penetrated as far as Durham; they had taken the castle, and put the
garrison to the sword. A like fate attended York from the Danes, who had
entered the Humber with a formidable fleet. They put this city into the
hands of the English malcontents, and thereby influenced all the
northern counties in their favor. William, when he first perceived the
gathering of the storm, endeavored, and with some success, to break the
force of the principal blow by a correspondence at the court of
Denmark; and now he entirely blunted the weapon by corrupting, with a
considerable sum, the Danish general. It was agreed, to gratify that
piratical nation, that they should plunder some part of the coast, and
depart without further disturbance. By this negotiation the king was
enabled to march with an undissipated force against the Scots and the
principal body of the English. Everything yielded. The Scots retired
into their own country. Some of the most obnoxious of the English fled
along with them. One desperate party, under the brave Waltheof, threw
themselves into York, and ventured alone to resist his victorious army.
William pressed the siege with vigor, and, notwithstanding the prudent
dispositions of Waltheof, and the prodigies of valor he displayed in its
defence, standing alone in the breach, and maintaining his ground
gallantly and successfully, the place was at last reduced by famine. The
king left his enemies no time to recover this disaster; he followed his
blow, and drove all who adhered to Edgar Atheling out of all the
countries northward of the Humber. This tract he resolved entirely to
depopulate, influenced by revenge, and by distrust of the inhabitants,
and partly with a view of opposing an hideous desert of sixty miles in
extent as an impregnable barrier against all attempts of the Scots in
favor of his disaffected subjects. The execution of this barbarous
project was attended with all the havoc and desolation that it seemed to
threaten. One hundred thousand are said to have perished by cold,
penury, and disease. The ground lay untilled throughout that whole space