His retirement from England has sometimes been traced to an evil intention of enticing his new subjects into a more serious rebellion, that he might conquer them more completely. His natural desire to display his triumph in his own country would seem to supply a sufficient reason, without attributing to him such double dealing. The effect of his absence, however, was in fact to produce such an insurrection. In the midst of his conquests and confiscations he had always kept a strong hand upon his followers, and his police was good. The case was different under the government of his viceroys. The rapacity and licentiousness of the conquerors made itself heavily felt. Discontent began to show itself in the North, in the West, and in the South; and the native English, despairing of their unaided efforts, began to seek assistance from abroad. The news of this danger brought William back to England in the December of 1067. But already a revolt in Bernicia, as the Northern division of Northumberland was called, had produced the death of the newly-made Earl Copsige. Eadric the Forester in the West of England, in union with the Welsh, had ravaged Herefordshire, and the men of Kent had obtained assistance from Eustace of Boulogne in a fruitless attack upon Dover. It was the dread of more important foreign allies which brought William back. The English efforts to get aid from Henry IV. of Germany, or from the Prince of Norway, had been frustrated either by William’s intrigues or by the character of the Princes to whom they applied, but Swend of Denmark seemed likely to embrace their cause. [Sidenote: William returns.] [Sidenote: Insurrection in the West. Taking of Exeter.]