WALTER. In your fucking dreams, Henry boy!

GUARD ONE knocks WALTER down and starts beating him again. BIG JAMES and ALISDAIR struggle to get to him as GUARD TWO holds them back, all of them yelling again.

HENRY pitches over this.

HENRY. Oy! Oy!!! Stop that! Leave him! No killing! No fucking killing!

GUARD ONE stops.

No killing yet. Not yet.

Well. Here you all are, the gallant foe, eh? My defeated enemies.

WALTER. Aye, you’re the one defeated the day!

BIG JAMES. Three hundred to you. Three thousand to us.

They shout together.

WALTER/BIG JAMES. Loser! Loser! Loser!

HENRY. Alright. Kill someone now.

The GUARDS descend on BALVENIE who starts to scream.

BALVENIE. No! No! Your Majesty! I never said a word! Please!

BIG JAMES. Oh! No fair!

WALTER. Let him go!

HENRY. You really want him to live!?

ALISDAIR. Come on, King Henry, play fair…

HENRY. Then fucking shut up when I’m talking to you!!

Silence. The GUARDS back off BALVENIE.

So. I suppose you think you’re getting ransomed, do you? All this…

He indicates the scaffold.

That’s just for show, is it? ‘After all,’ you’ll be thinking, ‘wasn’t a great day for King Henry, was it? Lot of English prisoners over with the French and Scottish Army. He’ll be wanting to do a prisoner exchange, won’t he? Common sense.’ Yeah. Common sense.

Not really in the mood for common sense. Sorry, boys. Not really in a good mood at all. Funny, that.

Do you know who this is?

He indicates JAMES.

All the Scotsmen down there. You recognise him surely?

The Scots shout suggestions.

(To JAMES.) Tell them who you are, James.

JAMES looks at him but says nothing.

Well, go on.

JAMES still says nothing.

He’s usually so chatty, I don’t know what’s got into him.

This is your King, boys. This is King James of Scotland.

ALISDAIR (to WALTER and BIG JAMES). Is it?

WALTER. I don’t know.

BALVENIE. Yes, it’s him. It’s James.

HENRY. You were all out there, fighting against me fighting for the French. Your King, your very own King, is standing here, with me, with the English. What does that make you? That makes you traitors. You’re not prisoners of war, you’re traitors against your King. Your lives are forfeit.

BALVENIE. Oh, Mary Mother of God.

BALVENIE drops to his knees.

WALTER. Get up, old man. Come on.

BALVENIE. You do what you like. I’m praying for my life.

HENRY. And who’d pay your ransom anyway?

ALISDAIR calls to him.

ALISDAIR. Our father’s good for it!

WALTER. Murdac Stewart.

ALISDAIR. Regent of Scotland.

BIG JAMES. Ruler of Scotland.

HENRY. Murdac Stewart? He doesn’t pay ransoms. Since when did he start paying ransoms?

(Indicating JAMES.) We’ve had this man, his nephew, his King a prisoner for eighteen years. I grew up watching this boy moulder in the dungeons of my castles. Murdac Stewart never paid the King of Scotland’s ransom. Why’s that?

BIG JAMES. Maybe we’re not needing him back.

ALISDAIR. Will you stop cheeking the man! We’re in negotiations here. Thing is, King Henry, you’ve priced him too expensive.