was his uncle, before had made, and that of Crowland, and that of Thorney. And he conferred so much of good upon the minster of Peterborough, in gold, and in silver, and in vestments, and in land, as never any other did before him, nor any after him. After, Golden-borough became a wretched borough. Then chose the monks for abbat Brand the provost, by reason that he was a very good man, and very wise, and sent him then to Edgar the etheling, by reason that the people of the land supposed that he should become king: and the etheling granted it him then gladly. When king William heard say that, then was he very wroth, and said that the abbat had despised him. Then went good men between them, and reconciled them, by reason that the abbat was a good man. Then gave he the king forty marks of gold for a reconciliation; and then thereafter, lived he a little while, but three years. After that came every tribulation and every evil to the minster. God have mercy on it!
A. 1067. This year the king came back to England on St. Nicolas's day, and on the same day Christ's Church, Canterbury, was consumed by fire. Bishop Wulfwy also died, and lies buried at his see of Dorchester. Child Edric and the Britons were unsettled this year, and fought with the men of the castle at Hereford, to whom they did much harm. The king this year imposed a heavy tax on the unfortunate people; but, notwithstanding, he let his men plunder all the country which they passed through: after which he marched to Devonshire and besieged Exeter eighteen days. Many of his army were slain there: but he had promised them well and performed ill: the citizens surrendered the city, because the thanes had betrayed them. This summer the child Edgar, with his mother Agatha, his sisters Margaret and Christina, Merlesweyne and several good men, went to Scotland under the protection of king Malcolm, who received them all. Then it was that king Malcolm desired to have Margaret to wife: but, the child Edgar and all his men refused for a long time: and she herself also was unwilling, saying that she would have neither him nor any other person, if God would allow her to serve him with her carnal heart, in strict continence, during this short life. But the king urged her brother until he said yes; and indeed he did not dare to refuse, for they were now in Malcolm's kingdom. So that the marriage was now fulfilled, as God had foreordained, and it could not be otherwise, as he says in the Gospel, that not a sparrow falls to the ground, without his foreshowing. The prescient Creator knew long before what he would do with her
