The Templar

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Regis Regum rectissimi prope est dies domini.

(The day of the Lord, of the most righteous King, is close at hand.)

The Dies Irae of St Columba

The monk lifted his cowled head and peered through the lancet window overlooking the wild heathland of Melrose. Harvest time was close, but his task was only just beginning here in the stair tower of this ancient fortified manor house. He stared round the chamber at the neatly stacked ledgers, indentures, chronicles, letters and memoranda: these had all been collected from the libraries of the Order of the Temple and brought here in the summer of Our Lord 1314.

‘Everything we could steal or buy,’ the old woman murmured as she rested on her cane, staring through the small oriel window. She didn’t even bother to turn round.

‘Consummatum est — it is finished. Brother Anselm, you’ve heard the news?’

The young Cistercian monk coughed and nodded. He realised why he was here. He had been sworn to secrecy on the great leather-bound, gold-embossed Book of the Gospels chained to its lectern in the centre of the room.

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