the whole land from Tweed to Tyne as had not been heard of since the wild heathenish days of Malcolm Canmore’s youth.[713] David, indeed, was not personally concerned in this horrible work; he had left it to the conduct of his nephew William Fitz-Duncan, while he himself with a strong body of troops took up his quarters at Corbridge.[714] Stephen marched against him early in February, whereupon he returned to the siege of Carham; dislodged thence by the English king, he buried himself and his troops in an almost inaccessible swamp near Roxburgh, bidding the townsfolk decoy the Southrons by a false show of friendliness and thus enable him to surround and despatch them.[715] Stephen however discovered the trap--apparently through the double treachery of some of his own barons who were concerned in it;[716] he crossed the Tweed, but instead of marching upon Roxburgh he turned south-westward and ravaged David’s territories till the lack of provisions forced him to return to the south.[717] [703] “Hi uuendon thæt he sculde ben alsuic alse the eom wæs.” Eng. Chron. a. 1137. [704] Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 4 (Arnold, p. 260). [705] “Sub Henrico rege multi alienigenæ, qui genialis humi inquietationibus exagitabantur, Angliam adnavigabant, et sub ejus alis quietum otium agebant; sub Stephano plures ex Flandriâ et Britanniâ, rapto vivere assueti, spe magnarum prædarum Angliam involabant.” Will. Malm. _Hist. Nov._, l. ii. c. 34. Cf. l. i. c. 14 (Hardy, pp. 731, 706). [706] Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 105. William of Ypres was son of Philip of Flanders, second son of Count Robert the Frisian. Although he had no legal place in the house of Flanders, he was one of the claimants of the county after the death of Charles of Denmark, against William the Clito and Theodoric of Alsace. After being the torment of his own country for nearly ten years, he was compelled to fly, and took service in England under Stephen. See Walter of Térouanne, _Vita B. Caroli Com._, in _Rer. Gall. Scriptt._, vol. xiii. pp. 336, 342–347; Galbert of Bruges, _Vita B. Car._ (_ibid._), pp. 354, 355, 359 _et seq._; _Geneal. Com. Flandr._ (_ibid._), pp. 412, 413; Joh. Ypr. _Chron. Sith._ (_ibid._), 466, 468. The people’s hatred of William was justifiable enough; but it ill became the barons to cast stones at him. His evil-doings were not a whit greater than theirs, and the changeless devotion with which he--a mere hireling, bound to Stephen by no tie but that of a bargain which Stephen certainly cannot long have had means to fulfil--stuck to the king in adversity as firmly as in prosperity, might have put them all to shame.