Franks; and he for his love, or for his great treasure,
abandoned thus his subject the Earl Robert and his land; and
returned again to France, and let them so remain. And in the
midst of these things this land was much oppressed by unlawful
exactions and by many other misfortunes.

A.D. 1091. In this year the King William held his court at
Christmas in Westminster, and thereafter at Candlemas he went,
for the annoyance of his brother, out of England into Normandy.
Whilst he was there, their reconciliation took place, on the
condition, that the earl put into his hands Feschamp, and the
earldom of Ou, and Cherbourg; and in addition to this, that the
king's men should be secure in the castles that they had won
against the will of the earl. And the king in return promised
him those many [castles] that their father had formerly won, and
also to reduce those that had revolted from the earl, also all
that his father had there beyond, except those that he had then
given the king, and that all those, that in England before for
the earl had lost their land, should have it again by this
treaty, and that the earl should have in England just so much as
was specified in this agreement. And if the earl died without a
son by lawful wedlock, the king should be heir of all Normandy;
and by virtue of this same treaty, if the king died, the earl
should be heir of all England. To this treaty swore twelve of
the best men of the king's side, and twelve of the earl's, though
it stood but a little while afterwards. In the midst of this
treaty was Edgar Etheling deprived of the land that the earl had
before permitted him to keep in hand; and he went out of Normandy
to the king, his sister's husband, in Scotland, and to his
sister. Whilst the King William was out of England, the King
Malcolm of Scotland came hither into England, and overran a great
deal of it, until the good men that governed this land sent an
army against him and repulsed him. When the King William in
Normandy heard this, then prepared he his departure, and came to
England, and his brother, the Earl Robert, with him; and he soon
issued an order to collect a force both naval and military; but
the naval force, ere it could come to Scotland, perished almost
miserably, a few days before St. Michael's mass. And the king
and his brother proceeded with the land-force; but when the King
Malcolm heard that they were resolved to seek him with an army,
he went with his force ou