The conclusion of the Easter festival set at liberty the scrupulous chivalry of the age, to enter with renewed zest upon the pursuits of war; and David was fast approaching Durham, when a mutiny amongst the unruly Galwegians threatened both the life of the king, and the safety of his army. A report, judiciously fabricated for the occasion, that the enemy was approaching, restored order for the moment; the mutineers flew to arms to repel the foe, and David at once leading them to Norham, employed them, with the rest of his army, in besieging the castle. The garrison surrendered after a short resistance, and it affords a curious instance of the impregnability of the fortresses of that age against the limited means of offence available to besieging armies, that it was accounted a disgraceful occurrence when nine men-at-arms, all of whom were inexperienced, and the majority suffering from wounds, hopeless of relief from their lord the Bishop of Durham, yielded a well victualled castle to the whole force of Scotland! An offer was made to restore Norham to the bishop, if he would consent to hold it as a fief from the Scottish king; but as the proposed terms were declined, it was immediately reduced to ashes. The success at Norham was counterbalanced by a sally from Werk, in which the indefatigable castellan of that fortress overthrew a body of knights and men-at-arms, capturing several of the party, whom he put to ransom, and carrying off a convoy of provisions intended for the army of the Scots, which by this daring feat he once more drew around his walls. Again the siege of Werk was converted into a blockade when David marched to join the force, collected by the exasperated Eustace Fitz-John, in an attempt to recover Bamborough; but though the burghers of that place were driven, with considerable loss, from an outwork in front of the castle, no permanent impression was made upon the fortress itself, and it was useless to attempt a blockade without the assistance, and co-operation, of a fleet. Whilst the king was engaged before the castles of Norham and Werk, the intractable division under William Fitz-Duncan, of little use in a regular siege, had been dispatched to the more congenial occupation of harrying Craven, and the adjoining districts of the shires of York and Lancaster. The inhabitants assembled to resist the invaders, and upon the 10th of June took post in four divisions at Clitheroe on the Ribble; but their courage failing at the sight of the enemy, they broke and fled at the first onset. As this was the first occasion upon which the hostile parties had met in arms in the open field, the result increased the audacity of the victors, who, spreading over the face of the country, plundered and wasted it on every side, surpassing if possible their former excesses; but laying the foundation of future retribution in the very extent to which they carried their ravages.