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Bruce by one gauntleted hand. Thus joined, the two men continued forward to confront King Edward,
halting before the dais. With all eyes turned to them, the Earl of Gloucester addressed himself to Edward
in ringing tones.
"Take heed, Your Majesty, of the kind of judgment you have given today," he warned loudly. "And
remember that you must be judged at the Last Judgment!"
This admonition drew a suppressed gasp from the surrounding crowd, but before King Edward could
summon more than a frigid glare, Robert Bruce of Annandale took up the veiled challenge.
"My noble lords, I shall be brief," he declared. "My family have fought long and hard to defend our right
to the Scottish crown. Since the adjudicators have ruled against us, I feel it only fitting that I should
henceforth absent myself from the Scottish court. To that end, I hereby renounce my title as Earl of
Carrick in favor of the son who bears my name. Let him do what is required here today, and let me retire
with such honor as my services to the community of the realm have merited."
Following this dramatic resignation, the eldest Bruce of Annandale and his ally Gloucester bowed
themselves out of King Edward's presence and retired from the field. Their departure was attended by a
storm of speculative murmurs, and it was several minutes before the king's officers could restore order to
the assembly. As the confusion subsided, the new king's brother-in-law strode forward decisively, to
drop down on one knee at Balliol's feet.
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"I, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, do hereby acknowledge King John Balliol to be my liege lord," he
cried loudly, "in token of which fealty I present to him my sword, together with my right arm and the
strength of my following, to defend the ancient kingdom of our ancestors and the honor of the Scottish
crown!"
This ringing endorsement drew cheers from the crowd. The cheers redoubled as a Comyn cousin, the
Earl of Buchan, came forward to do homage in his turn. This example was copied by the earls and other
nobles who had supported Balliol's claim throughout the long, drawn-out court battle. When these had all
fulfilled their feudal obligations, all eyes turned once again to the two remaining representatives of the
Bruce family.
There was a moment's bristling silence. Then the new Earl of Carrick advanced to the edge of the dais
and knelt, as custom required, to pledge his support to the new king. His face in profile wore an
expression of grim resignation. Several members of the Comyn faction were openly smirking at his
discomfiture, but Arnault wondered if it had perhaps escaped their attention that by sacrificing his own
honor, the new earl was effectively preserving intact the honor of both his father and his son.
Following the solemn presentation of homages, a general celebration ensued, which would last over
several days. When it became clear that no outright hostilities were likely to erupt over the day's
developments-at least not in the immediate aftermath-Brian de Jay authorized procurement of a keg of
ale for himself and his knights and gave leave for private indulgence within the privacy of Johan Lindsay's
hall, himself giving reinforcement to the oft-quoted simile, "to drink like a Templar." Torquil, however,
though obliged to join in Jay's gesture of magnanimity, could find little reason to take pleasure in the
reason for the indulgence.
"But I think perhaps this is an occasion to get quietly drunk," he told Arnault bleakly, as the two nursed
leather tankards of tasteless ale, a little apart from the others.
For no amount of revelry could alter the fact that John Balliol had won the crown at the expense of
Scotland's independence. Edward of England had established himself as Scotland's suzerain; and with
Balliol under his thumb, there was nothing to prevent him from further pressing his intention to eventually
absorb Scotland into his own kingdom.
Chapter Eight
WITH THE ELECTION OF JOHN BALLIOL TO THE SCOTTISH throne, the duties of Brian de
Jay's Templar delegation now were to shift to those of peacekeepers as well as neutral observers; for the
process begun in Berwick would culminate at the abbey of Scone, near Perth, once the capital of the
ancient Pictish Kingdom of Dalriada, where Balliol's accession must be validated by enthronement upon
the kingdom's sacred inaugural stone-the so-called Stone of Destiny.
It was to this place that the magnates of Scotland were summoned to appear on Saint Andrew's Day, the
thirtieth of November, to witness the new king's formal inauguration. With a full fortnight allowed to move
the court to Scone, Brian de Jay announced his intention to make the journey via Balantrodoch.
"I will wish to pick up an additional escort before proceeding to Scone," he told his fellow Templars, as
they broached his keg of ale in Johan Lindsay's hall, "but the detour will not delay us overlong. We leave
at first light."
Accordingly, while the folk of Berwick were still at their revels and Jay and his knights made short work
of the allotted keg of ale, the lowlier serjeants set about making preparations to leave Berwick in the
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morning. Much later, when all had retired to their pallets laid out in the darkened Lindsay hall, Arnault sat
hunched over the trestle table by the kitchen hearth, pen in hand and parchment and inkhorn before him,
and put the finishing touches on his report of the day's proceedings, while the details were still fresh in his
mind.
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