Never had he shown the grandeur of his character so memorably as in this terrible march.

The winter was hard, the roads choked with snowdrifts or broken by torrents, provisions failed; and his army, storm-beaten and forced to devour its horses for food, broke out into mutiny at the order to cross the bleak moorlands that part Yorkshire from the West.

The mercenaries from Anjou and Britanny demanded their release from service.

William granted their prayer with scorn.

On foot, at the head of the troops which still clung to him, he forced his way by paths inaccessible to horses, often helping the men with his own hands to clear the road, and as the army descended upon Chester the resistance of the English died away.
For two years William was able to busy himself in castle-building and in measures for holding down the conquered land.