, Margaret still in her teens, is married to Falkes de Brealt, ""the best captain of crossbow in Christiandom"". She follows him in his fight for the new king Henry III but in Falkes' downfall, leaves him to win public disdain. Here is the turn from the feudal to the realistic, skillfully viewed.