onfiscated, or who were in daily apprehension of
their confiscation, fled into the fens of Lincoln and Ely, where
Hereward still maintained his ground. This unadvised step completed the
ruin of the little English interest that remained. William hastened to
fill up the sees of the bishops and the estates of the nobles with his
Norman favorites. He pressed the fugitives with equal vivacity; and at
once to cut off all the advantage they derived from their situation, he
penetrated into the Isle of Ely by a wooden bridge two miles in length;
and by the greatness of the design, and rapidity of the execution, as
much as by the vigor of his charge, compelled them to surrender at
discretion. Hereward alone escaped, who disdained to surrender, and had
cut his way through his enemies, carrying his virtue and his sword, as
his passports, wheresoever fortune should conduct him. He escaped
happily into Scotland, where, as usual, the king was making some slow
movements for the relief of the English. William lost no time to oppose
him, and had passed with infinite difficulty through a desert of his own
making to the frontiers of Scotland. Here he found the enemy strongly
intrenched. The causes of the war being in a good measure spent by
William's late successes, and neither of the princes choosing to risk a
battle in a country where the consequences of a defeat must be so
dreadful, they agreed to an accommodation, which included a pardon for
Edgar Atheling on a renunciation of his title to the crown. William on
this occasion showed, as he did on all occasions, an honorable and
disinterested sense of merit, by receiving Hereward to his friendship,
and distinguishing him by particular favors and bounties. Malcolm, by
his whole conduct, never seemed intent upon coming to extremities with
William: he was satisfied with keeping this great warrior in some awe,
without bringing things to a decision, that might involve his kingdom in
the same calamitous fate that had oppressed England; whilst his wisdom
enabled him to reap advantages from the fortunes of the conquered, in
drawing so many useful people into his dominions, and from the policy of
the Conqueror, in imitating those feudal regulations which he saw his
neighbor force upon the English, and which appeared so well calculated
for the defence of the kingdom. He compassed this the more easily,
because the feudal policy, being the discipline of all the considerable
states in Europe, appeared