The Quest for Saint Camber Read Online Free Page A

course,” Kelson went on drolly, “or that it would have made any difference to me if he had been. I am glad that I won’t have to defy the law to knight him on Tuesday, however.”
    The bluster evoked a chuckle from Morgan and a snort of disapproval from Arilan as everyone shed wet cloaks and gathered before the fire, for all were aware that the king might have done precisely that, if necessary, to see proper honor done to his beloved foster brother. Kelson had already waived the usual age requirement for the accolade—a royal prerogative whose exercise would raise no eyebrows, given Dhugal’s outstanding service in the previous summer’s campaign, and Dhugal only just seventeen. Several others were also being knighted early, for the same reason.
    But age was one thing—a somewhat arbitrary milestone that easily might be set aside for reasonable cause, even royal whim. The bar sinister was quite another. Even with royal patronage, illegitimacy was normally a serious, if not absolute, bar to knighthood.
    Fortunately, Bishop Ducan McLain had proven today, to the satisfaction of an archbishop’s tribunal, that long before entering holy orders, he and Dhugal’s mother had exchanged vows that constituted a valid, if irregular, marriage. The proving had not been easy. The first sticking point had been that the vows were witnessed only by the two principals and the sacred Presence signified by the ever-burning lamp in the chapel of Duncan’s father, at Culdi.
    â€œMind you, I don’t dispute the precedent of per verba de praesenti ,” old Bishop Wolfram de Blanet had said, acting as devil’s advocate as he and Arilan reviewed the case for Archbishop Cardiel in closed session. “Common law in the borders has long recognized the validity of a marriage declared before witnesses when no priest was available—though the Church has always urged a more solemn ratification at some future date.”
    Duncan, standing alone before the tribunal’s long table, shook his head in objection, aware of the tension of his son and the others seated behind him. Other than one of Cardiel’s clarks, taking down a careful transcript at the end of the table, only Dhugal, Morgan, the king, and Nigel had been permitted to attend.
    â€œYour Excellency knows that was not possible,” Duncan said. “I never saw her again. She died the following winter.”
    â€œYes, so you have said. The salient point here, however, which must be addressed, has nothing to do with omission of a later regularization of the marriage, but whether a declaration before the Blessed Sacrament in fact fulfills the elements of per verba de praesenti .”
    Arilan, serving as Duncan’s counsel, cleared his throat.
    â€œAh, there is a parallel precedent in ancient Talmudic law, Wolfram,” he pointed out. “I doubt the comparison has often been invoked, but we have in the sacred tabernacle, before which the Presence lamp burns, a direct lineal descendant of the Jewish Ark of the Covenant. Interestingly enough, the Ark was permitted, in necessity, to substitute for one of the quorum of ten adult males required for many public rituals of Jewish worship.”
    â€œImplying that the Ark functioned as a witness of sorts?” Wolfram asked, frowning.
    Arilan nodded. “Beyond question. Surely at least equal in weight to the mere mortals making up the other nine—and in symbol, at least, the physical representative of the presence of the living God. If, as we believe, God is physically present in the Blessed Sacrament as the Body and Blood of Christ, then can the Holy Presence in the tabernacle before which Duncan and Maryse made their vows be any less valid a witness?”
    Duncan scarcely dared to breathe as the import of the argument sank in; he sensed that the others, seated behind him, recognized it, too. Arilan had scored a point not easily refuted; for to deny the real Presence