from
it mortally wounded the king, who stood within its range. He
immediately fell to the ground, and, alas! suddenly expired."

William of Malmesbury gives a somewhat different account of the King's
death. "The sun was declining when the King, drawing his bow and
letting fly an arrow; slightly wounded a stag which passed before him;
and keenly gazing followed it still running a long time with his eyes,
holding up his hand to keep off the power of the sun's rays. At this
instant, Walter, conceiving a noble exploit, which was, while the
King's attention was otherwise occupied, to transfix another stag
which by chance came near him, unknowingly and without power to prevent
it--oh gracious God!--pierced his breast with a fatal arrow. On
receiving the wound the King uttered not a word; but breaking off the
shaft of the weapon where it projected from his body, fell upon the
wound by which he accelerated his death. Walter immediately ran up, but
as he found him senseless and speechless he leaped swiftly upon his
horse, and escaped by spurring him to his utmost speed. Indeed, there
was none to pursue him; some consented in his flight, and others pitied
him, and all were intent on other matters. Some began to fortify their
dwellings; others to plunder, and the rest to look out for a new king.
A few countrymen conveyed the body, placed on a cart, to the cathedral
at Winchester, the blood dripping from it all the way. Here it was
committed to the ground within the tower, attended by many of the
nobility though lamented by few. Next year [really in 1107] the tower
fell; though I forbear to mention the different opinions on this
subject, lest I should seem to assent too readily to unsupported
trifles, more especially as the building might have fallen through
imperfect construction even though he had never been buried there. He
died in the year of our Lord's Incarnation, 1100, of his reign the
thirteenth, on the fourth before the nones of August, aged above forty
years."

So died the Red King. Whose arrow it was that slew him, whether it came
aforethought from an English bow or by chance from that of Walter
Tyrrel, we shall never know. The Red King fell in the New Forest and
there was no one in all broad England to mourn him. William of
Malmesbury says that a few countrymen carried his body to Winchester.
We may well ask why not to Malwood Castle, which was close by? We may
ask, but we shall get no answer. According to a local leg