When the old Guardian Hugh O'Neill, the Irish Earl of Tyrone dies in Rome, a new Guardian Defender of the Faith is confirmed by the Abbotts of Kells. The new Guardian starts searching for the Holy relics that are now under his protection. This includes the coronation stone, or The Stone of Destiny. With what relics he could find he travels to England to visit his boyhood friend while they were both wards of Alexander Seton, the Earl of Dunfermline, at Fyvie Castle. His friend is Charles I King of England. In 1625 while he was dispatched to the French Court of Louis XIII he had given his approval to the marriage between Charles and Henrietta the daughter of the exiled French Queen Marie de 'Medici, and King Louis own sister. The reunion is a personal one as the new Guardian is on sabbatical from Rome. Together with the King and the members of his inner circle, they use the coronation stone with some of the relics brought from Ireland, to open Jacob's Ladder and several times a strange occurrance happens where he and the King recieve a message asking for union. He travels with the King up to Scotland to convince the Scottish General Assembly to support the revised version of his father's 'Book of Common Prayer' that they have rejected. They look in Fyvie Castle for a secret treasure room that contains a Scottish Royal Treasury, the Deeds, Land Grants, and Titles of the Scottish Barrons who are sworn to support the King. They find that the treasure room is gone and set off to find it. They are threatened by a band of mercenaries who have just returned from fighting in the Thirty Years War, working for those in the General Assembly calling themselves 'Converters' after the covenant they had signed to reject the king. The Guardian and the King after finding the lost treasury confront the mercenaries outside of a Templer community that swears support for the king. Most of the Templers work at a rock quarry owned by the Guardian's father, and while the mercenaries are well seasoned and well-armed, they are no match for the Templers and ride off. The King finds out that his Mother-in-Law Maria de 'Medici is on her way to London to visit Charles and her daughter. Still in exile, the King asks the Guardian who knows Louis well to make concessions for her return; he knows his friend is the only one who could,