Note 17 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES

Returning now to sober fact, let us ask how the city of Exeter came into William's hands. This is the pivotal point on which the whole story revolves. On this point Mr Freeman spoke with no uncertain sound: the city was 'taken by means of a mine'.17 It was, he wrote, 'by undermining the walls that William at last gained possession of the city', the citizens being thus forced 'to submit unreservedly'.18 He added, contrasting the success of William with the failure, in 1003, of Swend: