[Sidenote: A. D. 1093. 11th Aug.] In his progress towards the south Malcolm assisted at the foundation of a new church at Durham, and his presence at the ceremony marks the connection which appears to have grown up since the annexation of Lothian--and still more since the marriage of Margaret--between the inhabitants of the northern counties and their Scottish neighbours, before the frontier line of fortresses springing up along the borders effectually severed the last links connecting the divisions of the ancient Bernician kingdom. [Sidenote: 24th Aug.] Towards the close of August he arrived at Gloucester, but William was no longer on a bed of sickness, and his transient penitence, with the apparent amelioration in his character, having passed away on the return of health, Malcolm found the English king more haughty and exacting than ever. Admission to the royal presence was contemptuously denied him, and he was commanded to “do right” in the English court, and according to the judgment of the English barons alone. To have yielded to this demand would have at once placed the king of Scotland on a footing with the English barons as “his Peers,” and would have been tantamount to an admission of his absolute and unconditional dependence upon the English crown. Exasperated at the affront, Malcolm indignantly refused compliance, promptly asserting “that the kings of Scotland were wont to do right to the kings of England upon the frontiers of the two kingdoms, and according to the united judgment of the Peers of both realms;” and having thus maintained his entire independence of the English king, he departed in open hostility from his court.[173]