Note 712 — Chapter V · GEOFFREY PLANTAGENET AND STEPHEN OF BLOIS. 1128–1139.
Reading edition
According to Orderic, Stephen had some ground for his refusal; for it seems that the form in which the lately expired truce reached him—at any rate, that in which it reached Orderic—was that of a plot made by “quidam pestiferi” to kill all the Normans in England on a certain day, and betray the realm to the Scots. Some of the plotters were said to have confessed to Bishop Nigel of Ely, who revealed the plot, and so it all came out. Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), p. 912. This plot appears also in R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 253, but is there attributed solely to one Ralf, a clerk of Bishop Nigel’s, and nothing is said about the Scots.