A.D. 1072.] BATTLE AT HERE WARD'S FORT. 339 together with Egelwin bishop of Durham and many thousands of the clergy and laity, not being able to bear with the anger of king William, took refuge in the woods and wilds. And after they had committed many excesses in different places, to the injury of the king, they at length retired to the Isle of Ely, where they chose a place of refuge ; and often sallying out from thence in a hostile manner under the command of Hereward,* a bold noble chief of English extraction, they harassed that part of the country in no slight degree to the king's cost; they also constructed a fort of wood in the marshes, which is to this day called by the inhabitants of the province, "Hereward's Fort." On this being rumoured abroad, king William came upon them with the whole strength of his kingdom, laid siege to the fort both by land and water, and then, by cutting roads of great length and building very large bridges, he rendered the bogs passable to both men and beasts, and erected a new fort at a place called Wisbeach ; when the enemies of the king learned this, they all, except Hereward, who led his followers out of the island with the strong hand, came in a body and gave themselves up to William to undergo whatever punishment he chose. The king on this put bishop Egelwin into confinement ; of the rest he put some to death and condemned others to perpetual imprisonment. But Hereward, as long as he lived, practised all the stratagems he could think of against king William. King William receives homage of the king of the Scots. A.D. 1072. King William entered Scotland with hostile intent, in hopes to find some of his enemies there, but when he had marched through that country and found none of them there, he received the homage of the king of Scots, and taking hostages from him he returned to England. In this year, too, Egelwin bishop of Durham, who was detained in custody of the king at Westminster, died, and was buried there in the porch of St. Nicholas. Digression concerning the two confederate priests. In those days there dwelt in a city of Bretagne called * Hereward was the son of Leofric, lord of Bourne in Lincolnshire. There is an account of him in Chronicon Anglite Petriburgense. ζ 2