"_Short red, god red._"--In Roger of Wendover's _Chronicle_, Bohn's
edition, vol. i. p. 345., is a story how Walchere, Bishop of Durham, was
slain in his county court, A.D. 1075, by the suitors on the instigation of
one who cried out in his native tongue "Schort red, god red, slea ye the
bischop."
Sir Walter Scott, in his _Tales of a Grandfather_ (vol. i. p. 85.), tells
the same story of a Bishop of Caithness who was burned for enforcing tithes
in the reign of Alexander II. of Scotland (about 1220).
What authority is there for the latter story? Did Sir Walter confound the
two bishops, or did he add the circumstance for the amusement of Hugh
Littlejohn? Was this the formula usually adopted on such occasions? How
came the Caithness people to speak such good Saxon?