ed before him, and
the whole duchy came over to his obedience; for the further settlement
whereof he made peace with the King of France; constituted his son
Eustace Duke of Normandy; and made him swear fealty to that Prince, and
do him homage. His brother Theobald, who began to expostulate upon this
disappointment, he pacified with a pension of two thousand marks:[28]
and even the Earl of Anjou himself, who, in right of his wife, made
demands of Stephen for the kingdom of England, finding he was no equal
match at present, was persuaded to become his pensioner for five
thousand more.[29]

[Footnote 28: The mark of Normandy is to be understood here. Such a
pension in that age was equivalent to one of L31,000 sterling in the
present. [D.S.]]

[Footnote 29: Five thousand marks of silver coin was, in this reign, of
the same value as the sum of L77,500 modern currency, is now. Here again
the Norman mark seems to be used. [D.S.]]

Stephen, upon his return to England, met with an account of new troubles
from the north; for the King of Scots, under pretence of observing his
oath of fealty to the Empress, infested the Borders, and frequently
making cruel inroads, plundered and laid waste all before him.

1138.

In order to revenge this base and perfidious treatment, the King, in his
march northward, sat down before Bedford, and took it after a siege of
twenty days. This town was part of the Earldom of Huntingdon, given by
Stephen in the late peace to the eldest son of the Scottish King, for
which the young prince did homage to him; and it was upon that account
defended by a garrison of Scots. Upon intelligence of this surrender,
King David, overcome with fury, entered Northumberland, where, letting
loose the rage of his soldiers, he permitted and encouraged them to
commit all manner of inhumanities; which they performed in so execrable
a manner as would scarce be credible, if it were not attested by almost
the universal consent of writers: they ripped up women with child, drew
out the infants, and tossed them upon the points of their lances: they
murdered priests before the altars; then cutting the heads from off the
crucifixes, in their stead put on the heads of those they had murdered:
with many other instances of monstrous barbarity too foul to relate: but
cruelty being usually attended with cowardice, this perfidious prince,
upon the approach of King Stephen, fled into places of security. The
King of England, finding