The White Plumes of Navarre

Paris on the eve of Saint Bartholomew in 1572 supplies the tense opening of S. R. Crockett's historical romance. Huguenot leaders have gathered for a royal marriage, trusting promises of protection. Beside the wounded Admiral Coligny stands John Stirling, a young Scot educated in Geneva, who witnesses an attack that leaves him injured and shapes his feelings toward the Duke of Guise. Religious loyalty and royal power enter the story through immediate personal danger.

A later scene moves to Madame Amélie's household in Collioure, where Claire Agnew listens to affectionate arguments among three brothers. Talk of mills, books, eloquence and marriage gives way to the arrival of her cousin Raphael Llorient. These contrasting passages offer both the public tensions of France's religious wars and the warmth of domestic conversation. Readers interested in historical fiction can expect court rivalries, questions of faith and lively exchanges between characters with sharply different temperaments.