The vigil is an optional preparation to elevation to Order of the Laurel. As a further option it may include at some appropriate and convenient time an invocation. The Crescent Principal Herald or another senior herald should give this.
I have come to address you, concerning certain aspects of the peerage you are about to enter. Many say it is an honor to be made a Master or Mistress of the Laurel, and it is surely that. But it is more than that: it is a heavy responsibility that you take upon yourself not in gladness, but with sobriety and sincerity. The oath you will soon swear will bind you in fealty to Crown and Kingdom, a fealty to be renewed with each reign; and it is meet and right to understand well what you are about to promise.
In the ceremony where you are created a peer, it is stated that the kingdom is supported by three things: chivalry, service and art. Like a three-legged stool, if any of the three are absent, the kingdom topples. The same is true of each individual peer: these three elements should be found in every order of peerage.
The knights are the Order of Chivalry. But no less chivalrous behavior will be expected of you: as a Peer of the Realm, you must endeavor to live, as you have until now, by the rules of courtoisie, of gentle behavior. This courtly ideal is your guide in your conduct with others: to deal with them justly and fairly, regardless of station, to be gracious and courteous to all, to be an example to whom others can look.
The Order of the Pelican is the Order of service. But each Laurel too has the responsibility of service, performing to the best of his ability and then -- and then -- to that point of performance where sacrifice is required. A Laurel must want to do good works, must be willing to do them, and will do them more frequently and more extensively than his friends who are not Laurels.
The Order of the Laurel is the order most noted for artistry and scholarship. Knights and Pelicans, as Peers of the Realm, are expected to have some small measure of talent or skill. But a Laurel exemplifies this artistic talent to a degree greater than that of the other peers and greater still than that of the populace at large. Rightly or wrongly, a Laurel is taken as an authority, whose words carry considerable weight; and this will be a heavy burden on you.
To accept elevation to the Order of the Laurel is to accept these responsibilities. I pray you keep these words in your heart as you prepare for your new status.
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