The Saracen Lamp

Flap: This is a book that spans six hundred years. It begins with the marriage, in about 1300, of fifteen year old Melisande, a girl of southern France to Sir Hugh de Hervey, six years older than herself and an English knight and landowner. With her to England, Melisande takes a very special lamp, a lamp of gold and jewels, made for her by a saracen servant in her father's household. The lamp becomes the spirit and treasure of the de Hervey household.