The numerous lakes of the latter district, and its situation upon the north-western coast of England, must have offered at this time an admirable retreat to the Vikings from Ireland and the Islands; and Edmund, after clearing the province of these dangerous intruders, [Sidenote: A. D. 945.] made it over to the Scottish king, on condition that Malcolm should become his faithful “fellow-worker” or ally, by land and sea.[82] Upon the death of Edmund, the same arrangement was renewed with his successor Edred, when he received the submission of the Northumbrian Danes; [Sidenote: A. D. 948.] and when Eric attempted to re-establish himself in York, he received no assistance from Malcolm, and was hardly chosen king before he was again driven from the province.[83] The case was different in the following year, when Olave Sitricson returned for the last time [Sidenote: A. D. 949.] to claim the inheritance of his father; for though the Scottish king was bound by his oath to be faithful to his alliance with Edred, the weight of years had not yet quenched the fire of his aged predecessor, nor had the peaceful life of the cloistered monk obliterated the recollections of the soldier. Roused at the approach of his relative and ancient ally, Constantine, to satisfy the scruples of his kinsman, resumed for a time the sceptre he had relinquished, and forgetting the abbot in the king, he once more led his countrymen against the foe, and they long recounted with exultation and pride how royally their veteran leader swept the patrimony of St. Cuthbert to the distant borders of the Tees. Returning in triumph from his successful foray, the warrior-abbot resigned for the last time his ephemeral authority, and again assuming the character of a churchman, ended his days three years later, within the walls of the monastery of St. Andrews.[84] [Sidenote: A. D. 952.]