Note 175 — Chapter VI · The Line of Atholl Restored.

Sim. Dun. de Gestis and Chron. Sax. 1093. Fordun, l. 5, c. 25. Malm. Gesta Regum, l. 4, sec. 311. Both Malmesbury and the Saxon Chronicler imply that Malcolm lost his life by treachery, and the account of Orderic, as usual a strange mixture of truth and error, goes far to prove the existence of a tradition to this effect. He is next said to have been slain at the siege of Alnwick Castle, though it is more than doubtful if a castle then existed on the banks of the Alne. From Alnwick Castle the step was easy to the family so long connected with that border fortress, and the Scottish king was at length said to have been slain by a knight, who, issuing from the castle gate with the keys on the point of his lance in token of surrender, suddenly pierced the eye of Malcolm, acquiring from this feat the name of Pierce eye or Percy! About two centuries after the fall of Malcolm an improbable story was circulated at Tynemouth, that the body of a peasant had been palmed off upon Alexander for that of his father, Mat. Paris Addit, p. 129. The writer adds that Malcolm was conquered “by order of Henry the First,” and winds up his account of the deceit with these quaint words “ita delusa est Scottorum improbitas.” The keen relish with which he enjoys the idea of overreaching “the Scotch rogues” is amusing. Pleasures of rare occurrence are sometimes supposed to be the sweetest.