These things Gospatrick watched, as earl (so far as he could make any one
obey him in the utter subversion of all order) of the lands between Forth
and Tyne. And he determined to flee, ere evil befell him, to his cousin
Malcolm Canmore, taking with him Marlesweyn of Lincolnshire, who had
fought, it is said, by Harold's side at Hastings, and young Waltheof of
York. But, moreover, having a head, and being indeed, as his final success
showed, a man of ability and courage, he determined on a stroke of policy,
which had incalculable after-effects on the history of Scotland. He
persuaded Agatha the Hungarian, Margaret and Christina her daughters, and
Edgar the Etheling himself, to flee with him to Scotland. How he contrived
to send them messages to Romsey, far south in Hampshire; how they
contrived to escape to the Humber, and thence up to the Forth; this is a
romance in itself, of which the chroniclers have left hardly a hint. But
the thing was done; and at St. Margaret's Hope, as tradition tells, the
Scottish king met, and claimed as his unwilling bride, that fair and holy
maiden who was destined to soften his fierce passions, to civilize and
purify his people, and to become--if all had their just dues--the true
patron saint of Scotland.
Malcolm Canmore promised a mighty army; Sweyn, a mighty fleet.
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