[186] Boece palliates the usurpation of Donald by attributing it to the detestation--to use the words of his translator Bellenden--“of the pepil at the riotus and intemperat manneris brocht amang thaim be Inglismen;” the same high authority enumerating amongst the virtues of David that “he ejeckit the vennomus custome of riotus cheir quhilk was inducit afore be Inglismen.” David probably introduced the Norman habits, for at this period the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Danes were renowned for their love of “riotus cheir,” though they were hardly the corrupters of the austere morals of the ancient Scots. Robert de Mellent is said to have introduced the custom of one meal a day from Constantinople, for his health as he affirmed--for his niggardliness, as was grumblingly insinuated by the hungry Saxons, who loved to recall the jovial days when Hardicanute set four meals a day before his overfed dependants, and rejoiced to see the dishes carried away full, because his followers could literally eat no more. There may have been some truth in the complaints of the Saxons, for the Normans, with many high qualities, were a hard and close race in all that concerned money. “The vennomus custome of riotus cheir” among _Inglismen_ is again attributed by Lambarde entirely to the corruptions of the Danes, probably with equal justice; and upon their shoulders must the blame rest, till some Yorkshireman, or other denizen of ancient _Danelage_, vindicates the character of his ancestry at the expense of some other scapegoat. [187] _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_ and _Ch. Sax., adan._ 1093. Donald reigned from Nov. 1093 till May 1094; Duncan from the latter date to the close of the same year, and Donald again from the close of 1094 till after Michaelmas in 1097. [188] _Innes_, Ap. 5. _Wynton_, bk. 7, c. 3, l. 145. _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_, _Chron. Sax._, and _An. Ult. ad an._ 1094. _Malm. Gesta Regum_, l. 5, sec. 400. [189] _Chron. Sax._ 1097. [190] _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_ and _Chron. Sax. ad an._ 1097. According to Fordun, l. 5, c. 30, the Banner of St. Cuthbert won the day, three knights, through its aid, defeating the whole of Donald’s army! [191] _Malm., as above._ _Innes_, Ap. 4. _Wynton_, bk. 7, c. 3, l. 108, and c. 8, l. 49. The Prior of Lochleven tells a singular tale about Donald, how in his blindness he enticed into his power the eldest son of David “a gangand chyld ... and wyth tympanys sharpe set till hys naylis ... thrystyd and swa handlyd the chyld ... quhil he deyd at the last,” and how “the modyr than that herd the cry ... for sorow gave the gast rycht thare.” As the latter part of the story is unquestionably false, it may be hoped that the whole tale is a fabrication. In the version of the same tale recorded by Orderic, the supposed murderer is an outcast priest, a pensioner on David’s charity. _Vide Hailes’ Annals_, vol. i., p. 112, note.