the delegation

The delegation from the Ancient College arrived in the courtyard round about lunch time, and all was ready as the Designate and the two Bachelors were shown into the Little Hall.  The other half-dozen armed riders were to be entertained in the mess of the Castle Guard.....the High Prince stood just inside the door, holding his runestaff, smiling and greeting his old friend and acknowledging politely the younger scholars, the apprentice Bachelors.  The Housekeeper had spread a very nice cold lunch on this almost muggy early Summer noon, with cider chill from the snow cellar, and smoked ham,sheep cheese, rye bread, coarse mustard to spread, a garden salad, melon wedges, and what all.  The travelers fresh from the road fell to with gusto, and the conversation remained light and trivial, as is proper at table.  But after the board was cleared, and it was time to retreat to the Conservatory for whiskey-and-water, the High Prince must at last listen to what the delegation had come to say.  "Prince Iron Heart" began Earl Stonebridge,  "Our present Dean of College, Prince Merrymont, has asked me to talk to you regarding his retirement."  Iron Heart nodded his understanding, sipped his whiskey, and waited....Stonebridge resumed...."Our Dean, referring to tradition, wishes me to point out to your Serenity that when Merrymont retires or otherwise vacates, then the Chair falls to Iron Hill, to yourself, in this instance, it would be?"  Time seems to slow as it all riots through his head....Iron Heart, Prince of Iron Hill, pictures himself leaving the comforts of his own Castle, to ride the forest roads to College Grove, to establish himself in the Dean's Quarters in that rambling mass of oak and granite that is the College, to deal with pomp and circumstance and faculty back-stabbing and undergraduate duels and other hi-jinks.....he feels weary already.....Stonebridge seems to be waiting for some response.....what response is there?  Merrymont is correct; tradition dictates that Iron Hill assume.....it is simple Duty.  How can we argue with Duty?