He had not long turned his back when David re-entered Northumberland and marched ravaging along the eastern coast till a mutiny among his soldiers compelled him to retreat to the border. Thence he sent William Fitz-Duncan to ravage the district of Craven, while he himself remained busy with the siege of Carham till he was dislodged by Count Waleran of Meulan.[718] The Empress meanwhile plied him with entreaties for support, both by her own letters and through her friends in the north, chief among whom was her father’s old minister Eustace Fitz-John,[719] lord of the mighty castles of Bamborough, Knaresborough, Malton and Alnwick. Eustace had already forfeited his best stronghold, Bamborough, through his plottings against Stephen;[720] in May 1138 he openly placed himself, his remaining castles and his men at the disposal of the Scot king. David hesitated no longer. Gathering up all the forces of his kingdom,[721] he joined Eustace in an unsuccessful attempt to regain Bamborough; thence the united host marched burning and harrying through the already thrice-wasted Patrimony of S. Cuthbert, crossed the Tees, and in the middle of August made its appearance in Yorkshire.[722] [718] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 81–84. Joh. Hexh. (_ibid._), p. 117. The record of Waleran’s exploit is in Flor. Worc. Contin. (as above), p. 112. [719] _Gesta Steph._ (Sewell), p. 35. [720] Joh. Hexh. (Raine), p. 117. “De magnis proceribus Angliæ, regi quondam Henrico familiarissimus, vir summæ prudentiæ et in secularibus negotiis magni consilii, qui a rege Anglorum ideo recesserat quod ab eo in curiâ contra patrium morem captus, castra quæ ei Rex Henricus commiserat reddere compulsus est.” Æthelred Riev. _De Bello Standardi_ (Twysden, _X. Scriptt._), col. 343. On Eustace Fitz-John see also Walbran, _Memor. of Fountains_, p. 50, note 11. [721] The Hexham chroniclers reckon them at something over twenty thousand. [722] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 84, 85, 89. Joh. Hexh. (_ibid._), p. 118.