THE GOLDEN PORCUPINE

History amplified as Louis XI's implacable determination to nationalize his country brings nightmares into the lives of the Orleans' family. Hating the Orleans' sea, Louis, the King carefully raises him as an impatient, careless sportsman and gentleman, implies his promise that Louis will marry his daughter Anne. To wreck Orleans and its threat to the succession, he palms off his deformed daughter Jeanne on Louis, and marries Anna to Piorre , sister. of their common promise not to consummate their marriages and gradually learns his way politically. Punished and tortured by his King, he is consoled by Anne-Marie of British whose childish worship tarnished the other Anne's hollow devotion. Her regency for XVII turns her love to vengeful hate, and Louis is forced to combat her vicious gesture by overt acts. Having seen the wreck of all his dreams, the end of the Regency leaves him free to plan for his succession and the promise of Anne-Marie as his bride. Fact to fiction in fine above (and below) stairs recital which should satisfy most histo-tic appetites.