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diff --git a/16545.txt b/16545.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aee90ff --- /dev/null +++ b/16545.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5279 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of King Alfred of England, by Jacob Abbott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: King Alfred of England + Makers of History + +Author: Jacob Abbott + +Release Date: August 18, 2005 [EBook #16545] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING ALFRED OF ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lesley Halamek and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: ALFRED THE GREAT] + + +MAKERS of HISTORY + + +KING ALFRED +OF +ENGLAND + +BY +JACOB ABBOTT + +ILLUSTRATED + +NEW YORK AND LONDON + +HARPER & BROTHERS +PUBLISHERS + + + + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand +eight hundred and forty-nine, by + +HARPER & BROTHERS, + +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District +of New York. + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It is the object of this series of histories to present a clear, +distinct, and connected narrative of the lives of those great +personages who have in various ages of the world made themselves +celebrated as leaders among mankind, and, by the part they have taken +in the public affairs of great nations, have exerted the widest +influence on the history of the human race. The end which the author +has had in view is twofold: first, to communicate such information +in respect to the subjects of his narratives as is important for the +general reader to possess; and, secondly, to draw such moral lessons +from the events described and the characters delineated as they may +legitimately teach to the people of the present age. Though written in +a direct and simple style, they are intended for, and addressed to, +minds possessed of some considerable degree of maturity, for such +minds only can fully appreciate the character and action which +exhibits itself, as nearly all that is described in these volumes +does, in close combination with the conduct and policy of governments, +and the great events of international history. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I. THE BRITONS +II. THE ANGLO-SAXONS +III. THE DANES +IV. ALFRED'S EARLY YEARS +V. THE STATE OF ENGLAND +VI. ALFRED'S ACCESSION TO THE THRONE +VII. REVERSES +VIII. THE SECLUSION +IX. REASSEMBLING OF THE ARMY +X. THE VICTORY OVER THE DANES +XI. THE REIGN +XII. THE CLOSE OF LIFE + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +WALL OF SEVERUS +SAXON MILITARY CHIEF +THE SEA KINGS +LOTHBROC AND HIS FALCON +ANCIENT CORONATION CHAIR +THE FIRST BRITISH FLEET +ALFRED WATCHING THE CAKES +PORTRAIT OF ALFRED +HASTINGS BESIEGED IN THE CHURCH + + + + + +ALFRED THE GREAT + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BRITONS. + + +Alfred the Great figures in history as the founder, in some sense, of +the British monarchy. Of that long succession of sovereigns who have +held the scepter of that monarchy, and whose government has exerted so +vast an influence on the condition and welfare of mankind, he was not, +indeed, actually the first. There were several lines of insignificant +princes before him, who governed such portions of the kingdom as they +individually possessed, more like semi-savage chieftains than English +kings. Alfred followed these by the principle of hereditary right, and +spent his life in laying broad and deep the foundations on which the +enormous superstructure of the British empire has since been reared. +If the tales respecting his character and deeds which have come down +to us are at all worthy of belief, he was an honest, conscientious, +disinterested, and far-seeing statesman. If the system of hereditary +succession would always furnish such sovereigns for mankind, the +principle of loyalty would have held its place much longer in the +world than it is now likely to do, and great nations, now republican, +would have been saved a vast deal of trouble and toil expended in the +election of their rulers. + +Although the period of King Alfred's reign seems a very remote one +as we look back toward it from the present day, it was still eight +hundred years after the Christian era that he ascended his throne. +Tolerable authentic history of the British realm mounts up through +these eight hundred years to the time of Julius Caesar. Beyond this +the ground is covered by a series of romantic and fabulous tales, +pretending to be history, which extend back eight hundred years +further to the days of Solomon; so that a much longer portion of the +story of that extraordinary island comes before than since the days of +Alfred. In respect, however to all that pertains to the interest and +importance of the narrative, the exploits and the arrangements of +Alfred are the beginning. + +The histories, in fact, of all nations, ancient and modern, run back +always into misty regions of romance and fable. Before arts and +letters arrived at such a state of progress as that public events +could be recorded in writing, tradition was the only means of +handing down the memory of events from generation to generation; and +tradition, among semi-savages, changes every thing it touches into +romantic and marvelous fiction. + +The stories connected with the earliest discovery and settlement of +Great Britain afford very good illustrations of the nature of these +fabulous tales. The following may serve as a specimen: + +At the close of the Trojan war,[1] AEneas retired with a company of +Trojans, who escaped from the city with him, and, after a great +variety of adventures, which Virgil has related, he landed and settled +in Italy. Here, in process of time, he had a grandson named Silvius, +who had a son named Brutus, Brutus being thus AEneas's great-grandson. + +One day, while Brutus was hunting in the forests, he accidentally +killed his father with an arrow. His father was at that time King of +Alba--a region of Italy near the spot on which Rome was subsequently +built--and the accident brought Brutus under such suspicions, and +exposed him to such dangers, that he fled from the country. After +various wanderings he at last reached Greece, where he collected a +number of Trojan followers, whom he found roaming about the country, +and formed them into an army. With this half-savage force he attacked +a king of the country named Pandrasus. Brutus was successful in the +war, and Pandrasus was taken prisoner. This compelled Pandrasus to sue +for peace, and peace was concluded on the following very extraordinary +terms: + +Pandrasus was to give Brutus his daughter Imogena for a wife, and a +fleet of ships as her dowry. Brutus, on the other hand, was to take +his wife and all his followers on board of his fleet, and sail away +and seek a home in some other quarter of the globe. This plan of a +monarch's purchasing his own ransom and peace for his realm from a +band of roaming robbers, by offering the leader of them his daughter +for a wife, however strange to our ideas, was very characteristic of +the times. Imogena must have found it a hard alternative to choose +between such a husband and such a father. + +Brutus, with his fleet and his bride, betook themselves to sea, and +within a short time landed on a deserted island, where they found the +ruins of a city. Here there was an ancient temple of Diana, and +an image of the goddess, which image was endued with the power of +uttering oracular responses to those who consulted it with proper +ceremonies and forms. Brutus consulted this oracle on the question in +what land he should find a place of final settlement. His address to +it was in ancient verse, which some chronicler has turned into English +rhyme as follows: + + "Goddess of shades and huntress, who at will + Walk'st on the rolling sphere, and through the deep, + On thy _third_ reign, the earth, look now and tell + What land, what seat of rest thou bidd'st me seek?" + +To which the oracle returned the following answer: + + "Far to the west, in the ocean wide, + Beyond the realm of Gaul a land there lies-- + Sea-girt it lies--where giants dwelt of old. + Now void, it fits thy people; thither bend + Thy course; there shalt thou find a lasting home." + +It is scarcely necessary to say that this meant Britain. Brutus, +following the directions which the oracle had given him, set sail from +the island, and proceeded to the westward through the Mediterranean +Sea. He arrived at the Pillars of Hercules. This was the name by which +the Rock of Gibraltar and the corresponding promontory on the opposite +coast, across the straits, were called in those days; these cliffs +having been built, according to ancient tales, by Hercules, as +monuments set up to mark the extreme limits of his western wanderings. +Brutus passed through the strait, and then, turning northward, coasted +along the shores of Spain. + +At length, after enduring great privations and suffering, and +encountering the extreme dangers to which their frail barks were +necessarily exposed from the surges which roll in perpetually from +the broad Atlantic Ocean upon the coast of Spain and into the Bay of +Biscay, they arrived safely on the shores of Britain. They landed and +explored the interior. They found the island robed in the richest +drapery of fruitfulness and verdure, but it was unoccupied by any +thing human. There were wild beasts roaming in the forests, and the +remains of a race of giants in dens and caves--monsters as diverse +from humanity as the wolves. Brutus and his followers attacked all +these occupants of the land. They drove the wild beasts into the +mountains of Scotland and Wales, and killed the giants. The chief of +them, whose name was Gogmagog, was hurled by one of Brutus's followers +from the summit of one of the chalky cliffs which bound the island +into the sea. + +The island of Great Britain is in the latitude of Labrador, which on +our side of the continent is the synonym for almost perpetual ice and +snow; still these wandering Trojans found it a region of inexhaustible +verdure, fruitfulness, and beauty; and as to its extent, though often, +in modern times, called a little island, they found its green fields +and luxuriant forests extending very far and wide over the sea. A +length of nearly six hundred miles would seem almost to merit the +name of continent, and the dimensions of this detached outpost of +the habitable surface of the earth would never have been deemed +inconsiderable, had it not been that the people, by the greatness of +their exploits, of which the whole world has been the theater, have +made the physical dimensions of their territory appear so small and +insignificant in comparison. To Brutus and his companions the land +appeared a world. It was nearly four hundred miles in breadth at the +place where they landed, and, wandering northward, they found it +extending, in almost undiminished beauty and fruitfulness, further +than they had the disposition to explore it. They might have gone +northward until the twilight scarcely disappeared in the summer +nights, and have found the same verdure and beauty continuing to the +end. There were broad and undulating plains in the southern regions of +the island, and in the northern, green mountains and romantic glens; +but all, plains, valleys, and mountains, were fertile and beautiful, +and teeming with abundant sustenance for flocks, for herds, and for +man. + +Brutus accordingly established himself upon the island with all his +followers, and founded a kingdom there, over which he reigned as +the founder of a dynasty. Endless tales are told of the lives, and +exploits, and quarrels of his successors down to the time of Caesar. +Conflicting claimants arose continually to dispute with each other for +the possession of power; wars were made by one tribe upon another; +cities, as they were called--though probably, in fact, they were only +rude collections of hovels--were built, fortresses were founded, and +rivers were named from princes or princesses drowned in them, in +accidental journeys, or by the violence of rival claimants to their +thrones. The pretended records contain a vast number of legends, of +very little interest or value, as the reader will readily admit +when we tell him that the famous story of King Lear is the most +entertaining one in the whole collection. It is this: + +There was a king in the line named Lear. He founded the city now +called Leicester. He had three daughters, whose names were Gonilla, +Regana, and Cordiella. Cordiella was her father's favorite child. He +was, however, jealous of the affections of them all, and one day he +called them to him, and asked them for some assurance of their love. +The two eldest responded by making the most extravagant protestations. +They loved their father a thousand times better than their own souls. +They could not express, they said, the ardor and strength of their +attachment, and called Heaven and earth to witness that these +protestations were sincere. + +Cordiella, all this time, stood meekly and silently by, and when her +father asked her how it was with her, she replied, "Father, my love +toward you is as my duty bids. What can a father ask, or a daughter +promise more? They who pretend beyond this only flatter." + +The king, who was old and childish, was much pleased with the +manifestation of love offered by Gonilla and Regana, and thought that +the honest Cordiella was heartless and cold. He treated her with +greater and greater neglect and finally decided to leave her without +any portion whatever, while he divided his kingdom between the other +two, having previously married them to princes of high rank. Cordiella +was, however, at last made choice of for a wife by a French prince, +who, it seems, knew better than the old king how much more to +be relied upon was unpretending and honest truth than empty and +extravagant profession. He married the portionless Cordiella, and took +her with him to the Continent. + +The old king now having given up his kingdom to his eldest daughters, +they managed, by artifice and maneuvering, to get every thing else +away from him, so that he became wholly dependent upon them, and had +to live with them by turns. This was not all; for, at the instigation +of their husbands, they put so many indignities and affronts upon him, +that his life at length became an intolerable burden, and finally he +was compelled to leave the realm altogether, and in his destitution +and distress he went for refuge and protection to his rejected +daughter Cordiella. She received her father with the greatest alacrity +and affection. She raised an army to restore him to his rights, and +went in person with him to England to assist him in recovering them. +She was successful. The old king took possession of his throne again, +and reigned in peace for the remainder of his days. The story is of +itself nothing very remarkable, though Shakspeare has immortalized it +by making it the subject of one of his tragedies. + +Centuries passed away, and at length the great Julius Caesar, who was +extending the Roman power in every direction, made his way across the +Channel, and landed in England. The particulars of this invasion +are described in our history of Julius Caesar. The Romans retained +possession of the island, in a greater or less degree, for four +hundred years. + +They did not, however, hold it in peace all this time. They became +continually involved in difficulties and contests with the native +Britons, who could ill brook the oppressions of such merciless masters +as Roman generals always proved in the provinces which they pretended +to govern. One of the most formidable rebellions that the Romans had +to encounter during their disturbed and troubled sway in Britain was +led on by a woman. Her name was Boadicea. Boadicea, like almost all +other heroines, was coarse and repulsive in appearance. She was tall +and masculine in form. The tones of her voice were harsh, and she had +the countenance of a savage. Her hair was yellow. It might have been +beautiful if it had been neatly arranged, and had shaded a face which +possessed the gentle expression that belongs properly to woman. It +would then have been called golden. As it was, hanging loosely below +her waist and streaming in the wind, it made the wearer only look the +more frightful. Still, Boadicea was not by any means indifferent to +the appearance she made in the eyes of beholders. She evinced her +desire to make a favorable impression upon others, in her own +peculiar way, it is true, but in one which must have been effective, +considering what sort of beholders they were in whose eyes she +figured. She was dressed in a gaudy coat, wrought of various colors, +with a sort of mantle buttoned over it. She wore a great gold chain +about her neck, and held an ornamented spear in her hand. Thus +equipped, she appeared at the head of an army of a hundred thousand +men, and gathering them around her, she ascended a mound of earth and +harangued them--that is, as many as could stand within reach of her +voice--arousing them to sentiments of revenge against their hated +oppressors, and urging them to the highest pitch of determination and +courage for the approaching struggle. Boadicea had reason to deem the +Romans her implacable foes. They had robbed her of her treasures, +deprived her of her kingdom, imprisoned her, scourged her, and +inflicted the worst possible injuries upon her daughters. These things +had driven the wretched mother to a perfect phrensy of hate, and +aroused her to this desperate struggle for redress and revenge. But +all was in vain. In encountering the spears of Roman soldiery, she was +encountering the very hardest and sharpest steel that a cruel world +could furnish. Her army was conquered, and she killed herself by +taking poison in her despair. + +By struggles such as these the contest between the Romans and the +Britons was carried on for many generations; the Romans conquering at +every trial, until, at length, the Britons learned to submit without +further resistance to their sway. In fact, there gradually came upon +the stage, during the progress of these centuries, a new power, acting +as an enemy to both the Picts and Scots; hordes of lawless barbarians, +who inhabited the mountains and morasses of Scotland and Ireland. +These terrible savages made continual irruptions into the southern +country for plunder, burning and destroying, as they retired, whatever +they could not carry away. They lived in impregnable and almost +inaccessible fastnesses, among dark glens and precipitous mountains, +and upon gloomy islands surrounded by iron-bound coasts and stormy +seas. The Roman legions made repeated attempts to hunt them out of +these retreats, but with very little success. At length a line of +fortified posts was established across the island, near where the +boundary line now lies between England and Scotland; and by guarding +this line, the Roman generals who had charge of Britain attempted to +protect the inhabitants of the southern country, who had learned at +length to submit peaceably to their sway. + +One of the most memorable events which occurred during the time that +the Romans held possession of the island of Britain was the visit of +one of the emperors to this northern extremity of his dominions. The +name of this emperor was Severus. He was powerful and prosperous at +home, but his life was embittered by one great calamity, the dissolute +character and the perpetual quarrels of his sons. To remove them from +Rome, where they disgraced both themselves and their father by their +vicious lives, and the ferocious rivalry and hatred they bore to each +other, Severus planned an excursion to Britain, taking them with him, +in the hope of turning their minds into new channels of thought, and +awakening in them some new and nobler ambition. + +At the time when Severus undertook this expedition, he was advanced in +age and very infirm. He suffered much from the gout, so that he +was unable to travel by any ordinary conveyance, and was borne, +accordingly, almost all the way upon a litter. He crossed the Channel +with his army, and, leaving one of his sons in command in the south +part of the island, he advanced with the other, at the head of an +enormous force, determined to push boldly forward into the heart +of Scotland, and to bring the war with the Picts and Scots to an +effectual end. + +He met, however, with very partial success. His soldiers became +entangled in bogs and morasses; they fell into ambuscades; they +suffered every degree of privation and hardship for want of water and +of food, and were continually entrapped by their enemies in situations +where they had to fight in small numbers and at a great disadvantage. +Then, too, the aged and feeble general was kept in a continual fever +of anxiety and trouble by Bassianus, the son whom he had brought with +him to the north. The dissoluteness and violence of his character were +not changed by the change of scene. He formed plots and conspiracies +against his father's authority; he raised mutinies in the army; he +headed riots; and he was finally detected in a plan for actually +assassinating his father. Severus, when he discovered this last +enormity of wickedness, sent for his son to come to his imperial tent. +He laid a naked sword before him, and then, after bitterly reproaching +him with his undutiful and ungrateful conduct, he said, "If you wish +to kill me, do it now. Here I stand, old, infirm, and helpless. You +are young and strong, and can do it easily. I am ready. Strike the +blow." + +Of course Bassianus shrunk from his father's reproaches, and went +away without committing the crime to which he was thus reproachfully +invited; but his character remained unchanged; and this constant +trouble, added to all the other difficulties which Severus +encountered, prevented his accomplishing his object of thoroughly +conquering his northern foes. He made a sort of peace with them, +and retiring south to the line of fortified posts which had been +previously established, he determined to make it a fixed and certain +boundary by building upon it a permanent wall. He put the whole force +of his army upon the work, and in one or two years, as is said, +he completed the structure. It is known in history as the Wall of +Severus; and so solid, substantial, and permanent was the work, that +the traces of it have not entirely disappeared to the present day. + +The wall extended across the island, from the mouth of the Tyne, on +the German Ocean, to the Solway Frith--nearly seventy miles. It was +twelve feet high, and eight feet wide. It was faced with substantial +masonry on both sides, the intermediate space being likewise filled +in with stone. When it crossed bays or morasses, piles were driven +to serve as a foundation. Of course, such a wall as this, by itself, +would be no defense. It was to be garrisoned by soldiers, being +intended, in fact, only as a means to enable a smaller number of +troops than would otherwise be necessary to guard the line. For these +soldiers there were built great fortresses at intervals along the +wall, wherever a situation was found favorable for such structures. +These were called _stations_. The stations were occupied by garrisons +of troops, and small towns of artificers and laborers soon sprung up +around them. Between the stations, at smaller intervals, were other +smaller fortresses called castles, intended as places of defense, and +rallying points in case of an attack, but not for garrisons of any +considerable number of men. Then, between the castles, at smaller +intervals still, were turrets, used as watch-towers and posts for +sentinels. Thus the whole line of the wall was every where defended +by armed men. The whole number thus employed in the defense of this +extraordinary rampart was said to be ten thousand. There was a broad, +deep, and continuous ditch on the northern side of the wall, to +make the impediment still greater for the enemy, and a spacious and +well-constructed military road on the southern side, on which troops, +stores, wagons, and baggage of every kind could be readily transported +along the line, from one end to the other. + + +[Illustration: WALL OF SEVERUS] + +The wall was a good defense as long as Roman soldiers remained to +guard it. But in process of time--about two centuries after Severus's +day--the Roman empire itself began to decline, even in the very seat +and center of its power; and then, to preserve their own capital from +destruction, the government were obliged to call their distant armies +home. The wall was left to the Britons; but they could not defend it. +The Picts and Scots, finding out the change, renewed their assaults. +They battered down the castles; they made breaches here and there in +the wall; they built vessels, and, passing round by sea across the +mouth of the Solway Frith and of the River Tyne, they renewed their +old incursions for plunder and destruction. The Britons, in extreme +distress, sent again and again to recall the Romans to their aid, and +they did, in fact, receive from them some occasional and temporary +succor. At length, however, all hope of help from this quarter failed, +and the Britons, finding their condition desperate, were compelled to +resort to a desperate remedy, the nature of which will be explained in +the next chapter. + +[Footnote 1: For some account of the circumstances connected with this +war see our history of Alexander, chapter vi.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ANGLO-SAXONS + + +Any one who will look around upon the families of his acquaintance +will observe that family characteristics and resemblances prevail not +only in respect to stature, form, expression of countenance, and other +outward and bodily tokens, but also in regard to the constitutional +temperaments and capacities of the soul. Sometimes we find a group in +which high intellectual powers and great energy of action prevail for +many successive generations, and in all the branches into which the +original stock divides; in other cases, the hereditary tendency is to +gentleness and harmlessness of character, with a full development of +all the feelings and sensibilities of the soul. Others, again, exhibit +congenital tendencies to great physical strength and hardihood, and +to powers of muscular exertion and endurance. These differences, +notwithstanding all the exceptions and irregularities connected with +them, are obviously, where they exist, deeply seated and permanent. +They depend very slightly upon any mere external causes. They have, +on the contrary, their foundation in some hidden principles connected +with the origin of life, and with the mode of its transmission from +parent to offspring, which the researches of philosophers have never +yet been able to explore. + +These same constitutional and congenital peculiarities which we see +developing themselves all around us in families, mark, on a greater +scale, the characteristics of the different nations of the earth, and +in a degree much higher still, the several great and distinct races +into which the whole human family seems to be divided. Physiologists +consider that there are five of these great races, whose +characteristics, mental as well as bodily, are distinctly, strongly, +and permanently marked. These characteristics descend by hereditary +succession from father to son, and though education and outward +influences may modify them, they can not essentially change them. +Compare, for example, the Indian and the African races, each of which +has occupied for a thousand years a continent of its own, where they +have been exposed to the same variety of climates, and as far as +possible to the same general outward influences. How entirely diverse +from each other they are, not only in form, color, and other physical +marks, but in all the tendencies and characteristics of the soul! One +can no more be changed into the other, than a wolf, by being tamed and +domesticated, can be made a dog, or a dog, by being driven into the +forests, be transformed into a tiger. The difference is still greater +between either of these races and the Caucasian race. This race might +probably be called the European race, were it not that some Asiatic +and some African nations have sprung from it, as the Persians, the +Ph[oe]nicians, the Egyptians, the Carthaginians, and, in modern times, +the Turks. All the nations of this race, whether European or African, +have been distinguished by the same physical marks in the conformation +of the head and the color of the skin, and still more by those traits +of character--the intellect, the energy, the spirit of determination +and pride--which, far from owing their existence to outward +circumstances, have always, in all ages, made all outward +circumstances bend to them. That there have been some great and noble +specimens of humanity among the African race, for example, no one +can deny; but that there is a marked, and fixed, and permanent +constitutional difference between them and the Caucasian race seems +evident from this fact, that for two thousand years each has held its +own continent, undisturbed, in a great degree, by the rest of mankind; +and while, during all this time, no nation of the one race has risen, +so far as is known, above the very lowest stage of civilization, +there have been more than fifty entirely distinct and independent +civilizations originated and fully developed in the other. For +three thousand years the Caucasian race have continued, under all +circumstances, and in every variety of situation, to exhibit the +same traits and the same indomitable prowess. No calamities, however +great--no desolating wars, no destructive pestilence, no wasting +famine, no night of darkness, however universal and gloomy--has ever +been able to keep them long in degradation or barbarism. There is not +now a barbarous people to be found in the whole race, and there has +not been one for a thousand years. + +Nearly all the great exploits, and achievements too, which have +signalized the history of the world, have been performed by this +branch of the human family. They have given celebrity to every age +in which they have lived, and to every country that they have ever +possessed, by some great deed, or discovery, or achievement, which +their intellectual energies have accomplished. As Egyptians, they +built the Pyramids, and reared enormous monoliths, which remain as +perfect now as they were when first completed, thirty centuries ago. +As Ph[oe]nicians, they constructed ships, perfected navigation, and +explored, without compass or chart, every known sea. As Greeks, they +modeled architectural embellishments, and cut sculptures in marble, +and wrote poems and history, which have been ever since the admiration +of the world. As Romans, they carried a complete and perfect military +organization over fifty nations and a hundred millions of people, with +one supreme mistress over all, the ruins of whose splendid palaces and +monuments have not yet passed away. Thus has this race gone on, always +distinguishing itself, by energy, activity, and intellectual power, +wherever it has dwelt, whatever language it has spoken, and in +whatever period of the world it has lived. It has invented printing, +and filled every country that it occupies with permanent records of +the past, accessible to all. It has explored the heavens, and reduced +to precise and exact calculations all the complicated motions there. +It has ransacked the earth, systematized, arranged, and classified the +vast melange of plants, and animals, and mineral products to be found +upon its surface. It makes steam and falling water do more than half +the work necessary for feeding and clothing the human race; and the +howling winds of the ocean, the very emblems of resistless destruction +and terror, it steadily employs in interchanging the products of the +world, and bearing the means of comfort and plenty to every clime. + +The Caucasian race has thus, in all ages, and in all the varieties +of condition in which the different branches of it have been placed, +evinced the same great characteristics, marking the existence of +some innate and constant constitutional superiority; and yet, in the +different branches, subordinate differences appear, which are to be +accounted for, perhaps, partly by difference of circumstances, and +partly, perhaps, by similar constitutional diversities--diversities by +which one branch is distinguished from other branches, as the whole +race is from the other races with which we have compared them. Among +these branches, we, Anglo-Saxons ourselves, claim for the Anglo-Saxons +the superiority over all the others. + +The Anglo-Saxons commenced their career as pirates and robbers, and as +pirates and robbers of the most desperate and dangerous description. +In fact, the character which the Anglo-Saxons have obtained in modern +times for energy and enterprise, and for desperate daring in their +conflicts with foes, is no recent fame. The progenitors of the present +race were celebrated every where, and every where feared and dreaded, +not only in the days of Alfred, but several centuries before. All the +historians of those days that speak of them at all, describe them as +universally distinguished above their neighbors for their energy and +vehemence of character, their mental and physical superiority, and for +the wild and daring expeditions to which their spirit of enterprise +and activity were continually impelling them. They built vessels, in +which they boldly put forth on the waters of the German Ocean or of +the Baltic Sea on excursions for conquest or plunder. Like their +present posterity on the British isles and on the shores of the +Atlantic, they cared not, in these voyages, whether it was summer or +winter, calm or storm. In fact, they sailed often in tempests +and storms by choice, so as to come upon their enemies the more +unexpectedly. + +[Illustration: SAXON MILITARY CHIEF] + +They would build small vessels, or rather boats, of osiers, covering +them with skins, and in fleets of these frail floats they would sally +forth among the howling winds and foaming surges of the German Ocean. +On these expeditions, they all embarked as in a common cause, and felt +a common interest. The leaders shared in all the toils and exposures +of the men, and the men took part in the counsels and plans of the +leaders. Their intelligence and activity, and their resistless courage +and ardor, combined with their cool and calculating sagacity, made +them successful in every attempt. If they fought, they conquered; if +they pursued their enemies, they were sure to overtake them; if they +retreated, they were sure to make their escape. They were clothed in +a loose and flowing dress, and wore their hair long and hanging about +their shoulders; and they had the art, as their descendants have now, +of contriving and fabricating arms of such superior construction and +workmanship, as to give them, on this account alone, a great advantage +over all cotemporary nations. There were two other points in which +there was a remarkable similarity between this parent stock in its +rude, early form, and the extended social progeny which represents it +at the present day. One was the extreme strictness of their ideas of +conjugal fidelity, and the stern and rigid severity with which all +violations of female virtue were judged. The woman who violated her +marriage vows was compelled to hang herself. Her body was then burned +in public, and the accomplice of her crime was executed over the +ashes. The other point of resemblance between the ancient Anglo-Saxons +and their modern descendants was their indomitable pride. They could +never endure any thing like _submission_. Though sometimes +overpowered, they were never conquered. Though taken prisoners and +carried captive, the indomitable spirit which animated them could +never be really subdued. The Romans used sometimes to compel their +prisoners to fight as gladiators, to make spectacles for the amusement +of the people of the city. On one occasion, thirty Anglo-Saxons, who +had been taken captive and were reserved for this fate, strangled +themselves rather than submit to this indignity. The whole nation +manifested on all occasions a very unbending and unsubmissive will, +encountering every possible danger and braving every conceivable ill +rather than succumb or submit to any power except such as they had +themselves created for their own ends; and their descendants, whether +in England or America, evince much the same spirit still. + +It was the landing of a few boat-loads of these determined and +ferocious barbarians on a small island near the mouth of the Thames, +which constitutes the great event of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons +in England, which is so celebrated in English history as the epoch +which marks the real and true beginning of British greatness and +power. It is true that the history of England goes back beyond this +period to narrate, as we have done, the events connected with the +contests of the Romans and the aboriginal Britons, and the incursions +and maraudings of the Picts and Scots; but all these aborigines passed +gradually--after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons--off the stage. +The old stock was wholly displaced. The present monarchy has sprung +entirely from its Anglo-Saxon original; so that all which precedes the +arrival of this new race is introductory and preliminary, like the +history, in this country, of the native American tribes before the +coming of the English Pilgrims. As, therefore, the landing of the +Pilgrims on the Plymouth Rock marks the true commencement of the +history of the American Republic, so that of the Anglo-Saxon +adventurers on the island of Thanet represents and marks the origin +of the British monarchy. The event therefore, stands as a great +and conspicuous landmark, though now dim and distant in the remote +antiquity in which it occurred. + +And yet the event, though so wide-reaching and grand in its bearings +and relations, and in the vast consequences which have flowed and +which still continue to flow from it, was apparently a minute and +unimportant circumstance at the time when it occurred. There were only +three vessels at the first arrival. Of their size and character the +accounts vary. Some of these accounts say they contained three hundred +men; others seem to state that the number which arrived at the first +landing was three thousand. This, however, would seem impossible, as +no three vessels built in those days could convey so large a number. +We must suppose, therefore, that that number is meant to include those +who came at several of the earlier expeditions, and which were grouped +by the historian together, or else that several other vessels or +transports accompanied the three, which history has specially +commemorated as the first arriving. + +In fact, very little can now be known in respect to the form and +capacity of the vessels in which these half-barbarous navigators +roamed, in those days, over the British seas. Their name, indeed, has +come down to us, and that is nearly all. They were called _cyules_; +though the name is sometimes spelled, in the ancient chronicles, +_ceols_, and in other ways. They were obviously vessels of +considerable capacity and were of such construction and such strength +as to stand the roughest marine exposures. They were accustomed to +brave fearlessly every commotion and to encounter every danger raised +either by winter tempests or summer gales in the restless waters of +the German Ocean. + +The names of the commanders who headed the expedition which first +landed have been preserved, and they have acquired, as might have been +expected, a very wide celebrity. They were Hengist and Horsa. Hengist +and Horsa were brothers. + +The place where they landed was the island of Thanet. Thanet is a +tract of land at the mouth of the Thames, on the southern side; a sort +of promontory extending into the sea, and forming the cape at the +south side of the estuary made by the mouth of the river. The extreme +point of land is called the North Foreland which, as it is the point +that thousands of vessels, coming out of the Thames, have to round in +proceeding southward on voyages to France, to the Mediterranean, to +the Indies, and to America, is very familiarly known to navigators +throughout the world. The island of Thanet, of which this North +Foreland is the extreme point, ought scarcely to be called an island, +since it forms, in fact, a portion of the main land, being separated +from it only by a narrow creek or stream, which in former ages indeed, +was wide and navigable, but is now nearly choked up and obliterated +by the sands and the sediment, which, after being brought down by the +Thames, are driven into the creek by the surges of the sea. + +In the time of Hengist and Horsa the creek was so considerable that +its mouth furnished a sufficient harbor for their vessels. They landed +at a town called Ebbs-fleet, which is now, however, at some distance +inland. + +There is some uncertainty in respect to the motive which led Hengist +and Horsa to make their first descent upon the English coast. Whether +they came on one of their customary piratical expeditions, or were +driven on the coast accidentally by stress of weather, or were invited +to come by the British king, can not now be accurately ascertained. +Such parties of Anglo-Saxons had undoubtedly often landed before under +somewhat similar circumstances, and then, after brief incursions into +the interior, had re-embarked on board their ships and sailed away. +In this case, however, there was a certain peculiar and extraordinary +state of things in the political condition of the country in which +they had landed, which resulted in first protracting their stay, and +finally in establishing them so fixedly and permanently in the land, +that they and their followers and descendants soon became the entire +masters of it, and have remained in possession to the present day. +These circumstances were as follows: + +The name of the king of Britain at this period was Vortigern. At the +time when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, he and his government were nearly +overwhelmed with the pressure of difficulty and danger arising from +the incursions of the Picts and Scots; and Vortigern, instead of being +aroused to redoubled vigilance and energy by the imminence of the +danger, as Alfred afterward was in similar circumstances, sank +down, as weak minds always do, in despair, and gave himself up to +dissipation and vice--endeavoring, like depraved seamen on a wreck, to +drown his mental distress in animal sensations of pleasure. Such men +are ready to seek relief or rescue from their danger from any quarter +and at any price. Vortigern, instead of looking upon the Anglo-Saxon +intruders as new enemies, conceived the idea of appealing to them for +succor. He offered to convey to them a large tract of territory in the +part of the island where they had landed, on condition of their aiding +him in his contests with his other foes. + +Hengist and Horsa acceded to this proposal. They marched their +followers into battle, and defeated Vortigern's enemies. They sent +across the sea to their native land, and invited new adventurers to +join them. Vortigern was greatly pleased with the success of his +expedient. The Picts and Scots were driven back to their fastnesses in +the remote mountains of the north, and the Britons once more possessed +their land in peace, by means of the protection and the aid which +their new confederates afforded them. + +In the mean time the Anglo-Saxons were establishing and strengthening +themselves very rapidly in the part of the island which Vortigern had +assigned them--which was, as the reader will understand from what +has already been said in respect to the place of their landing, the +southeastern part--a region which now constitutes the county of Kent. +In addition, too, to the natural increase of their power from the +increase of their numbers and their military force, Hengist contrived, +if the story is true, to swell his own personal influence by means of +a matrimonial alliance which he had the adroitness to effect. He had +a daughter named Rowena. She was very beautiful and accomplished. +Hengist sent for her to come to England. When she had arrived he made +a sumptuous entertainment for King Vortigern, inviting also to it, of +course, many other distinguished guests. In the midst of the feast, +when the king was in the state of high excitement produced on such +temperaments by wine and convivial pleasure, Rowena came in to offer +him more wine. Vortigern was powerfully struck, as Hengist had +anticipated, with her grace and beauty. Learning that she was +Hengist's daughter, he demanded her hand. Hengist at first declined, +but, after sufficiently stimulating the monarch's eagerness by his +pretended opposition, he yielded, and the king became the general's +son-in-law. This is the story which some of the old chroniclers tell. +Modern historians are divided in respect to believing it. Some think +it is fact, others fable. + +At all events, the power of Hengist and Horsa gradually increased, +as years passed on, until the Britons began to be alarmed at their +growing strength and multiplying numbers, and to fear lest these new +friends should prove, in the end, more formidable than the terrible +enemies whom they had come to expel. Contentions and then open +quarrels began to occur, and at length both parties prepared for war. +The contest which soon ensued was a terrible struggle, or rather +series of struggles, which continued for two centuries, during which +the Anglo-Saxons were continually gaining ground and the Britons +losing; the mental and physical superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race +giving them with very few exceptions, every where and always the +victory. + +There were, occasionally, intervals of peace, and partial and +temporary friendliness. They accuse Hengist of great treachery on one +of these occasions. He invited his son-in-law, King Vortigern, to +a feast, with three hundred of his officers, and then fomenting a +quarrel at the entertainment, the Britons were all killed in the +affray by means of the superior Saxon force which had been provided +for the emergency. Vortigern himself was taken prisoner, and held a +captive until he ransomed himself by ceding three whole provinces +to his captor. Hengist justified this demand by throwing the +responsibility of the feud upon his guests; and it is not, in fact, at +all improbable that they deserved their share of the condemnation. + +The famous King Arthur, whose Knights of the Round Table have been so +celebrated in ballads and tales, lived and flourished during these +wars between the Saxons and the Britons. He was a king of the Britons, +and performed wonderful exploits of strength and valor. He was of +prodigious size and muscular power, and of undaunted bravery. He slew +giants, destroyed the most ferocious wild beasts, gained very splendid +victories in the battles that he fought, made long expeditions into +foreign countries, having once gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to +obtain the Holy Cross. His wife was a beautiful lady, the daughter of +a chieftain of Cornwall. Her name was Guenever.[1] On his return from +one of his distant expeditions, he found that his nephew, Medrawd, +had won her affections while he was gone, and a combat ensued in +consequence between him and Medrawd. The combat took place on the +coast of Cornwall. Both parties fell. Arthur was mortally wounded. +They took him from the field into a boat, and carried him along the +coast till they came to a river. They ascended the river till they +came to the town of Glastonbury. They committed the still breathing +body to the care of faithful friends there; but the mortal blow had +been given. The great hero died, and they buried his body in the +Glastonbury churchyard, very deep beneath the surface of the ground, +in order to place it as effectually as possible beyond the reach of +Saxon rage and vengeance. Arthur had been a deadly and implacable foe +to the Saxons. He had fought twelve great pitched battles with them, +in every one of which he had gained the victory. In one of these +battles he had slain, according to the traditional tale, four hundred +and seventy men, in one day, with his own hand. + +Five hundred years after his death, King Henry the Second, having +heard from an ancient British bard that Arthur's body lay interred in +the Abbey of Glastonbury, and that the spot was marked by some small +pyramids erected near it, and that the body would be found in a rude +coffin made of a hollowed oak, ordered search to be made. The ballads +and tales which had been then, for several centuries, circulating +throughout England, narrating and praising King Arthur's exploits, had +given him so wide a fame, that great interest was felt in the recovery +and the identification of his remains. The searchers found the +pyramids in the cemetery of the abbey. They dug between them, and came +at length to a stone. Beneath this stone was a leaden cross, with the +inscription in Latin, "HERE LIES BURIED THE BODY OF GREAT KING +ARTHUR." Going down still below this, they came at length, at the +depth of sixteen feet from the surface, to a great coffin, made of the +trunk of an oak tree, and within it was a human skeleton of unusual +size. The skull was very large, and showed marks of ten wounds. Nine +of them were closed by concretions of the bone, indicating that the +wounds by which those contusions or fractures had been made had been +healed while life continued. The tenth fracture remained in a +condition which showed that that had been the mortal wound. + +The bones of Arthur's wife were found near those of her husband. The +hair was apparently perfect when found, having all the freshness +and beauty of life; but a monk of the abbey, who was present at the +disinterment, touched it and it crumbled to dust. + +Such are the tales which the old chronicles tell of the good King +Arthur, the last and greatest representative of the power of the +ancient British aborigines. It is a curious illustration of the +uncertainty which attends all the early records of national history, +that, notwithstanding all the above particularity respecting the life +and death of Arthur, it is a serious matter of dispute among the +learned in modern times whether any such person ever lived. + +[Footnote 1: Spelled sometimes Gwenlyfar and Ginevra.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DANES. + + +The landing of Hengist and Horsa, the first of the Anglo-Saxons, took +place in the year 449, according to the commonly received chronology. +It was more than two hundred years after this before the Britons were +entirely subdued, and the Saxon authority established throughout the +island, unquestioned and supreme. One or two centuries more passed +away, and then the Anglo-Saxons had, in their turn, to resist a new +horde of invaders, who came, as they themselves had done, across the +German Ocean. These new invaders were the Danes. + +The Saxons were not united under one general government when they came +finally to get settled in their civil polity. The English territory +was divided, on the contrary, into seven or eight separate kingdoms. +These kingdoms were ruled by as many separate dynasties, or lines of +kings. They were connected with each other by friendly relations and +alliances, more or less intimate, the whole system being known in +history by the name of the Saxon Heptarchy. + +The princes of these various dynasties showed in their dealings with +one another, and in their relations with foreign powers, the same +characteristics of boldness and energy as had always marked the action +of the race. Even the queens and princesses evinced, by their courage +and decision, that Anglo-Saxon blood lost nothing of its inherent +qualities by flowing in female veins. + +For example, a very extraordinary story is told of one of these Saxon +princesses. A certain king upon the Continent, whose dominions lay +between the Rhine and the German Ocean, had proposed for her hand in +behalf of his son, whose name was Radiger. The consent of the princess +was given, and the contract closed. The king himself soon afterward +died, but before he died he changed his mind in respect to the +marriage of his son. It seems that he had himself married a second +wife, the daughter of a king of the Franks, a powerful continental +people; and as, in consequence of his own approaching death, his son +would come unexpectedly into possession of the throne, and would need +immediately all the support which a powerful alliance could give him, +he recommended to him to give up the Saxon princess, and connect +himself, instead, with the Franks, as he himself had done. The +prince entered into these views; his father died, and he immediately +afterward married his father's youthful widow--his own step-mother--a +union which, however monstrous it would be regarded in our day, seems +not to have been considered any thing very extraordinary then. + +The Anglo-Saxon princess was very indignant at this violation of his +plighted faith on the part of her suitor. She raised an army and +equipped a fleet, and set sail with the force which she had thus +assembled across the German Ocean, to call the faithless Radiger to +account. Her fleet entered the mouth of the Rhine, and her troops +landed, herself at the head of them. She then divided her army into +two portions, keeping one division as a guard for herself at her own +encampment, which she established near the place of her landing, while +she sent the other portion to seek and attack Radiger, who was, in the +mean time, assembling his forces, in a state of great alarm at this +sudden and unexpected danger. + +In due time this division returned, reporting that they had met and +encountered Radiger, and had entirely defeated him. They came back +triumphing in their victory, considering evidently, that the faithless +lover had been well punished for his offense. The princess, however, +instead of sharing in their satisfaction, ordered them to make a +new incursion into the interior, and not to return without bringing +Radiger with them as their prisoner. They did so; and after hunting +the defeated and distressed king from place to place, they succeeded, +at last, in seizing him in a wood, and brought him in to the +princess's encampment. He began to plead for his life, and to make +excuses for the violation of his contract by urging the necessities of +his situation and his father's dying commands. The princess said she +was ready to forgive him if he would now dismiss her rival and fulfill +his obligations to her. Radiger yielded to this demand; he repudiated +his Frank wife, and married the Anglo-Saxon lady in her stead. + +Though the Anglo-Saxon race continued thus to evince in all their +transactions the same extraordinary spirit and energy, and met +generally with the same success that had characterized them at the +beginning, they seemed at length to find their equals in the Danes. +These Danes, however, though generally designated by that appellation +in history, were not exclusively the natives of Denmark. They came +from all the shores of the Northern and Baltic Seas. In fact, they +inhabited the sea rather than the land. They were a race of bold and +fierce naval adventurers, as the Anglo-Saxons themselves had been +two centuries before. Most extraordinary accounts are given of their +hardihood, and of their fierce and predatory habits. They haunted the +bays along the coasts of Sweden and Norway, and the islands which +encumber the entrance to the Baltic Sea. They were banded together in +great hordes, each ruled by a chieftain, who was called a _sea king_, +because his dominions scarcely extended at all to the land. His +possessions, his power, his subjects pertained all to the sea. It is +true they built or bought their vessels on the shore, and they sought +shelter among the islands and in the bays in tempests and storms; but +they prided themselves in never dwelling in houses, or sharing, in +any way, the comforts or enjoyments of the land. They made excursions +every where for conquest and plunder, and were proud of their +successful deeds of violence and wrong. It was honorable to enter into +their service. Chieftains and nobles who dwelt upon the land sent +their sons to acquire greatness, and wealth, and fame by joining these +piratical gangs, just as high-minded military or naval officers, in +modern times, would enter into the service of an honorable government +abroad. + +Besides the great leaders of the most powerful of these bands, there +was an infinite number of petty chieftains, who commanded single ships +or small detached squadrons. These were generally the younger sons of +sovereigns or chieftains who lived upon the land, the elder brothers +remaining at home to inherit the throne or the paternal inheritance. +It was discreditable then, as it is now in Europe, for any branches +of families of the higher class to engage in any pursuit of honorable +industry. They could plunder and kill without dishonor, but they could +not toil. To rob and murder was glory; to do good or to be useful in +any way was disgrace. + +These younger sons went to sea at a very early age too. They were +sent often at twelve, that they might become early habituated to the +exposures and dangers of their dreadful combats, and of the wintery +storms, and inured to the athletic exertions which the sea rigorously +exacts of all who venture within her dominion. When they returned +they were received with consideration and honor, or with neglect and +disgrace, according as they were more or less laden with booty and +spoil. In the summer months the land kings themselves would organize +and equip naval armaments for similar expeditions. They would cruise +along the coasts of the sea, to land where they found an unguarded +point, and sack a town or burn a castle, seize treasures, capture men +and make them slaves, kidnap women, and sometimes destroy helpless +children with their spears in a manner too barbarous and horrid to be +described. On returning to their homes, they would perhaps find their +own castles burned and their own dwellings roofless, from the visit of +some similar horde. + +Thus the seas of western Europe were covered in those days, as they +are now, with fleets of shipping; though, instead of being engaged as +now, in the quiet and peaceful pursuits of commerce, freighted with +merchandise, manned with harmless seamen, and welcome wherever they +come, they were then loaded only with ammunition and arms, and crowded +with fierce and reckless robbers, the objects of universal detestation +and terror. + +One of the first of these sea kings who acquired sufficient individual +distinction to be personally remembered in history has given a sort of +immortality, by his exploits, to the very rude name of Ragnar Lodbrog, +and his character was as rude as his name. + +[Illustration: THE SEA KINGS] + +Ragnar's father was a prince of Norway. He married, however, a Danish +princess, and thus Ragnar acquired a sort of hereditary right to +a Danish kingdom--the territory including various islands and +promontories at the entrance of the Baltic Sea. There was, however, a +competitor for this power, named Harald. The Franks made common cause +with Harald. Ragnar was defeated and driven away from the land. Though +defeated, however, he was not subdued. He organized a naval force, and +made himself a sea king. His operations on the stormy element of the +seas were conducted with so much decision and energy, and at the same +time with so much system and plan, that his power rapidly extended. He +brought the other sea kings under his control, and established quite +a maritime empire. He made more and more distant excursions, and +at last, in order to avenge himself upon the Franks for their +interposition in behalf of his enemy at home, he passed through the +Straits of Dover, and thence down the English Channel to the mouth +of the Seine. He ascended this river to Rouen, and there landed, +spreading throughout the country the utmost terror and dismay. From +Rouen he marched to Paris, finding no force able to resist him on his +way, or to defend the capital. His troops destroyed the monastery of +St. Germain's, near the city, and then the King of the Franks, finding +himself at their mercy, bought them off by paying a large sum of +money. With this money and the other booty which they had acquired, +Ragnar and his horde now returned to their ships at Rouen, and sailed +away again toward their usual haunts among the bays and islands of the +Baltic Sea. + +This exploit, of course, gave Ragnar Lodbrog's barbarous name a very +wide celebrity. It tended, too, greatly to increase and establish his +power. He afterward made similar incursions into Spain, and finally +grew bold enough to brave the Anglo-Saxons themselves on the green +island of Britain, as the Anglo-Saxons had themselves braved the +aboriginal inhabitants two or three centuries before. But Ragnar seems +to have found the Anglo-Saxon swords and spears which he advanced to +encounter on landing in England much more formidable than those which +were raised against him on the southern side of the Channel. He was +destroyed in the contest. The circumstances were as follows: + +In making his preparations for a descent upon the English coast, he +prepared for a very determined contest, knowing well the character of +the foes with whom he would have now to deal. He built two enormous +ships, much larger than those of the ordinary size, and armed and +equipped them in the most perfect manner. He filled them with selected +men, and sailing down along the coast of Scotland, he watched for a +place and an opportunity to land. Winds and storms are almost always +raging among the dark and gloomy mountains and islands of Scotland. +Ragnar's ships were caught on one of these gales and driven on shore. +The ships were lost, but the men escaped to the land. Ragnar, nothing +daunted, organized and marshaled them as an army, and marched into +the interior to attack any force which might appear against them. His +course led him to Northumbria, the most northerly Saxon kingdom. Here +he soon encountered a very large and superior force, under the command +of Ella, the king; but, with the reckless desperation which so +strongly marked his character, he advanced to attack them. Three +times, it is said, he pierced the enemy's lines, cutting his way +entirely through them with his little column. He was, however, at +length overpowered. His men were cut to pieces, and he was himself +taken prisoner. We regret to have to add that our cruel ancestors put +their captive to death in a very barbarous manner. They filled a den +with poisonous snakes, and then drove the wretched Ragnar into it. The +horrid reptiles killed him with their stings. It was Ella, the king of +Northumbria, who ordered and directed this punishment. + +The expedition of Ragnar thus ended without leading to any permanent +results in Anglo-Saxon history. It is, however, memorable as the first +of a series of invasions from the Danes--or Northmen, as they are +sometimes called, since they came from all the coasts of the Baltic +and German Seas--which, in the end, gave the Anglo-Saxons infinite +trouble. At one time, in fact, the conquests of the Danes threatened +to root out and destroy the Anglo-Saxon power from the island +altogether. They would probably have actually effected this, had the +nation not been saved by the prudence, the courage, the sagacity, and +the consummate skill of the subject of this history, as will fully +appear to the reader in the course of future chapters. + +Ragnar was not the only one of these Northmen who made attempts to +land in England and to plunder the Anglo-Saxons, even in his own day. +Although there were no very regular historical records kept in those +early times, still a great number of legends, and ballads, and ancient +chronicles have come down to us, narrating the various transactions +which occurred, and it appears by these that the sea kings generally +were beginning, at this time, to harass the English coasts, as well as +all the other shores to which they could gain access. Some of these +invasions would seem to have been of a very formidable character. + +At first these excursions were made in the summer season only, and, +after collecting their plunder, the marauders would return in the +autumn to their own shores, and winter in the bays and among the +islands there. At length, however, they grew more bold. A large band +of them landed, in the autumn of 851, on the island of Thanet where +the Saxons themselves had landed four centuries before, and began very +coolly to establish their winter quarters on English ground. They +succeeded in maintaining their stay during the winter, and in the +spring were prepared for bolder undertakings still. + +They formed a grand confederation, and collected a fleet of three +hundred and fifty ships, galleys, and boats, and advanced boldly +up the Thames. They plundered London, and then marched south to +Canterbury, which they plundered too. They went thence into one of the +Anglo-Saxon kingdoms called Mercia, the inhabitants of the country not +being able to oppose any effectual obstacle to their marauding march. +Finally, a great Anglo-Saxon force was organized and brought out to +meet them. The battle was fought in a forest of oaks, and the Danes +were defeated. The victory, however, afforded the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms +only a temporary relief. New hordes were continually arriving and +landing, growing more and more bold if they met with success, and but +little daunted or discouraged by temporary failures. + +The most formidable of all these expeditions was one organized and +commanded by the sons and relatives of Ragnar, whom, it will be +recollected, the Saxons had cruelly killed by poisonous serpents in +a dungeon or den. The relatives of the unhappy chieftain thus +barbarously executed were animated in their enterprise by the double +stimulus of love of plunder and a ferocious thirst for revenge. A +considerable time was spent in collecting a large fleet, and in +combining, for this purpose, as many chieftains as could be induced to +share in the enterprise. The story of their fellow-countryman expiring +under the stings of adders and scorpions, while his tormentors were +exulting around him over the cruel agonies which their ingenuity +had devised, aroused them to a phrensy of hatred and revenge. They +proceeded, however, very deliberately in their plans. They did nothing +hastily. They allowed ample time for the assembling and organizing +of the confederation. When all was ready, they found that there were +eight kings and twenty earls in the alliance, generally the relatives +and comrades of Ragnar. The two most prominent of these commanders +were Guthrum and Hubba. Hubba was one of Ragnar's sons. At length, +toward the close of the summer, the formidable expedition set sail. +They approached the English coast, and landed without meeting with any +resistance. The Saxons seemed appalled and paralyzed at the greatness +of the danger. The several kingdoms of the Heptarchy, though they had +been imperfectly united, some years before, under Egbert, were still +more or less distinct, and each hoped that the one first invaded would +be the only one which would suffer; and as these kingdoms were rivals, +and often hostile to each other, no general league was formed against +what soon proved to be the common enemy. The Danes, accordingly, +quietly encamped, and made calm and deliberate arrangements for +spending the winter in their new quarters, as if they were at home. + +During all this time, notwithstanding the coolness and deliberation +with which these avengers of their murdered countryman acted, the +fires of their resentment and revenge were slowly but steadily +burning, and as soon as the spring opened, they put themselves in +battle array, and marched into the dominions of Ella. Ella did all +that it was possible to do to meet and oppose them, but the spirit of +retaliation and rage which his cruelties had evoked was too strong to +be resisted. His country was ravaged, his army was defeated, he was +taken prisoner, and the dying terrors and agonies of Ragnar among the +serpents were expiated by tenfold worse tortures which they inflicted +upon Ella's mutilated body, by a process too horrible to be described. + +After thus successfully accomplishing the great object of their +expedition, it was to have been hoped that they would leave the island +and return to their Danish homes. But they evinced no disposition +to do this. On the contrary, they commenced a course of ravage and +conquest in all parts of England, which continued for several years. +The parts of the country which attempted to oppose them they destroyed +by fire and sword. They seized cities, garrisoned and occupied them, +and settled in them as if to make them their permanent homes. One +kingdom after another was subdued. The kingdom of Wessex seemed alone +to remain, and that was the subject of contest. Ethelred was the king. +The Danes advanced into his dominions to attack him. In the battle +that ensued, Ethelred was killed. The successor to his throne was his +brother Alfred, the subject of this history, who thus found himself +suddenly and unexpectedly called upon to assume the responsibilities +and powers of supreme command, in as dark and trying a crisis of +national calamity and danger as can well be conceived. The manner in +which Alfred acted in the emergency, rescuing his country from her +perils, and laying the foundations, as he did, of all the greatness +and glory which has since accrued to her, has caused his memory to be +held in the highest estimation among all nations, and has immortalized +his name. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ALFRED'S EARLY YEARS. + + +Before commencing the narrative of Alfred's administration of the +public affairs of his realm, it is necessary to go back a little, in +order to give some account of the more private occurrences of his +early life. Alfred, like Washington, was distinguished for a very +extraordinary combination of qualities which exhibited itself in his +character, viz., the combination of great military energy and skill +on the one hand, with a very high degree, on the other, of moral and +religious principle, and conscientious devotion to the obligations +of duty. This combination, so rarely found in the distinguished +personages which have figured among mankind, is, in a great measure, +explained and accounted for, in Alfred's case, by the peculiar +circumstances of his early history. + +It was his brother Ethelred, as has already been stated, whom Alfred +immediately succeeded. His father's name was Ethelwolf; and it seems +highly probable that the peculiar turn which Alfred's mind seemed to +take in after years, was the consequence, in some considerable degree, +of this parent's situation and character. Ethelwolf was a younger son, +and was brought up in a monastery at Winchester. The monasteries of +those days were the seats both of learning and piety, that is, of such +learning and piety as then prevailed. The ideas of religious faith and +duty which were entertained a thousand years ago were certainly very +different from those which are received now; still, there was +then, mingled with much superstition, a great deal of honest and +conscientious devotion to the principles of Christian duty, and of +sincere and earnest desire to live for the honor of God and +religion, and for the highest and best welfare of mankind. Monastic +establishments existed every where, defended by the sacredness which +invested them from the storms of violence and war which swept over +every thing which the cross did not protect. To these the thoughtful, +the serious, and the intellectual retired, leaving the restless, the +rude, and the turbulent to distract and terrify the earth with their +endless quarrels. Here they studied, they wrote, they read; they +transcribed books, they kept records, they arranged exercises of +devotion, they educated youth, and, in a word, performed, in the +inclosed and secluded retreats in which they sought shelter, those +intellectual functions of civil life which now can all be performed in +open exposure, but which in those days, if there had been no monastic +retreats to shelter them, could not have been performed at all. +For the learning and piety of the present age, whether Catholic or +Protestant, to malign the monasteries of Anglo-Saxon times is for the +oak to traduce the acorn from which it sprung. + +Ethelwolf was a younger son, and, consequently, did not expect to +reign. He went to the monastery at Winchester, and took the vows. His +father had no objection to this plan, satisfied with having his oldest +son expect and prepare for the throne. As, however, he advanced toward +manhood, the thought of the probability that he might be called to the +throne in the event of his brother's death led all parties to desire +that he might be released from his monastic vows. They applied, +accordingly, to the pope for a dispensation. The dispensation was +granted, and Ethelwolf became a general in the army. In the end his +brother died, and he became king. + +He continued, however, during his reign, to manifest the peaceful, +quiet, and serious character which had led him to enter the monastery, +and which had probably been strengthened and confirmed by the +influences and habits to which he had been accustomed there. He had, +however, a very able, energetic, and warlike minister, who managed his +affairs with great ability and success for a long course of years. +Ethelwolf, in the mean time, leaving public affairs to his minister, +continued to devote himself to the pursuits to which his predilections +inclined him. He visited monasteries; he cultivated learning; he +endowed the Church; he made journeys to Rome. All this time, his +kingdom, which had before almost swallowed up the other kingdoms of +the Heptarchy, became more and more firmly established, until, at +length, the Danes came in, as is described in the last chapter, and +brought the whole land into the most extreme and imminent danger. +The case did not, however, become absolutely desperate until after +Ethelwolf's death, as will be hereafter explained. + +Ethelwolf married a lady whose gentle, quiet, and serious character +corresponded with his own. Alfred was the youngest, and, as is often +the case with the youngest, the favorite child. He was kept near to +his father and mother, and closely under their influence, until his +mother died, which event, however, took place when he was quite young. +After this, Ethelwolf sent Alfred to Rome. Rome was still more the +great center then than it is now of religion and learning. There +were schools there, maintained by the various nations of Europe +respectively, for the education of the sons of the nobility. Alfred, +however, did not go for this purpose. It was only to make the journey, +to see the city, to be introduced to the pope, and to be presented, by +means of the fame of the expedition, to the notice of Europe, as the +future sovereign of England; for it was Ethelwolf's intention, at +this time, to pass over his older sons, and make this Benjamin his +successor on the throne. + +The journey was made with great pomp and parade. A large train of +nobles and ecclesiastics accompanied the young prince, and a splendid +reception was given to him in the various towns in France which he +passed through on his way. He was but five years old; but his position +and his prospects made him, though so young, a personage of great +distinction. After spending a short time at Rome, he returned again to +England. + +Two years after this, Ethelwolf, Alfred's father, determined to go to +Rome himself. His wife had died, his older sons had grown up, and his +own natural aversion to the cares and toils of government seems +to have been increased by the alarms and dangers produced by the +incursions of the Danes, and by his own advancing years. Having +accordingly arranged the affairs of the kingdom by placing his oldest +sons in command, he took the youngest, Alfred, who was now seven years +old, with him, and, crossing the Channel, landed on the Continent, on +his way to Rome. + +All the arrangements for this journey were conducted on a scale of +great magnificence and splendor. It is true that it was a rude and +semi-barbarous age, and very little progress had been made in respect +to the peaceful and industrial arts of life; but, in respect to the +arts connected with war, to every thing that related to the march of +armies, the pomp and parade of royal progresses, the caparison of +horses, the armor and military dresses of men, and the parade and +pageantry of military spectacles, a very considerable degree of +advancement had been attained. + +King Ethelwolf availed himself of all the resources that he could +command to give eclat to his journey. He had a numerous train of +attendants and followers, and he carried with him a number of rich and +valuable presents for the pope. He was received with great distinction +by King Charles of France, through whose dominions he had to pass on +his way to Italy. Charles had a daughter, Judith, a young girl with +whom Ethelwolf, though now himself quite advanced in life, fell deeply +in love. + +Ethelwolf, after a short stay in France, went on to Rome. His arrival +and his visit here attracted great attention. As King of England he +was a personage of very considerable consequence, and then he +came with a large retinue and in magnificent state. His religious +predilections, too, inspired him with a very strong interest in the +ecclesiastical authorities and institutions of Rome, and awakened, +reciprocally, in these authorities, a strong interest in him. He made +costly presents to the pope, some of which were peculiarly splendid. +One was a crown of pure gold, which weighed, it is said, four pounds. +Another was a sword, richly mounted in gold. There were also several +utensils and vessels of Saxon form and construction, some of gold and +others of silver gilt, and also a considerable number of dresses, all +very richly adorned. King Ethelwolf also made a distribution in money +to all the inhabitants of Rome: gold to the nobles and to the clergy, +and silver to the people. How far his munificence on this occasion may +have been exaggerated by the Saxon chroniclers, who, of course, like +other early historians, were fond of magnifying all the exploits, and +swelling, in every way, the fame of the heroes of their stories, +we can not now know. There is no doubt, however, that all the +circumstances of Ethelwolf's visit to the great capital were such as +to attract universal attention to the event, and to make the little +Alfred, on whose account the journey was in a great measure performed, +an object of very general interest and attention. + +In fact, there is every reason to believe that the Saxon nations had, +at that time, made such progress in wealth, population, and power as +to afford to such a prince as Ethelwolf the means of making a great +display, if he chose to do so, on such an occasion as that of a royal +progress through France and a visit to the great city of Rome. The +Saxons had been in possession of England, at this time, many hundred +years; and though, during all this period, they had been involved in +various wars, both with one another and with the neighboring nations, +they had been all the time steadily increasing in wealth, and making +constant improvements in all the arts and refinements of life. +Ethelwolf reigned, therefore, over a people of considerable wealth +and power, and he moved across the Continent on his way to Rome, and +figured while there, as a personage of no ordinary distinction. + +Rome was at this time, as we have said, the great center of education, +as well as of religious and ecclesiastical influence. In fact, +education and religion went hand in hand in those days, there being +scarcely any instruction in books excepting for the purposes of the +Church. Separate schools had been established at Rome by the leading +nations of Europe, where their youth could be taught, each at an +institution in which his own language was spoken. Ethelwolf remained a +year at Rome, to give Alfred the benefit of the advantages which the +city afforded. The boy was of a reflective and thoughtful turn of +mind, and applied himself diligently to the performance of his duties. +His mind was rapidly expanded, his powers were developed, and stores +of such knowledge as was adapted to the circumstances and wants of the +times were laid up. The religious and intellectual influences thus +brought to bear upon the young Alfred's mind produced strong and +decided effects in the formation of his character--effects which were +very strikingly visible in his subsequent career. + +Ethelwolf found, when he arrived at Rome, that the Saxon seminary had +been burned the preceding year. It had been founded by a former Saxon +king. Ethelwolf rebuilt it, and placed the institution on a new and +firmer foundation than before. He also obtained some edicts from the +papal government to secure and confirm certain rights of his Saxon +subjects residing in the city, which rights had, it seems, been in +some degree infringed upon, and he thus saved his subjects from +oppressions to which they had been exposed. In a word, Ethelwolf's +visit not only afforded an imposing spectacle to those who witnessed +the pageantry and the ceremonies which marked it, but it was attended +with permanent and substantial benefits to many classes, who became, +in consequence of it, the objects of the pious monarch's benevolent +regard. + +At length, when the year had expired, Ethelwolf set out on his return. +He went back through France, as he came, and during his stay in +that country on the way home, an event occurred which was of no +inconsiderable consequence to Alfred himself, and which changed or +modified Ethelwolf's whole destiny. The event was that, having, as +before stated, become enamored with the young Princess Judith, the +daughter of the King of France, Ethelwolf demanded her in marriage. +We have no means of knowing how the proposal affected the princess +herself; marriages in that rank and station in life were then, as they +are now in fact, wholly determined and controlled by great political +considerations, or by the personal predilections of powerful _men_, +with very little regard for the opinions or desires of the party +whose happiness was most to be affected by the result. At all events, +whatever may have been Judith's opinion, the marriage was decided upon +and consummated, and the venerable king returned to England with his +youthful bride. The historians of the day say, what would seem almost +incredible, that she was but about twelve years old. + +Judith's Saxon name was Leotheta. She made an excellent mother to the +young Alfred, though she innocently and indirectly caused her husband +much trouble in his realm. Alfred's older brothers were wild and +turbulent men, and one of them, Ethelbald, was disposed to retain +a portion of the power with which he had been invested during his +father's absence, instead of giving it up peaceably on his return. He +organized a rebellion against his father, making the king's course of +conduct in respect to his youthful bride the pretext. Ethelwolf was +very fond of his young wife, and seemed disposed to elevate her to +a position of great political consideration and honor. Ethelbald +complained of this. The father, loving peace rather than war, +compromised the question with him, and relinquished to him a part +of his kingdom. Two years after this he died, leaving Ethelbald the +entire possession of the throne. Ethelbald, as if to complete and +consummate his unnatural conduct toward his father, persuaded the +beautiful Judith, his father's widow, to become his wife, in violation +not only of all laws human and divine, but also of those universal +instincts of propriety which no lapse of time and no changes of +condition can eradicate from the human soul. This second union throws +some light on the question of Judith's action. Since she was willing +to marry her husband's son to _preserve_ the position of a queen, we +may well suppose that she did not object to uniting herself to the +father in order to attain it. Perhaps, however, we ought to consider +that no responsibility whatever, in transactions of this character, +should attach to such a mere child. + +During all this time Alfred was passing from his eighth to his twelfth +year. He was a very intelligent and observing boy, and had acquired +much knowledge of the world and a great deal of general information in +the journeys which he had taken with his father, both about England +and also on the Continent, in France and Italy. Judith had taken a +great interest in his progress. She talked with him, she encouraged +his inquiries, she explained to him what he did not understand, and +endeavored in every way to develop and strengthen his mental powers. +Alfred was a favorite, and, as such, was always very much indulged; +but there was a certain conscientiousness and gentleness of spirit +which marked his character even in these early years, and seemed to +defend him from the injurious influences which indulgence and extreme +attention and care often produce. Alfred was considerate, quiet, and +reflective; he improved the privileges which he enjoyed, and did not +abuse the kindness and the favors which every one by whom he was known +lavished upon him. + +Alfred was very fond of the Anglo-Saxon poetry which abounded in those +days. The poems were legends, ballads, and tales, which described the +exploits of heroes, and the adventures of pilgrims and wanderers of +all kinds. These poems were to Alfred what Homer's poems were to +Alexander. He loved to listen to them, to hear them recited, and to +commit them to memory. In committing them to memory, he was obliged to +depend upon hearing the poems repeated by others, for he himself could +not read. + +And yet he was now twelve years old. It may surprise the reader, +perhaps, to be thus told, after all that has been said of the +attention paid to Alfred's education, and of the progress which he had +made, that he could not even read. But reading, far from being then +considered, as it is now, an essential attainment for all, and one +which we are sure of finding possessed by all who have received any +instruction whatever, was regarded in those days a sort of technical +art, learned only by those who were to make some professional use of +the acquisition. Monks and clerks could always read, but generals, +gentlemen, and kings very seldom. And as they could not read, neither +could they write. They made a rude cross at the end of the writings +which they wished to authenticate instead of signing their names--a +mode which remains to the present day, though it has descended to the +very lowest and humblest classes of society. + +In fact, even the upper classes of society could not generally learn +to read in those days, for there were no books. Every thing recorded +was in manuscripts, the characters being written with great labor and +care, usually on parchment, the captions and leading letters being +often splendidly illuminated and adorned by gilded miniatures of +heads, or figures, or landscapes, which enveloped or surrounded them. +Judith had such a manuscript of some Saxon poems. She had learned the +language while in France. One day Alfred was looking at the book, +and admiring the character in which it was written, particularly the +ornamented letters at the headings. Some of his brothers were in the +room, they, of course, being much older than he. Judith said that +either of them might have the book who would first learn to read +it. The older brothers paid little attention to this proposal, but +Alfred's interest was strongly awakened. He immediately sought and +found some one to teach him, and before long he read the volume to +Judith, and claimed it as his own. She rejoiced at his success, and +fulfilled her promise with the greatest pleasure. + +Alfred soon acquired, by his Anglo-Saxon studies, a great taste for +books, and had next a strong desire to study the Latin language. The +scholars of the various nations of Europe formed at that time, as, in +fact, they do now, one community, linked together by many ties. They +wrote and spoke the Latin language, that being the only language which +could be understood by them all. In fact, the works which were most +highly valued then by the educated men of all nations, were the poems +and the histories, and other writings produced by the classic authors +of the Roman commonwealth. There were also many works on theology, +on ecclesiastical polity, and on law, of great authority and in high +repute, all written in the Latin tongue. Copies of these works were +made by the monks, in their retreats in abbeys and monasteries, and +learned men spent their lives in perusing them. To explore this field +was not properly a duty incumbent upon a young prince destined to take +a seat upon a throne, but Alfred felt a great desire to undertake +the work. He did not do it, however, for the reason, as he afterward +stated, that there was no one at court at the time who was qualified +to teach him. + +Alfred, though he had thus the thoughtful and reflective habits of +a student, was also active, and graceful, and strong in his bodily +development. He excelled in all the athletic recreations of the time, +and was especially famous for his skill, and courage, and power as a +hunter. He gave every indication, in a word, at this early age, of +possessing that uncommon combination of mental and personal qualities +which fits those who possess it to secure and maintain a great +ascendency among mankind. + +The unnatural union which had been formed on the death of Ethelwolf +between his youthful widow and her aged husband's son did not long +continue. The people of England were very much shocked at such a +marriage, and a great prelate, the Bishop of Winchester, remonstrated +against it with such sternness and authority, that Ethelbald not only +soon put his wife away, but submitted to a severe penance which the +bishop imposed upon him in retribution for his sin. Judith, thus +forsaken, soon afterward sold the lands and estates which her two +husbands had severally granted her, and, taking a final leave of +Alfred, whom she tenderly loved, she returned to her native land. +Not long after this, she was married a third time, to a continental +prince, whose dominions lay between the Baltic and the Rhine, and +from this period she disappears entirely from the stage of Alfred's +history. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +STATE OF ENGLAND. + + +Having thus brought down the narrative of Alfred's early life as far +and as fully as the records that remain enable us to do so, we resume +the general history of the national affairs by returning to the +subject of the depredations and conquests of the Danes, and the +circumstances connected with Alfred's accession to the throne. + +To give the reader some definite and clear ideas of the nature of +this warfare, it will be well to describe in detail some few of the +incidents and scenes which ancient historians have recorded. The +following was one case which occurred: + +The Danes, it must be premised, were particularly hostile to the +monasteries and religious establishments of the Anglo-Saxons. In the +first place, they were themselves pagans, and they hated Christianity. +In the second place, they knew that these places of sacred seclusion +were often the depositories selected for the custody or concealment of +treasure; and, besides the treasures which kings and potentates often +placed in them for safety, these establishments possessed utensils of +gold and silver for the service of the chapels, and a great variety +of valuable gifts, such as pious saints or penitent sinners were +continually bequeathing to them. The Danes were, consequently, never +better pleased than when sacking an abbey or a monastery. In such +exploits they gratified their terrible animal propensities, both of +hatred and love, by the cruelties which they perpetrated personally +upon the monks and the nuns, and at the same time enriched their +coffers with the most valuable spoils. A dreadful tale is told of +one company of nuns, who, in the consternation and terror which they +endured at the approach of a band of Danes, mutilated their faces in a +manner too horrid to be described, as the only means left to them for +protection against the brutality of their foes. They followed, +in adopting this measure, the advice and the example of the lady +superior. It was effectual. + +There was a certain abbey, called Crowland, which was in those days +one of the most celebrated in the island. It was situated near the +southern border of Lincolnshire, which lies on the eastern side of +England. There is a great shallow bay, called The Wash, on this +eastern shore, and it is surrounded by a broad tract of low and marshy +land, which is drained by long canals, and traversed by roads built +upon embankments. Dikes skirt the margins of the streams, and +wind-mills are engaged in perpetual toil to raise the water from the +fields into the channels by which it is conveyed away. + +Crowland is at the confluence of two rivers, which flow sluggishly +through this flat but beautiful and verdant region. The remains of the +old abbey still stand, built on piles driven into the marshy ground, +and they form at the present time a very interesting mass of ruins. +The year before Alfred acceded to the throne, the abbey was in all its +glory; and on one occasion it furnished _two hundred_ men, who went +out under the command of one of the monks, named Friar Joly, to join +the English armies and fight the Danes. + +The English army was too small notwithstanding this desperate effort +to strengthen it. They stood, however, all day in a compact band, +protecting themselves with their shields from the arrows of the foot +soldiers of the enemy, and with their pikes from the onset of the +cavalry. At night the Danes retired, as if giving up the contest; +but as soon as the Saxons, now released from their positions of +confinement and restraint, had separated a little, and began to +feel somewhat more secure, their implacable foes returned again and +attacked them in separate masses, and with more fury than before. The +Saxons endeavored in vain either to defend themselves or escape. As +fast as their comrades were killed, the survivors stood upon the heaps +of the slain, to gain what little advantage they could from so slight +an elevation. Nearly all at length were killed. A few escaped into a +neighboring wood, where they lay concealed during the day following, +and then, when the darkness of the succeeding night came to enable +them to conceal their journey, they made their way to the abbey, to +make known to the anxious inmates of it the destruction of the army, +and to warn them of the imminence of the impending danger to which +they were now exposed. + +A dreadful scene of consternation and terror ensued. The affrighted +messengers told their tale, breathless and wayworn, at the door of the +chapel, where the monks were engaged at their devotions. The aisles +were filled with exclamations of alarm and despairing lamentations. +The abbot, whose name was Theodore, immediately began to take measures +suited to the emergency. He resolved to retain at the monastery only +some aged monks and a few children, whose utter defenselessness, he +thought, would disarm the ferocity and vengeance of the Danes. The +rest, only about thirty, however, in number--nearly all the brethren +having gone out under the Friar Joly into the great battle--were put +on board a boat to be sent down the river. It seems at first view a +strange idea to send away the vigorous and strong, and keep the infirm +and helpless at the scene of danger; but the monks knew very well that +all resistance was vain, and that, consequently, their greatest safety +would lie in the absence of all appearance of the possibility of +resistance. + +The treasures were sent away, too, with all the men. They hastily +collected all the valuables together, the relics, the jewels, and all +of the gold and silver plate which could be easily removed, and +placed them in a boat--packing them as securely as their haste and +trepidation allowed. The boats glided down the river till they came to +a lonely spot, where an anchorite or sort of hermit lived in solitude. +The men and the treasures were to be intrusted to his charge. He +concealed the men in the thickets and other hiding-places in the +woods, and buried the treasures. + +In the mean time, as soon as the boats and the party of monks which +accompanied them had left the abbey, the Abbot Theodore and the old +monks that remained with him urged on the work of concealing that part +of the treasures which had not been taken away. All of the plate which +could not be easily transported, and a certain very rich and costly +table employed for the service of the altar, and many sacred and +expensive garments used by the higher priests in their ceremonies, had +been left behind, as they could not be easily removed. These the abbot +and the monks concealed in the most secure places that they could +find, and then, clothing themselves in their priestly robes, they +assembled in the chapel, and resumed their exercises of devotion. To +be found in so sacred a place and engaged in so holy an avocation +would have been a great protection from any Christian soldiery; but +the monks entirely misconceived the nature of the impulses by which +human nature is governed, in supposing that it would have any +restraining influence upon the pagan Danes. The first thing the +ferocious marauders did, on breaking into the sacred precincts of +the chapel, was to cut down the venerable abbot at the altar, in his +sacerdotal robes, and then to push forward the work of slaying every +other inmate of the abbey, feeble and helpless as they were. Only one +was saved. + +This one was a boy, about ten years old. His name was Turgar. He was +a handsome boy, and one of the Danish chieftains was struck with his +countenance and air, in the midst of the slaughter, and took pity on +him. The chieftain's name was Count Sidroc. Sidroc drew Turgar out +of the immediate scene of danger, and gave him a Danish garment, +directing him, at the same time, to throw aside his own, and then to +follow him wherever he went, and keep close to his side, as if he were +a Dane. The boy, relieved from his terrors by this hope of protection, +obeyed implicitly. He followed Sidroc every where, and his life +was saved. The Danes, after killing all the others, ransacked and +plundered the monastery, broke open the tombs in their search for +concealed treasures, and, after taking all that they could discover, +they set the edifices on fire wherever they could find wood-work that +would burn, and went away, leaving the bodies slowly burning in the +grand and terrible funeral pile. + +From Crowland the marauders proceeded, taking Turgar with them, to +another large and wealthy abbey in the neighborhood, which they +plundered and destroyed, as they had the abbey at Crowland. Sidroc +made Turgar his own attendant, keeping him always near him. When +the expedition had completed their second conquest, they packed the +valuables which they had obtained from both abbeys in wagons, and +moved toward the south. It happened that some of these wagons were +under Count Sidroc's charge, and were in the rear of the line of +march. In passing a ford, the wheels of one of these rear wagons sank +in the muddy bottom, and the horses, in attempting to draw the wagon +out, became entangled and restive. While Sidroc's whole attention +was engrossed by this difficulty, Turgar contrived to steal away +unobserved. He hid himself in a neighboring wood, and, with a degree +of sagacity and discretion remarkable in a boy of his years, he +contrived to find his way back to the smoking ruins of his home at the +Abbey of Crowland. + +The monks who had gone away to seek concealment at the cell of the +anchorite had returned, and were at work among the smoking ruins, +saving what they could from the fire, and gathering together the +blackened remains of their brethren for interment. They chose one of +the monks that had escaped to succeed the abbot who had been murdered, +repaired, so far as they could, their ruined edifices, and mournfully +resumed their functions as a religious community. + +Many of the tales which the ancient chroniclers tell of those times +are romantic and incredible; they may have arisen, perhaps, in the +first instance, in exaggerations of incidents and events which really +occurred, and were then handed down from generation to generation by +oral tradition, till they found historians to record them. The story +of the martyrdom of King Edmund is of this character. Edmund was a +sort of king over one of the nations of Anglo-Saxons called East +Angles, who, as their name imports, occupied a part of the eastern +portion of the island. Their particular hostility to Edmund was +awakened, according to the story, in the following manner: + +There was a certain bold and adventurous Dane named Lothbroc, who one +day took his falcon on his arm and went out alone in a boat on the +Baltic Sea, or in the straits connecting it with the German Ocean, +intending to go to a certain island and hunt. The falcon is a species +of hawk which they were accustomed to train in those days, to attack +and bring down birds from the air, and falconry was, as might have +been expected, a very picturesque and exciting species of hunting. The +game which Lothbroc was going to seek consisted of the wild fowl which +frequents sometimes, in vast numbers, the cliffs and shores of the +islands in those seas. Before he reached his hunting ground, however, +he was overtaken by a storm, and his boat was driven by it out to sea. +Accustomed to all sorts of adventures and dangers by sea and by land, +and skilled in every operation required in all possible emergencies, +Lothbroc contrived to keep his boat before the wind, and to bail out +the water as fast as it came in, until at length, after being driven +entirely across the German Ocean, he was thrown upon the English +shore, where, with his hawk still upon his arm, he safely landed. + +[Illustration: LOTHBROC AND HIS FALCON.] + +He knew that he was in the country of the most deadly foes of his +nation and race, and accordingly sought to conceal rather than to make +known his arrival. He was, however, found, after a few days, wandering +up and down in a solitary wood, and was conducted, together with his +hawk, to King Edmund. + +Edmund was so much pleased with his air and bearing, and so astonished +at the remarkable manner in which he had been brought to the English +shore, that he gave him his life; and soon discovering his great +knowledge and skill as a huntsman, he received him into his own +service, and treated him with great distinction and honor. In addition +to his hawk, Lothbroc had a greyhound, so that he could hunt with the +king in the fields as well as through the air. The greyhound was very +strongly attached to his master. + +The king's chief huntsman at this time was Beorn, and Beorn soon +became very envious and jealous of Lothbroc, on account of his +superior power and skill, and of the honorable distinction which they +procured for him. One day, when they two were hunting alone in the +woods with their dogs, Beorn killed his rival, and hid his body in +a thicket. Beorn went home, his own dogs following him, while the +greyhound remained to watch mournfully over the body of his master. +They asked Beorn what was become of Lothbroc, and he replied that he +had gone off into the wood the day before, and he did not know what +had become of him. + +In the mean time, the greyhound remained faithfully watching at the +side of the body of his master until hunger compelled him to leave his +post in search of food. He went home, and, as soon as his wants were +supplied, he returned immediately to the wood again. This he did +several days; and at length his singular conduct attracting attention, +he was followed by some of the king's household, and the body of his +murdered master was found. + +The guilt of the murder was with little difficulty brought home +to Beorn; and, as an appropriate punishment for his cruelty to an +unfortunate and homeless stranger, the king condemned him to be put +on board the same boat in which the ill-fated Lothbroc had made his +perilous voyage, and pushed out to sea. + +The winds and storms--entering, it seems, into the plan, and +influenced by the same principles of poetical justice as had governed +the king--drove the boat, with its terrified mariner, back again +across to the mouth of the Baltic, as they had brought Lothbroc to +England. The boat was thrown upon the beach, on Lothbroc's family +domain. + +Now Lothbroc had been, in his own country, a man of high rank and +influence. He was of royal descent, and had many friends. He had +two sons, men of enterprise and energy; and it so happened that the +landing of Beorn took place so near to them, that the tidings soon +came to their ears that their father's boat, in the hands of a Saxon +stranger, had arrived on the coast. They immediately sought out the +stranger, and demanded what had become of their father. Beorn, in +order to hide his own guilt, fabricated a tale of Lothbroc's having +been killed by Edmund, the king of the East Angles. The sons of the +murdered Lothbroc were incensed at this news. They aroused their +countrymen by calling upon them every where to aid them in revenging +their father's death. A large naval force was accordingly collected, +and a formidable descent made upon the English coast. + +Now Edmund, according to the story, was a humane and gentle-minded +man, much more interested in deeds of benevolence and of piety than in +warlike undertakings and exploits, and he was very far from being well +prepared to meet this formidable foe. In fact, he sought refuge in +a retired residence called Heglesdune. The Danes, having taken +some Saxons captive in a city which they had sacked and destroyed, +compelled them to make known the place of the king's retreat. Hinquar, +the captain of the Danes, sent him a summons to come and surrender +both himself and all the treasures of his kingdom. Edmund refused. +Hinquar then laid siege to the palace, and surrounded it; and, +finally, his soldiers, breaking in, put Edmund's attendants to death, +and brought Edmund himself, bound, into Hinquar's presence. + +Hinquar decided that the unfortunate captive should die. He was, +accordingly, first taken to a tree and scourged. Then he was shot at +with arrows, until, as the account states, his body was so full of the +arrows that remained in the flesh that there seemed to be no room for +more. During all this time Edmund continued to call upon the name of +Christ, as if finding spiritual refuge and strength in the Redeemer in +this his hour of extremity; and although these ejaculations afforded, +doubtless, great support and comfort to him, they only served to +irritate to a perfect phrensy of exasperation his implacable pagan +foes. They continued to shoot arrows into him until he was dead, and +then they cut off his head and went away, carrying the dissevered head +with them. Their object was to prevent his friends from having the +satisfaction of interring it with the body. They carried it to what +they supposed a sufficient distance, and then threw it off into a wood +by the way-side, where they supposed it could not easily be found. + +As soon, however, as the Danes had left the place, the affrighted +friends and followers of Edmund came out, by degrees, from their +retreats and hiding places. They readily found the dead body of their +sovereign, as it lay, of course, where the cruel deed of his murder +had been performed. They sought with mournful and anxious steps, here +and there, all around, for the head, until at length, when they came +into the wood where it was lying, they heard, as the historian who +records these events gravely testifies, a voice issuing from it, +calling them, and directing their steps by the sound. They followed +the voice, and, having recovered the head by means of this miraculous +guidance, they buried it with the body.[1] + +It seems surprising to us that reasonable men should so readily +believe such tales as these; but there are, in all ages of the world, +certain habits of belief, in conformity to which the whole community +go together. We all believe whatever is in harmony with, or analogous +to, the general type of faith prevailing in our own generation. Nobody +could be persuaded now that a dead head could speak, or a wolf change +his nature to protect it; but thousands will credit a fortune-teller, +or believe that a mesmerized patient can have a mental perception of +scenes and occurrences a thousand miles away. + +There was a great deal of superstition in the days when Alfred was +called to the throne, and there was also, with it, a great deal of +genuine honest piety. The piety and the superstition, too, were +inextricably intermingled and combined together. They were all +Catholics then, yielding an implicit obedience to the Church of Rome, +making regular contributions in money to sustain the papal authority, +and looking to Rome as the great and central point of Christian +influence and power, and the object of supreme veneration. We have +already seen that the Saxons had established a seminary at Rome, which +King Ethelwolf, Alfred's father, rebuilt and re-endowed. One of the +former Anglo-Saxon kings, too, had given a grant of one penny from +every house in the kingdom to the successors of St. Peter at Rome, +which tax, though nominally small, produced a very considerable sum +in the aggregate, exceeding for many years the royal revenues of the +kings of England. It continued to be paid down to the time of Henry +VIII., when the reformation swept away that, and all the other +national obligations of England to the Catholic Church together. + +In the age of Alfred, however, there were not only these public acts +of acknowledgment recognizing the papal supremacy, but there was +a strong tide of personal and private feeling of veneration and +attachment to the mother Church, of which it is hard for us, in the +present divided state of Christendom, to conceive. The religious +thoughts and affections of every pious heart throughout the realm +centered in Rome. Rome, too, was the scene of many miracles, by which +the imaginations of the superstitious and of the truly devout were +excited, which impressed them with an idea of power in which they felt +a sort of confiding sense of protection. This power was continually +interposing, now in one way and now in another, to protect virtue, to +punish crime, and to testify to the impious and to the devout, to each +in an appropriate way, that their respective deeds were the objects, +according to their character, of the displeasure or of the approbation +of Heaven. + +On one occasion, the following incident is said to have occurred. The +narration of it will illustrate the ideas of the time. A child of +about seven years old, named Kenelm, succeeded to the throne in the +Anglo-Saxon line. Being too young to act for himself, he was put under +the charge of a sister, who was to act as regent until the boy became +of age. The sister, ambitious of making the power thus delegated +to her entirely her own, decided on destroying her brother. She +commissioned a hired murderer to perpetrate the deed. The murderer +took the child into a wood, killed him, and hid his body in a thicket, +in a certain cow-pasture at a place called Clent. The sister then +assumed the scepter in her own name, and suppressed all inquiries in +respect to the fate of her brother; and his murder might have remained +forever undiscovered, had it not been miraculously revealed at Rome. + +A white dove flew into a church there one day, and let fall upon the +altar of St. Peter a paper, on which was written, in Anglo-Saxon +characters, + + + In Clent Cow-batch, Kenelme king bearne, lieth under Thorne, head + bereaved. + + +For a time nobody could read the writing. At length an Anglo-Saxon +saw it, and translated it into Latin, so that the pope and all others +could understand it. The pope then sent a letter to the authorities in +England, who made search and found the body. + +But we must end these digressions, which we have indulged thus far in +order to give the reader some distinct conception of the ideas and +habits of the times, and proceed, in the next chapter, to relate the +events immediately connected with Alfred's accession to the throne. + +[Footnote 1: A great many other tales are told of the miraculous +phenomena exhibited by the body of St. Edmund, which well illustrate +the superstitious credulity of those times. One writer says seriously +that, when the head was found, a wolf had it, holding it carefully in +his paws, with all the gentleness and care that the most faithful dog +would manifest in guarding a trust committed to him by his master. +This wolf followed the funeral procession to the tomb where the body +was deposited, and then disappeared. The head joined itself to the +body again where it had been severed, leaving only a purple line to +mark the place of separation.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ALFRED'S ACCESSION TO THE THRONE + + +At the battle in which Alfred's brother, Ethelred, whom Alfred +succeeded on the throne, was killed, as is briefly mentioned at the +close of chapter fourth, Alfred himself, then a brave and energetic +young man, fought by his side. The party of Danes whom they were +contending against in this fatal fight was the same one that came +out in the expedition organized by the sons of Lothbroc, and whose +exploits in destroying monasteries and convents were described in the +last chapter. Soon after the events there narrated, this formidable +body of marauders moved westward, toward that part of the kingdom +where the dominions more particularly pertaining to the family of +Alfred lay. + +There was in those days a certain stronghold or castle on the River +Thames, about forty miles west from London, which was not far from +the confines of Ethelred's dominions. The large and populous town of +Reading now stands upon the spot. It is at the confluence of the River +Thames with the Kennet, a small branch of the Thames, which here flows +into it from the south. The spot, having the waters of the rivers for +a defense upon two sides of it, was easily fortified. A castle had +been built there, and, as usual in such cases, a town had sprung up +about the walls. + +The Danes advanced to this stronghold and took possession of it, and +they made it for some time their head-quarters. It was at once the +center from which they carried on their enterprises in all directions +about the island, and the refuge to which they could always retreat +when defeated and pursued. In the possession of such a fastness, they, +of course, became more formidable than ever. King Ethelred determined +to dislodge them. He raised, accordingly, as large a force as his +kingdom would furnish, and, taking his brother Alfred as his second in +command, he advanced toward Reading in a very resolute and determined +manner. + +He first encountered a large body of the Danes who were out on a +marauding excursion. This party consisted only of a small detachment, +the main body of the army of the Danes having been left at Reading to +strengthen and complete the fortifications. They were digging a trench +from river to river, so as completely to insulate the castle, and make +it entirely inaccessible on either side except by boats or a bridge. +With the earth thrown out of the trench they were making an embankment +on the inner side, so that an enemy, after crossing the ditch, would +have a steep ascent to climb, defended too, as of course it would be +in such an emergency, by long lines of desperate men upon the top, +hurling at the assailants showers of javelins and arrows. + +While, therefore, a considerable portion of the Danes were at work +within and around their castle, to make it as nearly as possible +impregnable as a place of defense, the detachment above referred to +had gone forth for plunder, under the command of some of the bolder +and more adventurous spirits in the horde. This party Ethelred +overtook. A furious battle was fought. The Danes were defeated, and +driven off the ground. They fled toward Reading. Ethelred and Alfred +pursued them. The various parties of Danes that were outside of the +fortifications, employed in completing the outworks, or encamped in +the neighborhood, were surprised and slaughtered; or, at least, +vast numbers of them were killed, and the rest retreated within the +works--all maddened at their defeat, and burning with desire for +revenge. + +The Saxons were not strong enough to dispossess them of their +fastness. On the contrary, in a few days, the Danes, having matured +their plans, made a desperate sally against the Saxons, and, after a +very determined and obstinate conflict, they gained the victory, and +drove the Saxons off the ground. Some of the leading Saxon chieftains +were killed, and the whole country was thrown into great alarm at +the danger which was impending, that the Danes would soon gain the +complete and undisputed possession of the whole land. + +The Saxons, however, were not yet prepared to give up the struggle. +They rallied their forces, gathered new recruits, reorganized their +ranks, and made preparations for another struggle. The Danes, too, +feeling fresh strength and energy in consequence of their successes, +formed themselves in battle array, and, leaving their strong-hold, +they marched out into the open country in pursuit of their foe. The +two armies gradually approached each other and prepared for battle. +Every thing portended a terrible conflict, which was to be, in fact, +the great final struggle. + +The place where the armies met was called in those times AEscesdune, +which means Ashdown. It was, in fact, a hill-side covered with ash +trees. The name has become shortened and softened in the course of the +ten centuries which have intervened since this celebrated battle, into +Aston; if, indeed, as is generally supposed, the Aston of the present +day is the locality of the ancient battle. + +The armies came into the vicinity of each other toward the close of +the day. They were both eager for the contest, or, at least, they +pretended to be so, but they waited until the morning. The Danes +divided their forces into two bodies. Two kings commanded one +division, and certain chieftains, called _earls_, directed the +other. King Ethelred undertook to meet this order of battle by +a corresponding distribution of his own troops, and he gave, +accordingly, to Alfred the command of one division, while he himself +was to lead the other. All things being thus arranged, the hum and +bustle of the two great encampments subsided at last, at a late hour, +as the men sought repose under their rude tents, in preparation for +the fatigues and exposures of the coming day. Some slept; others +watched restlessly, and talked together, sleepless under the influence +of that strange excitement, half exhilaration and half fear, which +prevails in a camp on the eve of a battle. The camp fires burned +brightly all the night, and the sentinels kept vigilant watch, +expecting every moment some sudden alarm. + +The night passed quietly away. Ethelred and Alfred both arose early. +Alfred went out to arouse and muster the men in his division of the +encampment, and to prepare for battle. Ethelred, on the other hand, +sent for his priest, and, assembling the officers in immediate +attendance upon him, commenced divine service in his tent--the service +of the mass, according to the forms and usages which, even in that +early day, were prescribed by the Catholic Church. Alfred was thus +bent on immediate and energetic action, while Ethelred thought that +the hour for putting forth the exertion of human strength did not come +until time had been allowed for completing, in the most deliberate and +solemn manner, the work of imploring the protection of Heaven. + +Ethelred seems by his conduct on this occasion to have inherited from +his father, even more than Alfred, the spirit of religious devotion at +least so far as the strict and faithful observance of religious forms +was concerned. There was, it is true, a particular reason in this case +why the forms of divine service should be faithfully observed, and +that is, that the war was considered in a great measure a religious +war. The Danes were pagans. The Saxons were Christians. In making +their attacks upon the dominions of Ethelred, the ruthless invaders +were animated by a special hatred of the name of Christ, and they +evinced a special hostility toward every edifice, or institution, or +observance which bore the Christian name. The Saxons, therefore, in +resisting them, felt that they were not only fighting for their own +possessions and for their own lives, but that they were defending +the kingdom of God, and that he, looking down from his throne in +the heavens, regarded them as the champions of his cause; and, +consequently, that he would either protect them in the struggle, or, +if they fell, that he would receive them to mansions of special glory +and happiness in heaven, as martyrs who had shed their blood in his +service and for his glory. + +Taking this view of the subject, Ethelred, instead of going out to +battle at the early dawn, collected his officers into his tent, and +formed them into a religious congregation. Alfred, on the other hand, +full of impetuosity and ardor, was arousing his men, animating them by +his words of encouragement and by the influence of his example, and +making, as energetically as possible, all the preparations necessary +for the approaching conflict. + +In fact, Alfred, though his brother was king, and he himself only a +lieutenant general under him, had been accustomed to take the lead in +all the military operations of the army, on account of the superior +energy, resolution, and tact which he evinced, even in this early +period of his life. His brothers, though they retained the scepter, as +it fell successively into their hands, relied mainly on his wisdom and +courage in all their efforts to defend it, and Ethelred may have been +somewhat more at his ease, in listening to the priest's prayers in his +tent, from knowing that the arrangements for marshaling and directing +a large part of the force were in such good hands. + +The two encampments of Alfred and Ethelred seem to have been at some +little distance from each other. Alfred was impatient at Ethelred's +delay. He asked the reason for it. They told him that Ethelred was +attending mass, and that he had said he should on no account leave his +tent until the service was concluded. Alfred, in the mean time, took +possession of a gentle elevation of land, which now would give him an +advantage in the conflict. A single thorn-tree, growing there alone, +marked the spot. The Danes advanced to attack him, expecting that, as +he was not sustained by Ethelred's division of the army, he would be +easily overpowered and driven from his post. + +Alfred himself felt an extreme and feverish anxiety at Ethelred's +delay. He fought, however, with the greatest determination and +bravery. The thorn-tree continued to be the center of the conflict for +a long time, and, as the morning advanced, it became more and more +doubtful how it would end. At last, Ethelred, having finished his +devotional services, came forth from his camp at the head of his +division, and advanced vigorously to his faltering brother's aid. +This soon decided the contest. The Danes were overpowered and put to +flight. They fled at first in all directions, wherever each separate +band saw the readiest prospect of escape from the immediate vengeance +of their pursuers. They soon, however, all began with one accord +to seek the roads which would conduct them to their stronghold at +Reading. They were madly pursued, and massacred as they fled, by +Alfred's and Ethelred's army. Vast numbers fell. The remnant secured +their retreat, shut themselves up within their walls, and began to +devote their eager and earnest attention to the work of repairing and +making good their defenses. + +This victory changed for the time being the whole face of affairs, +and led, in various ways, to very important consequences, the most +important of which was, as we shall presently see, that it was the +means indirectly of bringing Alfred soon to the throne. As to +the cause of the victory, or, rather, the manner in which it was +accomplished, the writers of the times give very different accounts, +according as their respective characters incline them to commend, in +man, a feeling of quiet trust and confidence in God when placed in +circumstances of difficulty or danger, or a vigorous and resolute +exertion of his own powers. Alfred looked for deliverance to the +determined assaults and heavy blows which he could bring to bear upon +his pagan enemies with weapons of steel around the thorn-tree in the +field. Ethelred trusted to his hope of obtaining, by his prayers +in his tent, the effectual protection of Heaven; and they who have +written the story differ, as they who read it will on the question to +whose instrumentality the victory is to be ascribed. One says that +Alfred gained it by his sword. Another, that Alfred exerted his +strength and his valor in vain, and was saved from defeat and +destruction only by the intervention of Ethelred, bringing with him +the blessing of Heaven. + +In fact, the various narratives of these ancient events, which are +found at the present day in the old chronicles that record them, +differ always very essentially, not only in respect to matters of +opinion, and to the point of view in which they are to be regarded, +but also in respect to questions of fact. Even the place where this +battle was fought, notwithstanding what we have said about the +derivation of Aston from AEscesdune, is not absolutely certain. There +is in the same vicinity another town, called Ashbury, which claims the +honor. One reason for supposing that this last is the true locality is +that there are the ruins of an ancient monument here, which, tradition +says, was a monument built to commemorate the death of a Danish +chieftain slain here by Alfred. There is also in the neighborhood +another very singular monument, called The White Horse, which also +has the reputation of having been fashioned to commemorate Alfred's +victories. The White Horse is a rude representation of a horse, formed +by cutting away the turf from the steep slope of a hill, so as to +expose a portion of the white surface of the chalky rock below of such +a form that the figure is called a horse, though they who see it seem +to think it might as well have been called a dog. The name, however, +of _The White Horse_ has come down with it from ancient times, and +the hill on which it is cut is known as The White Horse Hill. Some +ingenious antiquarians think they find evidence that this gigantic +profile was made to commemorate the victory obtained by Alfred and +Ethelred over the Danes at the ancient AEscesdune. + +However this may be, and whatever view we may take of the comparative +influence of Alfred's energetic action and Ethelred's religious faith +in the defeat of the Danes at this great battle, it is certain that +the results of it were very momentous to all concerned. Ethelred +received a wound, either in this battle or in some of the smaller +contests and collisions which followed it, under the effects of which +he pined and lingered for some months, and then died. Alfred, by his +decision and courage on the day of the battle, and by the ardor and +resolution with which he pressed all the subsequent operations during +the period of Ethelred's decline, made himself still more conspicuous +in the eyes of his countrymen than he had ever been before. In looking +forward to Ethelred's approaching death, the people, accordingly, +began to turn their eyes to Alfred as his successor. There were +children of some of his older brothers living at that time, and they, +according to all received principles of hereditary right, would +naturally succeed to the throne; but the nation seems to have thought +that the crisis was too serious, and the dangers which threatened +their country were too imminent, to justify putting any child upon the +throne. The accession of one of those children would have been the +signal for a terrible and protracted struggle among powerful relatives +and friends for the regency during the minority of the youthful +sovereign, and this, while the Danes remained in their strong-hold at +Reading, in daily expectation of new re-enforcements from beyond the +sea, would have plunged the country in hopeless ruin. They turned +their eyes toward Alfred, therefore, as the sovereign to whom they +were to bow so soon as Ethelred should cease to breathe. + +In the mean time, the Danes, far from being subdued by the adverse +turn of fortune which had befallen them, strengthened themselves in +their fortress, made desperate sallies from their intrenchments, +attacked their foes on every possible occasion, and kept the country +in continual alarm. They at length so far recruited their strength, +and intimidated and discouraged their foes, whose king and nominal +leader, Ethelred, was now less able than ever to resist them, as to +take the field again. They fought more pitched battles; and, though +the Saxon chroniclers who narrate these events are very reluctant to +admit that the Saxons were really vanquished in these struggles, they +allow that the Danes kept the ground which they successively took post +upon, and the discouraged and disheartened inhabitants of the country +were forced to retire. + +In the mean time, too, new parties of Danes were continually arriving +on the coast, and spreading themselves in marauding and plundering +excursions over the country. The Danes at Reading were re-enforced +by these bands, which made the conflict between them and Ethelred's +forces more unequal still. Alfred did his utmost to resist the tide of +ill fortune, with the limited and doubtful authority which he held; +but all was in vain. Ethelred, worn down, probably, with the anxiety +and depression which the situation of his kingdom brought upon him, +lingered for a time, and then died, and Alfred was by general consent +called to the throne. This was in the year 871. + +It was a matter of moment to find a safe and secure place of deposit +for the body of Ethelred, who, as a Christian slain in contending with +pagans, was to be considered a martyr. His memory was honored as that +of one who had sacrificed his life in defense of the Christian faith. +They knew very well that even his lifeless remains would not be safe +from the vengeance of his foes unless they were placed effectually +beyond the reach of these desperate marauders. There was, far to the +south, in Dorsetshire, on the southern coast of England, a monastery, +at Wimborne, a very sacred spot, worthy to be selected as a place of +royal sepulture. The spot has continued sacred to the present day; and +it has now upon the site, as is supposed, of the ancient monastery, a +grand cathedral church or minster, full of monuments of former days, +and impressing all beholders with its solemn architectural grandeur. +Here they conveyed the body of Ethelred and interred it. It was a +place of sacred seclusion, where there reigned a solemn stillness and +awe, which no _Christian_ hostility would ever have dared to disturb. +The sacrilegious paganism of the Danes, however, would have respected +it but little, if they had ever found access to it; but they did +not. The body of Ethelred remained undisturbed; and, many centuries +afterward, some travelers who visited the spot recorded the fact that +there was a monument there with this inscription: + +"IN HOC LOCO QUIESC'T CORPUS ETHELREDI REGIS WEST SAXONUM, MARTYRIS, +QUI ANNO DOMINI DCCCLXXI., XXIII. APRILIS, PER MANUS DANORUM +PAGANORUM, OCCUBUIT."[1] + +Such is the commonly received opinion of the death of Ethelred. And +yet some of the critical historians of modern times, who find cause to +doubt or disbelieve a very large portion of what is stated in ancient +records, attempt to prove that Ethelred was not killed by the Danes +at all, but that he died of the plague, which terrible disease was at +that time prevailing in that part of England. At all events, he died, +and Alfred, his brother, was called to reign in his stead. + +[Footnote 1: "Here rests the body of Ethelred, king of West Saxony, +the Martyr, who died by the hands of the pagan Danes, in the year of +our Lord 871."] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +REVERSES. + + +The historians say that Alfred was very unwilling to assume the crown +when the death of Ethelred presented it to him. If it had been an +object of ambition or desire, there would probably have been a rival +claimant, whose right would perhaps have proved superior to his own, +since it appears that one or more of the brothers who reigned before +him left a son, whose claim to the inheritance, if the inheritance +had been worth claiming, would have been stronger than that of their +uncle. The _son_ of the oldest son takes precedence always of the +_brother_, for hereditary rights, like water, never move laterally so +long as they can continue to descend. + +The nobles, however, and chieftains, and all the leading powers of the +kingdom of Wessex, which was the particular kingdom which descended +from Alfred's ancestors, united to urge Alfred to take the throne. His +father had, indeed, designated him as the successor of his brothers by +his will, though how far a monarch may properly control by his will +the disposal of his realm, is a matter of great uncertainty. Alfred +yielded at length to these solicitations, and determined on assuming +the sovereign power. He first went to Wimborne to attend to the +funeral solemnities which were to be observed at his royal brother's +burial. He then went to Winchester, which, as well as Wimborne, is in +the south of England, to be crowned and anointed king. Winchester was, +even in those early days, a great ecclesiastical center. It was for +some time the capital of the West Saxon realm. It was a very sacred +place, and the crown was there placed upon Alfred's head, with the +most imposing and solemn ceremonies. It is a curious and remarkable +fact, that the spots which were consecrated in those early days by the +religious establishments of the times, have preserved in almost every +case their sacredness to the present day. Winchester is now famed all +over England for its great Cathedral church, and the vast religious +establishment which has its seat there--the annual revenues and +expenditures of which far exceed those of many of the states of this +Union. The income of the bishop alone was for many years double that +of the salary of the President of the United States. The Bishop of +Winchester is widely celebrated, therefore, all over England, for his +wealth, his ecclesiastical power, the architectural grandeur of the +Cathedral church, and the wealth and importance of the college of +ecclesiastics over which he presides. + +[Illustration: CORONATION CHAIR.] + +It was in Winchester that Alfred was crowned. As soon as the ceremony +was performed, he took the field, collected his forces, and went +to meet the Danes again. He found the country in a most deplorable +condition. The Danes had extended and strengthened their positions. +They had got possession of many of the towns, and, not content with +plundering castles and abbeys, they had seized lands, and were +beginning to settle upon them, as if they intended to make Alfred's +new kingdom their permanent abode. The forces of the Saxons, on the +other hand, were scattered and discouraged. There seemed no hope left +to them of making head against their pestiferous invaders. If they +were defeated, their cruel conquerors showed no moderation and no +mercy in their victory; and if they conquered, it was only to suppress +for a moment one horde, with a certainty of being attacked immediately +by another, more recently arrived, and more determined and relentless +than those before them. + +Alfred succeeded, however, by means of the influence of his personal +character, and by the very active and efficient exertions that he +made, in concentrating what forces remained, and in preparing for a +renewal of the contest. The first great battle that was fought was at +Wilton. This was within a month of his accession to the throne. The +battle was very obstinately fought; at the first onset Alfred's troops +carried all before them, and there was every prospect that he would +win the day. In the end, however, the tide of victory turned in favor +of the Danes, and Alfred and his troops were driven from the field. +There was an immense loss on both sides. In fact, both armies were, +for the time, pretty effectually disabled, and each seems to have +shrunk from a renewal of the contest. Instead, therefore, of fighting +again, the two commanders entered into negotiations. Hubba was the +name of the Danish chieftain. In the end, he made a treaty with +Alfred, by which he agreed to retire from Alfred's dominions, and +leave him in peace, provided that Alfred would not interfere with him +in his wars in any other part of England. Alfred's kingdom was Wessex. +Besides Wessex, there was Essex, Mercia, and Northumberland. Hubba and +his Danes, finding that Alfred was likely to prove too formidable an +antagonist for them easily to subdue, thought it would be most prudent +to give up one kingdom out of the four, on condition of not having +Alfred to contend against in their depredations upon the other three. +They accordingly made the treaty, and the Danes withdrew. They +evacuated their posts and strong-holds in Wessex, and went down the +Thames to London, which was in Mercia, and there commenced a new +course of conquest and plunder, where they had no such powerful foe to +oppose them. + +Buthred was the king of Mercia. He could not resist Hubba and his +Danes alone, and he could not now have Alfred's assistance. Alfred was +censured very much at the time, and has been condemned often since, +for having thus made a separate peace for himself and his own +immediate dominions, and abandoned his natural allies and friends, the +people of the other Saxon kingdoms. To make a peace with savage +and relentless pagans, on the express condition of leaving his +fellow-Christian neighbors at their mercy, has been considered +ungenerous, at least, if it was not unjust. On the other hand, those +who vindicate his conduct maintain that it was his duty to secure the +peace and welfare of his own realm, leaving other sovereigns to take +care of theirs; and that he would have done very wrong to sacrifice +the property and lives of his own immediate subjects to a mere point +of honor, when it was utterly out of his power to protect them and his +neighbors too. + +However this may be, Buthred, finding that he could not have Alfred's +aid, and that he could not protect his kingdom by any force which he +could himself bring into the field, tried negotiations too, and he +succeeded in buying off the Danes with money. He paid them a large +sum, on condition of their leaving his dominions finally and forever, +and not coming to molest him any more. Such a measure as this is +always a very desperate and hopeless one. Buying off robbers, or +beggars, or false accusers, or oppressors of any kind, is only to +encourage them to come again, after a brief interval, under some +frivolous pretext, with fresh demands or new oppressions, that they +may be bought off again with higher pay. At least Buthred found it so +in this case. Hubba went northward for a time, into the kingdom of +Northumberland, and, after various conquests and plunderings there, he +came back again into Mercia, on the plea that there was a scarcity of +provisions in the northern kingdom, and he was _obliged_ to come +back. Buthred bought him off again with a larger sum of money. Hubba +scarcely left the kingdom this time, but spent the money with his +army, in carousings and excesses, and then went to robbing and +plundering as before. Buthred, at last, reduced to despair, and seeing +no hope of escape from the terrible pest with which his kingdom was +infested, abandoned the country and escaped to Rome. They received him +as an exiled monarch, in the Saxon school, where he soon after died a +prey to grief and despair. + +The Danes overturned what remained of Buthred's government. They +destroyed a famous mausoleum, the ancient burial place of the Mercian +kings. This devastation of the abodes of the dead was a sort of +recreation--a savage amusement, to vary the more serious and dangerous +excitements attending their contests with the living. They found an +officer of Buthred's government named Ceolwulf, who, though a Saxon, +was willing, through his love of place and power, to accept of the +office of king in subordination to the Danes, and hold it at their +disposal, paying an annual tribute to them. Ceolwulf was execrated +by his countrymen, who considered him a traitor. He, in his turn, +oppressed and tyrannized over them. + +In the mean time, a new leader, with a fresh horde of Danes, had +landed in England. His name was Halfden. Halfden came with a +considerable fleet of ships, and, after landing his men, and +performing various exploits and encountering various adventures in +other parts of England, he began to turn his thoughts toward Alfred's +dominions. Alfred did not pay particular attention to Halfden's +movements at first, as he supposed that his treaty with Hubba had +bound the whole nation of the Danes not to encroach upon _his_ realm, +whatever they might do in respect to the other Saxon kingdoms. Alfred +had a famous castle at Wareham, on the southern coast of the island. +It was situated on a bay which lies in what is now Dorsetshire. This +castle was the strongest place in his dominions. It was garrisoned and +guarded, but not with any special vigilance, as no one expected an +attack upon it. Halfden brought his fleet to the southern shore of the +island, and, organizing an expedition there, he put to sea, and before +any one suspected his design, he entered the bay, surprised and +attacked Wareham Castle, and took it. Alfred and the people of his +realm were not only astonished and alarmed at the loss of the castle, +but they were filled with indignation at the treachery of the Danes in +violating their treaty by attacking it. Halfden said, however, that +he was an independent chieftain, acting in his own name, and was not +bound at all by any obligations entered into by Hubba! + +There followed after this a series of contests and truces, during +which treacherous wars alternated with still more treacherous and +illusive periods of peace, neither party, on the whole, gaining +any decided victory. The Danes, at one time, after agreeing upon a +cessation of hostilities, suddenly fell upon a large squadron of +Alfred's horse, who, relying on the truce, were moving across the +country too much off their guard. The Danes dismounted and drove off +the men, and seized the horses, and thus provided themselves with +cavalry, a species of force which it is obvious they could not easily +bring, in any ships which they could then construct, across the German +Ocean. Without waiting for Alfred to recover from the surprise +and consternation which this unexpected treachery occasioned, the +newly-mounted troop of Danes rode rapidly along the southern coast of +England till they came to the town of Exeter. Its name was in those +days Exancester. It was then, as it is now, a very important town. It +has since acquired a mournful celebrity as the place of refuge, and +the scene of suffering of Queen Henrietta Maria, the mother of Charles +the Second.[1] The loss of this place was a new and heavy cloud over +Alfred's prospects. It placed the whole southern coast of his realm in +the hands of his enemies, and seemed to portend for the whole interior +of the country a period of hopeless and irremediable calamity. + +It seems, too, from various unequivocal statements and allusions +contained in the narratives of the times, that Alfred did not possess, +during this period of his reign, the respect and affection of his +subjects. He is accused, or, rather, not directly accused, but spoken +of as generally known to be guilty of many faults which alienated the +hearts of his countrymen from him, and prepared them to consider his +calamities as the judgments of Heaven. He was young and ardent, full +of youthful impetuosity and fire, and was elated at his elevation to +the throne; and, during the period while the Danes left him in peace, +under the treaties he had made with Hubba, he gave himself up to +pleasure, and not always to innocent pleasure. They charged him, too, +with being tyrannical and oppressive in his government, being so +devoted to gratifying his own ambition and love of personal indulgence +that he neglected his government, sacrificed the interests and the +welfare of his subjects, and exercised his regal powers in a very +despotic and arbitrary manner. + +It is very difficult to decide, at this late day how far this +disposition to find fault with Alfred's early administration of his +government arose from, or was aggravated by, the misfortunes and +calamities which befell him. On the one hand, it would not be +surprising if, young, and arduous, and impetuous as he was at this +period of his life, he should have fallen into the errors and faults +which youthful monarchs are very prone to commit on being suddenly +raised to power. But then, on the other hand, men are prone, in all +ages of the world, and most especially in such rude and uncultivated +times as these were, to judge military and governmental action by +the sole criterion of success. Thus, when they found that Alfred's +measures, one after another, failed in protecting his country, that +the impending calamities burst successively upon them, notwithstanding +all Alfred's efforts to avert them, it was natural that they should +look at and exaggerate his faults, and charge all their national +misfortunes to the influence of them. + +There was a certain Saint Neot, a kinsman and religious counselor of +Alfred, the history of whose life was afterward written by the +Abbot of Crowland, the monastery whose destruction by the Danes was +described in a former chapter. In this narrative it is said that Neot +often rebuked Alfred in the severest terms for his sinful course of +life, predicting the most fatal consequences if he did not reform, and +using language which only a very culpable degree of remissness and +irregularity could justify. "You glory," said he, one day, when +addressing the king, "in your pride and power, and are determined and +obdurate in your iniquity. But there is a terrible retribution in +store for you. I entreat you to listen to my counsels, amend your +life, and govern your people with moderation and justice, instead of +tyranny and oppression, and thus avert if you can, before it is too +late, the impending judgments of Heaven." + +Such language as this it is obvious that only a very serious +dereliction of duty on Alfred's part could call for or justify; but, +whatever he may have done to deserve it, his offenses were so fully +expiated by his subsequent sufferings, and he atoned for them so +nobly, too, by the wisdom, the prudence, the faithful and devoted +patriotism of his later career, that mankind have been disposed to +pass by the faults of his early years without attempting to scrutinize +them too closely. The noblest human spirits are always, in some +periods of their existence, or in some aspects of their characters, +strangely weakened by infirmities and frailties, and deformed by sin. +This is human nature. We like to imagine that we find exceptions, +and to see specimens of moral perfection in our friends or in the +historical characters whose general course of action we admire; but +there are no exceptions. To err and to sin, at some times and in some +ways, is the common, universal, and inevitable lot of humanity. + +At the time when Halfden and his followers seized Wareham Castle and +Exeter, Alfred had been several years upon the throne, during which +time these derelictions from duty took place, so far as they existed +at all. But now, alarmed at the imminence of the impending danger, +which threatened not only the welfare of his people, but his own +kingdom and even his life--for one Saxon monarch had been driven from +his dominions, as we have seen, and had died a miserable exile at +Rome--Alfred aroused himself in earnest to the work of regaining +his lost influence among his people, and recovering their alienated +affections. + +He accordingly, as his first step, convened a great assembly of the +leading chieftains and noblemen of the realm, and made addresses to +them, in which he urged upon them the imminence of the danger which +threatened their common country, and pressed them to unite vigorously +and energetically with him to contend against their common foe. They +must make great sacrifices, he said, both of their comfort and ease, +as well as of their wealth, to resist successfully so imminent a +danger. He summoned them to arms, and urged them to contribute the +means necessary to pay the expense of a vigorous prosecution of the +war. These harangues, and the ardor and determination which Alfred +manifested himself at the time of making them, were successful. The +nation aroused itself to new exertions, and for a time there was a +prospect that the country would be saved. + +[Illustration: THE FIRST BRITISH FLEET.] + +Among the other measures to which Alfred resorted in this emergency +was the attempt to encounter the Danes upon their own element by +building and equipping a fleet of ships, with which to proceed to +sea, in order to meet and attack upon the water certain new bodies +of invaders, who were on the way to join the Danes already on the +island--coming, as rumor said, along the southern shore. In attempting +to build up a naval power, the greatest difficulty, always, is to +provide seamen. It is much easier to build ships than to train +sailors. To man his little fleet, Alfred had to enlist such +half-savage foreigners as could be found in the ports, and even +pirates, as was said, whom he induced to enter his service, promising +them pay, and such plunder as they could take from the enemy. These +attempts of Alfred to build and man a fleet are considered the first +rude beginnings from which the present vast edifice of British naval +power took its origin. When the fleet was ready to put to sea, the +people thronged the shores, watching its movements with the utmost +curiosity and interest, earnestly hoping that it might be successful +in its contests with the more tried and experienced armaments with +which it would have to contend. + +Alfred was, in fact, successful in the first enterprises which he +undertook with his ships. He encountered a fleet of the Danish ships +in the Channel, and defeated them. His fleet captured, moreover, one +of the largest of the vessels of the enemy; and, with what would be +thought in our day unpardonable cruelty, they threw the sailors and +soldiers whom they found on board into the sea, and kept the vessel. + +After all, however, Alfred gained no conclusive and decisive victory +over his foes. They were too numerous, too scattered, and too firmly +seated in the various districts of the island, of some of which they +had been in possession for many years. Time passed on, battles were +fought, treaties of peace were made, oaths were taken, hostages +were exchanged, and then, after a very brief interval of repose, +hostilities would break out again, each party bitterly accusing the +other of treachery. Then the poor hostages would be slain, first by +one party, and afterward, in retaliation, by the other. + +In one of these temporary and illusive pacifications, Alfred attempted +to bind the Danes by Christian oaths. Their customary mode of binding +themselves, in cases where they wished to impose a solemn religious +obligation, was to swear by a certain ornament which they wore upon +their arms, which is called in the chronicles of those times a +_bracelet_. What its form and fashion was we can not now precisely +know; but it is plain that they attached some superstitious, and +perhaps idolatrous associations of sacredness to it. To swear by this +bracelet was to place themselves under the most solemn obligation that +they could assume. Alfred, however, not satisfied with this pagan +sanction, made them, in confirming one treaty, swear by the Christian +relics, which were certain supposed memorials of our Saviour's +crucifixion, or portions of the bodies of dead saints miraculously +preserved, and to which the credulous Christians of that day attached +an idea of sacredness and awe, scarcely less superstitious than that +which their pagan enemies felt for the bracelets on their arms. Alfred +could not have supposed that these treacherous covenanters, since they +would readily violate the faith plighted in the name of what they +revered, could be held by what they hated and despised. Perhaps he +thought that, though they would be no more likely to keep the new oath +than the old, still, that their violation of it, when it occurred, +would be in itself a great crime--that his cause would be subsequently +strengthened by their thus incurring the special and unmitigated +displeasure of Heaven. + +Among the Danish chieftains with whom Alfred had thus continually to +contend in this early part of his reign, there was one very famous +hero, whose name was Rollo. He invaded England with a wild horde which +attended him for a short time, but he soon retired and went to France, +where he afterward greatly distinguished himself by his prowess and +his exploits. The Saxon historians say that he retreated from England +because Alfred gave him such a reception that he saw that it would be +impossible for him to maintain his footing there. His account of it +was, that, one day, when he was perplexed with doubt and uncertainty +about his plans, he fell asleep and dreamed that he saw a swarm of +bees flying southward. This was an omen, as he regarded it, indicating +the course which he ought to pursue. He accordingly embarked his +men on board his ships again, and crossed the Channel, and sought +successfully in Normandy, a province of France the kingdom and the +home which, either on account of Alfred or of the bees, he was not to +enjoy in England. + +The cases, however, in which the Danish chieftains were either +entirely conquered or finally expelled from the kingdom were very +few. As years passed on, Alfred found his army diminishing, and the +strength of his kingdom wasting away. His resources were exhausted, +his friends had disappeared, his towns and castles were taken, and, at +last, about eight years after his coronation at Winchester as monarch +of the most powerful of the Saxon kingdoms, he found himself reduced +to the very last extreme of destitution and distress. + +[Footnote 1: For an account of Henrietta's adventures and sufferings +at Exeter, see the History of Charles II., chap. iii] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE SECLUSION. + + +Notwithstanding the tide of disaster and calamity which seemed to +be gradually overwhelming Alfred's kingdom, he was not reduced to +absolute despair, but continued for a long time the almost hopeless +struggle. There is a certain desperation to which men are often +aroused in the last extremity, which surpasses courage, and is even +sometimes a very effectual substitute for strength; and Alfred might, +perhaps, have succeeded, after all, in saving his affairs from utter +ruin, had not a new circumstance intervened, which seemed at once to +extinguish all remaining hope and to seal his doom. + +This circumstance was the arrival of a new band of Danes, who were, it +seems, more numerous, more ferocious, and more insatiable than any +who had come before them. The other kingdoms of the Saxons had been +already pretty effectually plundered. Alfred's kingdom of Wessex was +now, therefore, the most inviting field, and, after various excursions +of conquest and plunder in other parts of the island, they came like +an inundation over Alfred's frontiers, and all hope of resisting them +seems to have been immediately abandoned. The Saxon armies were broken +up. Alfred had lost, it appears, all influence and control over both +leaders and men. The chieftains and nobles fled. Some left the country +altogether; others hid themselves in the best retreats and fastnesses +that they could find. Alfred himself was obliged to follow the general +example. A few attendants, either more faithful than the rest, or else +more distrustful of their own resources, and inclined, accordingly, to +seek their own personal safety by adhering closely to their sovereign, +followed him. These, however, one after another, gradually forsook +him, and, finally, the fallen and deserted monarch was left alone. + +In fact, it was a relief to him at last to be left alone; for they who +remained around him became in the end a burden instead of affording +him protection. They were too few to fight, and too many to be easily +concealed. Alfred withdrew himself from them, thinking that, under the +circumstances in which he was now placed, he was justified in seeking +his own personal safety alone. He had a wife, whom he married when he +was about twenty years old; but she was not with him now, though she +afterward joined him. She was in some other place of retreat. She +could, in fact, be much more easily concealed than her husband; for +the Danes, though they would undoubtedly have valued her very highly +as a captive, would not search for her with the eager and persevering +vigilance with which it was to be expected they would hunt for their +most formidable, but now discomfited and fugitive foe. + +Alfred, therefore, after disentangling himself from all but one or two +trustworthy and faithful friends, wandered on toward the west, through +forests, and solitudes, and wilds, to get as far away as possible from +the enemies who were upon his track. He arrived at last on the remote +western frontiers of his kingdom, at a place whose name has been +immortalized by its having been for some time the place of his +retreat. It was called Athelney.[1] Athelney was, however, scarcely +deserving of a name, for it was nothing but a small spot of dry land +in the midst of a morass, which, as grass would grow upon it in the +openings among the trees, a simple cow-herd had taken possession of, +and built his hut there. + +The solid land which the cow-herd called his farm was only about two +acres in extent. All around it was a black morass, of great extent, +wooded with alders, among which green sedges grew, and sluggish +streams meandered, and mossy tracts of verdure spread treacherously +over deep bogs and sloughs. In the driest season of the summer the +goats and the sheep penetrated into these recesses, but, excepting in +the devious and tortuous path by which the cow-herd found his way to +his island, it was almost impassable for man. + +Alfred, however, attracted now by the impediments and obstacles which +would have repelled a wanderer under any other circumstances, went +on with the greater alacrity the more intricate and entangled the +thickets of the morass were found, since these difficulties promised +to impede or deter pursuit. He found his way in to the cow-herd's +hut. He asked for shelter. People who live in solitudes are always +hospitable. The cow-herd took the wayworn fugitive in, and gave him +food and shelter. Alfred remained his guest for a considerable time. + +The story is, that after a few days the cow-herd asked him who he was, +and how he came to be wandering about in that distressed and destitute +condition. Alfred told him that he was one of the king's _thanes_. A +thane was a sort of chieftain in the Saxon state. He accounted for his +condition by saying that Alfred's army had been beaten by the Danes, +and that he, with the other generals, had been forced to fly. He +begged the cow-herd to conceal him, and to keep the secret of his +character until times should change, so that he could take the field +again. + +The story of Alfred's seclusion on the _island_, as it might almost +be called, of Ethelney, is told very differently by the different +narrators of it. Some of these narrations are inconsistent and +contradictory. They all combine, however, though they differ in +respect to many other incidents and details, in relating the far-famed +story of Alfred's leaving the cakes to burn. It seems that, though +the cow-herd himself was allowed to regard Alfred as a man of rank in +disguise--though even _he_ did not know that it was the king--his wife +was not admitted, even in this partial way, into the secret. She was +made to consider the stranger as some common strolling countryman, +and the better to sustain this idea, he was taken into the cow-herd's +service, and employed in various ways, from time to time, in labors +about the house and farm. Alfred's thoughts, however, were little +interested in these occupations. His mind dwelt incessantly upon his +misfortunes and the calamities which had befallen his kingdom. He was +harassed by continual suspense and anxiety, not being able to gain any +clear or certain intelligence about the condition and movements of +either his friends or foes. He was revolving continually vague and +half-formed plans for resuming the command of his army and attempting +to regain his kingdom, and wearying himself with fruitless attempts to +devise means to accomplish these ends. Whenever he engaged voluntarily +in any occupation, it would always be something in harmony with these +trains of thought and these plans. He would repair and put in order +implements of hunting, or any thing else which might be deemed to have +some relation to war. He would make bows and arrows in the chimney +corner--lost, all the time, in melancholy reveries, or in wild and +visionary schemes of future exploits. + +One evening, while he was thus at work, the cow-herd's wife left, for +a few moments, some cakes under his charge, which she was baking +upon the great stone hearth, in preparation for their common supper. +Alfred, as might have been expected, let the cakes burn. The woman, +when she came back and found them smoking, was very angry. She told +him that he could eat the cakes fast enough when they were baked, +though it seemed he was too lazy and good for nothing to do the least +thing in helping to bake them. What wide-spread and lasting effects +result sometimes from the most trifling and inadequate causes! The +singularity of such an adventure befalling a monarch in disguise, and +the terse antithesis of the reproaches with which the woman rebuked +him, invest this incident with an interest which carries it every +where spontaneously among mankind. Millions, within the last thousand +years, have heard the name of Alfred, who have known no more of him +than this story; and millions more, who never would have heard of him +but for this story, have been led by it to study the whole history of +his life; so that the unconscious cow-herd's wife, in scolding +the disguised monarch for forgetting her cakes, was perhaps doing +more than he ever did himself for the wide extension of his future +fame.[2] + +[Illustration: ALFRED WATCHING THE CAKES.] + +Alfred was, for a time, extremely depressed and disheartened by the +sense of his misfortunes and calamities; but the monkish writers who +described his character and his life say that the influence of his +sufferings was extremely salutary in softening his disposition and +improving his character. He had been proud, and haughty, and +domineering before. He became humble, docile, and considerate now. +Faults of character that are superficial, resulting from the force of +circumstances and peculiarities of temptation, rather than from innate +depravity of heart, are easily and readily burned off in the fire of +affliction, while the same severe ordeal seems only to indurate the +more hopelessly those propensities which lie deeply seated in an +inherent and radical perversity. + + +Alfred, though restless and wretched in his apparently hopeless +seclusion, bore his privations with a great degree of patience and +fortitude, planning, all the time, the best means of reorganizing his +scattered forces, and of rescuing his country from the ruin into which +it had fallen. Some of his former friends, roaming as he himself had +done, as fugitives about the country, happened at length to come into +the neighborhood of his retreat. He heard of them, and cautiously made +himself known. They were rejoiced to find their old commander once +more, and, as there was no force of the Danes in that neighborhood +at the time, they lingered, timidly and fearlessly at first, in the +vicinity, until, at length, growing more bold as they found themselves +unmolested in their retreat, they began to make it their gathering +place and head-quarters. Alfred threw off his disguise, and assumed +his true character. Tidings of his having been thus discovered +spread confidentially among the most tried and faithful of his Saxon +followers, who had themselves been seeking safety in other places of +refuge. They began, at first cautiously and by stealth, but afterward +more openly, to repair to the spot. Alfred's family, too, from which +he had now been for many months entirely separated, contrived to +rejoin him. The herdsman, who proved to be a man of intelligence and +character superior to his station, entered heartily into all these +movements. He kept the secret faithfully. He did all in his power +to provide for the wants and to promote the comfort of his warlike +guests, and, by his fidelity and devotion, laid Alfred under +obligations of gratitude to him, which the king, when he was afterward +restored to the throne, did not forget to repay. + +Notwithstanding, however, all the efforts which the herdsman made to +obtain supplies, the company now assembled at Ethelney were sometimes +reduced to great straits. There were not only the wants of Alfred +and his immediate family and attendants to be provided for, but +many persons were continually coming and going, arriving often at +unexpected times, and acting, as roving and disorganized bodies of +soldiers are very apt to do at such times, in a very inconsiderate +manner. The herdsman's farm produced very little food, and the +inaccessibleness of its situation made it difficult to bring in +supplies from without. In fact, it was necessary, in one part of the +approach to it, to use a boat, so that the place is generally called, +in history, an island, though it was insulated mainly by swamps +and morasses rather than by navigable waters. There were, however, +sluggish streams all around it, where Alfred's men, when their stores +were exhausted, went to fish, under the herdsman's guidance, returning +sometimes with a moderate fare, and sometimes with none. + +The monks who describe this portion of Alfred's life have recorded an +incident as having occurred on the occasion of one of these fishing +excursions, which, however, is certainly, in part, a fabrication, and +may be wholly so. It was in the winter. The waters about the grounds +were frozen up. The provisions in the house were nearly exhausted, +there being scarcely anything remaining. The men went away with +their fishing apparatus, and with their bows and arrows, in hopes of +procuring some fish or fowl to replenish their stores. Alfred was left +alone, with only a single lady of his family, who is called in the +account "Mother," though it could not have been Alfred's own mother, +as she had been dead many years. Alfred was sitting in the hut +reading. A beggar, who had by some means or other found his way in +over the frozen morasses, came to the door, and asked for food. +Alfred, looking up from his book, asked the mother, whoever she +was, to go and see what there was to give him. She went to make +examination, and presently returned, saying that there was nothing to +give him. There was only a single loaf of bread remaining, and that +would not be half enough for their own wants that very night when the +hunting party should return, if they should come back unsuccessful +from their expedition. Alfred hesitated a moment, and then ordered +half the loaf to be given to the beggar. He said, in justification of +the act, that his trust was now in God, and that the power which once, +with five loaves and two small fishes, fed abundantly three thousand +men, could easily make half a loaf suffice for them. + +The loaf was accordingly divided, the beggar was supplied, and, +delighted with this unexpected relief, he went away. Alfred turned his +attention again to his reading. After a time the book dropped from his +hand. He had fallen asleep. He dreamed that a certain saint appeared +to him, and made a revelation to him from heaven. God, he said, had +heard his prayers, was satisfied with his penitence, and pitied his +sorrows; and that his act of charity in relieving the poor beggar, +even at the risk of leaving himself and his friends in utter +destitution, was extremely acceptable in the sight of Heaven. The +faith and trust which he thus manifested were about to be rewarded. +The time for a change had come. He was to be restored to his kingdom, +and raised to a new and higher state of prosperity and power than +before. As a token that this prediction was true, and would be all +fulfilled, the hunting party would return that night with an ample and +abundant supply. + +Alfred awoke from his sleep with his mind filled with new hopes and +anticipations. The hunting party returned loaded with supplies, and in +a state of the greatest exhilaration at their success. They had fish +and game enough to have supplied a little army. The incident of +relieving the beggar, the dream, and their unwonted success confirming +it, inspired them all with confidence and hope. They began to +form plans for commencing offensive operations. They would build +fortifications to strengthen their position on the island. They would +collect a force. They would make sallies to attack the smaller parties +of the Danes. They would send agents and emissaries about the kingdom +to arouse, and encourage, and assemble such Saxon forces as were yet +to be found. In a word, they would commence a series of measures for +recovering the country from the possession of its pestilent enemy, and +for restoring the rightful sovereign to the throne. The development +of these projects and plans, and the measures for carrying them into +effect, were very much hastened by an event which suddenly occurred in +the neighborhood of Ethelney, the account of which, however, must be +postponed to the next chapter. + +[Footnote 1: The name is spelled variously, Ethelney, AEthelney, +Ethelingay, &c. It was in Somersetshire, between the rivers Thone and +Parrot.] + +[Footnote 2: As this incident has been so famous, it may amuse the +reader to peruse the different accounts which are given of it in the +most ancient records which now remain. They were written in Latin and +in Saxon, and, of course, as given here, they are translations. The +discrepancies which the reader will observe in the details illustrate +well the uncertainty which pertains to all historical accounts that go +back to so early an age. + +"He led an unquiet life there, at his cow-herd's. It happened that, on +a certain day, the rustic wife of the man prepared to bake her bread. +The king, sitting then near the hearth, was making ready his bow and +arrows, and other warlike implements, when the ill-tempered woman +beheld the loaves burning at the fire. She ran hastily and removed +them, scolding at the king, and exclaiming, 'You man! you will not +turn the bread you see burning, but you will be very glad to eat it +when it is done!' This unlucky woman little thought she was addressing +the King Alfred." + +In a certain Saxon history the story is told thus: + +"He took shelter in a swain's house, and also him and his evil wife +diligently served. It happened that, on one day, the swain's wife +heated her oven, and the king sat by it warming himself by the fire. +She knew not then that he was the king. Then the evil woman was +excited, and spoke to the king with an angry mind. 'Turn thou these +loaves, that they burn not, for I see daily that thou art a great +eater!' He soon obeyed this evil woman because she would scold. He +then, the good king, with great anxiety and sighing, called to his +Lord, imploring his pity." + +The following account is from a Latin life of St. Neot, which still +exists in manuscript, and is of great antiquity: + +"Alfred, a fugitive, and exiled from his people, came by chance and +entered the house of a poor herdsman, and there remained some days +concealed, poor and unknown. + +"It happened that, on the Sabbath day, the herdsman, as usual, led his +cattle to their accustomed pastures, and the king remained alone in +the cottage with the man's wife. She, as necessity required, placed a +few loaves, which some call _loudas_, on a pan, with fire underneath, +to be baked for her husband's repast and her own, on his return. + +"While she was necessarily busied, like peasants, on other offices, +she went anxious to the fire, and found the bread burning on the other +side. She immediately assailed the king with reproaches. 'Why, man! do +you sit thinking there, and are too proud to turn the bread? Whatever +be your family, with your manners and sloth, what trust can be put in +you hereafter? If you were even a nobleman, you will be glad to eat +the bread which you neglect to attend to.' The king, though stung by +her upbraidings, yet heard her with patience and mildness, and, +roused by her scolding, took care to bake her bread thereafter as she +wished." + +There is one remaining account, which is as follows: + +"It happened that the herdsman one day, as usual, led his swine to +their accustomed pasture, and the king remained at home alone with the +wife. She placed her bread under the ashes of the fire to bake, and +was employed in other business when she saw the loaves burning, and +said to the king in her rage, 'You will not turn the bread you see +burning, though you will be very glad to eat it when done!' The king, +with a submitting countenance, though vexed at her upbraidings not +only turned the bread, but gave them to the woman well baked and +unbroken." + +It is obvious, from the character of these several accounts that each +writer, taking the substantial fact as the groundwork of his story, +has added such details and chosen such expressions for the housewife's +reproaches as suited his own individual fancy. We find, unfortunately +for the truth and trustworthiness of history, that this is almost +always the case, when independent and original accounts of past +transactions, whether great or small, are compared. The gravest +historians, as well as the lightest story tellers, frame their +narrations for _effect_, and the tendency in all ages to shape and +fashion the narrative with a view to the particular effect designed +by the individual narrator to be produced has been found entirely +irresistible. It is necessary to compare, with great diligence and +careful scrutiny, a great many different accounts, in order to learn +how little there is to be exactly and confidently believed.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +REASSEMBLING OF THE ARMY. + + +Ethelney, though its precise locality can not now be certainly +ascertained, was in the southwestern part of England, in +Somersetshire, which county lies on the southern shore of the Bristol +Channel. There is a region of marshes in that vicinity, which +tradition assigns as the place of Alfred's retreat; and there was, +about the middle of this century, a farmhouse there, which bore the +name of Ethelney, though this name may have been given to it in modern +times by those who imagined it to be the ancient locality. A jewel of +gold, engraved as an amulet to be worn about the neck, and inscribed +with the Saxon words which mean "Alfred had me made," was found in the +vicinity, and is still carefully preserved in a museum in England. +Some curious antiquarians profess to find the very hillock, rising out +of the low grounds around, where the herdsman that entertained Alfred +so long lived; but this, of course is all uncertain. The peculiarities +of the spot derived their character from the morasses and the woods, +and the courses of the sluggish streams in the neighborhood, and these +are elements of landscape scenery which ten centuries of time and of +cultivation would entirely change. + +Whatever may have been the precise situation of the spot, instead of +being, as at first, a mere hiding-place and retreat, it became, before +many months, as was intimated in the last chapter, a military camp, +secluded and concealed, it is true, but still possessing, in a +considerable degree, the characteristics of a fastness and place of +defense. Alfred's company erected something which might be called a +wall. They built a bridge across the water where the herdsman's boat +had been accustomed to ply. They raised two towers to watch and guard +the bridge. All these defenses were indeed of a very rude and simple +construction; still, they answered the purpose intended. They afforded +a real protection; and, more than all, they produced a certain moral +effect upon the minds of those whom they shielded, by enabling them +to consider themselves as no longer lurking fugitives, dependent for +safety on simple concealment, but as a garrison, weak, it is true, but +still gathering strength, and advancing gradually toward a condition +which would enable them to make positive aggressions upon the enemy. + +The circumstance which occurred to hasten the development of Alfred's +plans, and which was briefly alluded to at the close of the last +chapter, was the following: It seems that quite a large party of +Danes, under the command of a leader named Hubba, had been making a +tour of conquest and plunder in Wales, which country was on the other +side of the Bristol Channel, directly north of Ethelney, where Alfred +was beginning to concentrate a force. He would be immediately exposed +to an attack from this quarter as soon as it should be known that he +was at Ethelney, as the distance across the Channel was not great, and +the Danes were provided with shipping. + +Ethelney was in the county called Somersetshire. To the southwest +of Somersetshire, a little below it, on the shores of the Bristol +Channel, was a castle, called Castle Kenwith, in Devonshire. The +Duke of Devonshire, who held this castle, encouraged by Alfred's +preparations for action, had assembled a considerable force here, to +be ready to co-operate with Alfred in the active measures which he was +about to adopt. Things being in this state, Hubba brought down his +forces to the northern shores of the Channel, collected together all +the boats and shipping that he could command, crossed the Channel, +and landed on the Devonshire shore. Odun, the duke, not being strong +enough to resist, fled, and shut himself up, with all his men, in the +castle. Hubba advanced to the castle walls, and, sitting down before +them, began to consider what to do. + +Hubba was the last surviving son of Ragner Lodbrog, whose deeds and +adventures were related in a former chapter. He was, like all other +chieftains among the Danes, a man of great determination and energy, +and he had made himself very celebrated all over the land by his +exploits and conquests. His particular horde of marauders, too, was +specially celebrated among all the others, on account of a mysterious +and magical banner which they bore. The name of this banner was the +_Reafan_, that is, the Raven. There was the figure of a raven woven +or embroidered on the banner. Hubba's three sisters had woven it for +their brothers, when they went forth across the German Ocean to avenge +their father's death. It possessed, as both the Danes and Saxons +believed, supernatural and magical powers. The raven on the banner +could foresee the result of any battle into which it was borne. It +remained lifeless and at rest whenever the result was to be adverse; +and, on the other hand, it fluttered its wings with a mysterious and +magical vitality when they who bore it were destined to victory. The +Danes consequently looked up to this banner with a feeling of profound +veneration and awe, and the Saxons feared and dreaded its mysterious +power. The explanation of this pretended miracle is easy. The +imagination of superstitious men, in such a state of society as that +of these half-savage Danes, is capable of much greater triumphs over +the reason and the senses than is implied in making them believe that +the wings of a bird are either in motion or at rest, whichever +it fancies, when the banner on which the image is embroidered is +advancing to the field and fluttering in the breeze. + +The Castle of Kenwith was situated on a rocky promontory, and was +defended by a Saxon wall. Hubba saw that it would be difficult to +carry it by a direct assault. On the other hand, it was not well +supplied with water or provisions, and the numerous multitude which +had crowded into it, would, as Hubba thought, be speedily compelled +to surrender by thirst and famine, if he were simply to wait a short +time, till their scanty stock of food was consumed. Perhaps the raven +did not flutter her wings when Hubba approached the castle, but by her +apparent lifelessness portended calamity if an attack were to be made. +At all events, Hubba decided not to attack the castle, but to invest +it closely on all sides, with his army on the land and with his +vessels on the side of the sea, and thus reduce it by famine. He +accordingly stationed his troops and his galleys at their posts and +established himself in his tent, quietly to await the result. + +He did not have to wait so long as he anticipated. Odun, finding that +his danger was so imminent, nay, that his destruction was inevitable +if he remained in his castle, thus shut in, determined, in the +desperation to which the emergency reduced him, to make a sally. +Accordingly, one night, as soon as it was dark, so that the +indications of any movement within the castle might not be perceived +by the sentinels and watchmen in Hubba's lines, he began to marshal +and organize his army for a sudden and furious onset upon the camp of +the Danes. + +They waited, when all was ready, till the first break of day. To make +the surprise most effectual, it was necessary that it should take +place in the night; but then, on the other hand, the success, if they +should be successful, would require, in order to be followed up with +advantage, the light of day. Odun chose, therefore, the earliest dawn +as the time for his attempt, as this was the only period which would +give him at first darkness for his surprise, and afterward light for +his victory. The time was well chosen, the arrangements were all +well made, and the result corresponded with the character of the +preparations. The sally was triumphantly successful. + +The Danes, who were all, except their sentinels, sleeping quietly and +secure, were suddenly aroused by the unearthly and terrific yells with +which the Saxons burst into the lines of their encampment. They flew +to arms, but the shock of the onset produced a panic and confusion +which soon made their cause hopeless. Odun and his immediate followers +pressed directly forward into Hubba's tent, where they surprised the +commander, and massacred him on the spot. They seized, too, to their +inexpressible joy, the sacred banner, which was in Hubba's tent, and +bore it forth, rejoicing in it, not merely as a splendid trophy of +their victory, but as a loss to their enemies which fixed and sealed +their doom. + +The Danes fled before their enemies in terror, and the consternation +which they felt, when they learned that their banner had been captured +and their leader slain, was soon changed into absolute despair. The +Saxons slew them without mercy, cutting down some as they were running +before them in their headlong flight, and transfixing others with +their spears and arrows as they lay upon the ground, trampled down by +the crowds and the confusion. There was no place of refuge to which +they could fly except to their ships. Those, therefore, that escaped +the weapons of their pursuers, fled in the direction of the water, +where the strong and the fortunate gained the boats and the galleys, +while the exhausted and the wounded were drowned. The fleet sailed +away from the coast, and the Saxons, on surveying the scene of the +terrible contest, estimated that there were twelve hundred dead bodies +lying in the field. + +This victory, and especially the capture of the Raven, produced vast +effects on the minds both of the Saxons and of the Danes, animating +and encouraging the one, and depressing the other with superstitious +as well as natural and proper fears. The influence of the battle was +sufficient, in fact, wholly to change Alfred's position and prospects. +The news of the discovery of the place of his retreat, and of the +measures which he was maturing for taking the field again to meet his +enemies, spread throughout the country. The people were every where +ready to take up arms and join him. There were large bodies of Danes +in several parts of his dominions still, and they, alarmed somewhat at +these indications of new efforts of resistance on the part of their +enemies, began to concentrate their strength and prepare for another +struggle. + +The main body of the Danes were encamped at a place called Edendune, +in Wiltshire. There is a hill near, which the army made their main +position, and the marks of their fortifications have been traced +there, either in imagination or reality, in modern times. Alfred +wished to gain more precise and accurate information than he yet +possessed of the numbers and situation of his foes; and, in order to +do this, instead of employing a spy, he conceived the design of going +himself in disguise to explore the camp of the Danes. The undertaking +was full of danger, but yet not quite so desperate as at first it +might seem. Alfred had had abundant opportunities during the months +of his seclusion to become familiar with the modes of speech and the +manners of peasant life. He had also, in his early years, stored his +memory with Saxon poetry, as has already been stated. He was fond of +music, too, and well skilled in it; so that he had every qualification +for assuming the character of one of those roving harpers, who, in +those days, followed armies, to sing songs and make amusement for the +soldiers. He determined, consequently, to assume the disguise of a +harper, and to wander into the camp of the Danes, that he might make +his own observations on the nature and magnitude of the force with +which he was about to contend. + +He accordingly clothed himself in the garb of the character which he +was to assume, and, taking his harp upon his shoulder, wandered away +in the direction of the Northmen's camp. Such a strolling countryman, +half musician, half beggar would enter without suspicion or hinderance +into the camp, even though he belonged to the nation of the enemy. +Alfred was readily admitted, and he wandered at will about the +lines, to play and sing to the soldiers wherever he found groups to +listen--intent, apparently, on nothing but his scanty pittance of pay, +while he was really studying, with the utmost attention and care, the +number, and disposition, and discipline of the troops, and all the +arrangements of the army. He came very near discovering himself, +however, by overacting his part. His music was so well executed and +his ballads were so fine, that reports of the excellence of his +performance reached the commander's ears. He ordered the pretended +harper to be sent into his tent, that he might hear him play and +sing. Alfred went, and thus he had the opportunity of completing his +observations in the tent, and in the presence of the Danish king. + +Alfred found that the Danish camp was in a very unguarded and careless +condition. The name of the commander, or king, was Guthrum.[1] Alfred, +while playing in his presence, studied his character, and it is (not) +improbable that the very extraordinary course which he afterward +pursued in respect to Guthrum may have been caused, in a great degree, +by the opportunity he now enjoyed of domestic access to him and +of obtaining a near and intimate view of his social and personal +character. Guthrum treated the supposed harper with great kindness. He +was much pleased both with his singing and his songs, being attracted, +too, probably, in some degree, by a certain mysterious interest which +the humble stranger must have inspired; for Alfred possessed personal +and intellectual traits of character which could not but have given to +his conversation and his manners a certain charm, notwithstanding all +his efforts to disguise or conceal them. + +However this may be, Guthrum gave Alfred a very friendly reception, +and the hour of social intercourse and enjoyment which the general +and the ballad-singer spent together was only a precursor of the more +solid and honest friendship which afterward subsisted between them as +allied sovereigns. + +Alfred had one person with him, whom he had brought from Ethelney--a +sort of attendant--to help him carry his harp, and to be a companion +for him on the way. He would have needed such a companion even if he +had been only what he seemed; but for a spy, going in disguise into +the camp of such ferocious enemies as the Danes, it would seem +absolutely indispensable that he should have the support and sympathy +of a friend. + +Alfred, after finishing his examination of the camp of Guthrum, and +forming secretly, in his own mind, his plans for attacking it, moved +leisurely away, taking his harp and his attendant with him, as if +going on in search of some new place to practice his profession. As +soon as he was out of the reach of observation, he made a circuit and +returned in safety to Ethelney. The season was now spring, and every +thing favored the commencement of his enterprise. + +His first measure was to send out some trusty messengers into all the +neighboring counties, to visit and confer with his friends at their +various castles and strong-holds. These messengers were to announce to +such Saxon leaders as they should find that Alfred was still alive, +and that he was preparing to take the field against the Danes again; +and were to invite them to assemble at a certain place appointed, in +a forest, with as many followers as they could bring, that the +king might there complete the organization of an army, and hold +consultation with them to mature their plans. + +The wood on the borders of which they were to meet was an extensive +forest of willows, fifteen miles long and six broad. It was known by +the name of Selwood Forest. There was a celebrated place called the +Stone of Egbert, where the meeting was to be held. Each chieftain whom +the messengers should visit was to be invited to come to the Stone of +Egbert at the appointed day, with as many armed men, and yet in +as secret and noiseless a manner as possible, so as thus, while +concentrating all their forces in preparation for their intended +attack, to avoid every thing which would tend to put Guthrum on his +guard. + +The messengers found the Saxon chieftains very ready to enter into +Alfred's plans. They were rejoiced to hear, as some of them did now +for the first time hear, that he was alive, and that the spirit and +energy of his former character were about to be exhibited again. Every +thing, in fact, conspired to favor the enterprise. The long and gloomy +months of winter were past, and the opening spring brought with it, +as usual, excitement and readiness for action. The tidings of Odun's +victory over Hubba, and the capture of the sacred raven, which had +spread every where, had awakened a general enthusiasm, and a desire +on the part of all the Saxon chieftains and soldiers to try their +strength once more with their ancient enemies. + +Accordingly, those to whom the secret was intrusted eagerly accepted +the invitation, or, perhaps, as it should rather be expressed, obeyed +the summons which Alfred sent them. They marshaled their forces +without any delay, and repaired to the appointed place in Selwood +Forest. Alfred was ready to meet them there. Two days were occupied +with the arrivals of the different parties, and in the mutual +congratulations and rejoicings. Growing more bold as their sense of +strength increased with their increasing numbers, and with the ardor +and enthusiasm which their mutual influence on each other inspired, +they spent the intervals of their consultations in festivities and +rejoicings, celebrating the occasion with games and martial music. The +forest resounded with the blasts of horns, the sound of the trumpets, +the clash of arms, and the shouts of joy and congratulation, which all +the efforts of the more prudent and cautious could not repress. + +In the mean time, Guthrum remained in his encampment at Edendune. This +seems to have been the principal concentration of the forces of the +Danes which were marshaled for military service; and yet there were +large numbers of the people, disbanded soldiers, or non-combatants, +who had come over in the train of the armies, that had taken +possession of the lands which they had conquered, and had settled upon +them for cultivation, as if to make them their permanent home. These +intruders were scattered in larger or smaller bodies in various parts +of the kingdom, the Saxon inhabitants being prevented from driving +them away by the influence and power of the armies, which still kept +possession of the field, and preserved their military organization +complete, ready for action at any time whenever any organized Saxon +force should appear. + +Guthrum, as we have said, headed the largest of these armies. He was +aware of the increasing excitement that was spreading among the Saxon +population, and he even heard rumors of the movements which the bodies +of Saxons made, in going under their several chieftains to Selwood +Forest. He expected that some important movement was about to occur, +but he had no idea that preparations so extended, and for so decisive +a demonstration, were so far advanced. He remained, therefore, at his +camp at Edendune, gradually completing his arrangements for his summer +campaign, but making no preparations for resisting any sudden or +violent attack. + +When all was ready, Alfred put himself at the head of the forces which +had collected at the Egbert Stone, or, as it is quaintly spelled in +some of the old accounts, Ecgbyrth-stan. There is a place called +Brixstan in that vicinity now, which may possibly be the same name +modified and abridged by the lapse of time. Alfred moved forward +toward Guthrum's camp. He went only a part of the way the first day, +intending to finish the march by getting into the immediate vicinity +of the enemy on the morrow. He succeeded in accomplishing this object, +and encamped the next night at a place called AEcglea,[2] on an +eminence from which he could reconnoiter, from a great distance, the +position of the army. + +That night, as he was sleeping in his tent, he had a remarkable dream. +He dreamed that his relative, St. Neot, who has been already mentioned +as the chaplain or priest who reproved him so severely for his sins in +the early part of his reign, appeared to him. The apparition bid him +not fear the immense army of pagans whom he was going to encounter +on the morrow. God, he said, had accepted his penitence, and was now +about to take him under his special protection. The calamities which +had befallen him were sent in judgment to punish the pride and +arrogance which he had manifested in the early part of his reign; but +his faults had been expiated by the sufferings he had endured, and by +the penitence and the piety which they had been the means of awakening +in his heart; and now he might go forward into the battle without +fear, as God was about to give him the victory over all his enemies. + +The king related his dream the next morning to his army. The +enthusiasm and ardor which the chieftains and the men had felt before +were very much increased by this assurance of success. They broke up +their encampment, therefore, and commenced the march, which was to +bring them, before many hours, into the presence of the enemy, with +great alacrity and eager expectations of success. + +[Footnote 1: Spelled sometimes Godrun, Gutrum, Gythram, and in various +other ways.] + +[Footnote 2: Some think that this place is the modern Leigh; others, +that it was Highley; either of which names might have been deduced +from AEcglea.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE VICTORY OVER THE DANES. + + +Encouraged by his dream, and animated by the number and the elation +of his followers, Alfred led his army onward toward the part of the +country where the camp of the enemy lay. He intended to surprise them; +and, although Guthrum had heard vague rumors that some great Saxon +movement was in train, he viewed the sudden appearance of this large +and well-organized army with amazement. + +He had possession of the hill near Edendune, which has been already +described. He had established his head-quarters here, and made his +strongest fortifications on the summit of the eminence. The main body +of his forces were, however, encamped upon the plain, over which they +extended, in vast numbers, far and wide. Alfred halted his men to +change the order of march into the order of battle. Here he made an +address to his men. As no time was to be lost, he spoke but a few +words. He reminded them that they were to contend, that day, to rescue +themselves and their country from the intolerable oppression of a +horde of pagan idolaters; that God was on their side, and had promised +them the victory; and he urged them to act like men, so as to deserve +the success and happiness which was in store for them. + +The army then advanced to the attack, the Danes having been drawn out +hastily, but with as much order as the suddenness of the call would +allow, to meet them. When near enough for their arrows to take effect, +the long line of Alfred's troops discharged their arrows. They then +advanced to the attack with lances; but soon these and all other +weapons which kept the combatants at a distance were thrown aside, and +it became a terrible conflict with swords, man to man. + +It was not long before the Danes began to yield. They were not +sustained by the strong assurance of victory, nor by the desperate +determination which animated the Saxons. The flight soon became +general. They could not gain the fortification on the hill, for Alfred +had forced his way in between the encampment on the plains and the +approaches to the hill. The Danes, consequently, not being able to +find refuge in either part of the position they had taken, fled +altogether from the field, pursued by Alfred's victorious columns as +fast as they could follow. + +Guthrum succeeded, by great and vigorous exertions, in rallying his +men, or, at least, in so far collecting and concentrating the separate +bodies of the fugitives as to change the flight into a retreat, having +some semblance of military order. Vast numbers had been left dead upon +the field. Others had been taken prisoners. Others still had become +hopelessly dispersed, having fled from the field of battle in diverse +directions, and wandered so far, in their terror, that they had not +been able to rejoin their leader in his retreat. Then, great numbers +of those who pressed on under Guthrum's command, exhausted by fatigue, +or spent and fainting from their wounds, sank down by the way-side to +die, while their comrades, intent only upon their own safety, pressed +incessantly on. The retreating army was thus, in a short time, reduced +to a small fraction of its original force. This remaining body, with +Guthrum at their head, continued their retreat until they reached +a castle which promised them protection. They poured in over the +drawbridges and through the gates of this fortress in extreme +confusion; and feeling suddenly, and for the moment, entirely relieved +at their escape from the imminence of the immediate danger, they shut +themselves in. + +The finding of such a retreat would have been great good fortune for +these wretched fugitives if there had been any large force in the +country to come soon to their deliverance; but, as they were without +provisions and without water, they soon began to perceive that, unless +they obtained some speedy help from without, they had only escaped the +Saxon lances and swords to die a ten times more bitter death of thirst +and famine; and there was no force to relieve them. The army which had +been thus defeated was the great central force of the Danes upon +the island. The other detachments and independent bands which were +scattered about the land were thunderstruck at the news of this +terrible defeat. The Saxons, too, were every where aroused to the +highest pitch of enthusiasm at the reappearance of their king and +the tidings of his victory. The whole country was in arms. Guthrum, +however, shut up in his castle, and closely invested with Alfred's +forces, had no means of knowing what was passing without. His numbers +were so small in comparison with those besieging him that it would +have been madness for him to have attempted a sally; and he would not +surrender. He waited day after day, hoping against hope that some +succor would come. His half-famished sentinels gazed from the +watch-towers of the castle all around, looking for some cloud of +distant dust, or weapon glancing in the sun, which might denote the +approach of friends coming to their rescue. This lasted fourteen days. +At the end of that time, the number within this wretched prison who +were raving in the delirium of famine and thirst, or dying in agony, +became too great for Guthrum to persist any longer. He surrendered. +Alfred was once more in possession of his kingdom. + +During the fourteen days that elapsed between the victory on the field +of battle and the final surrender of Guthrum, Alfred, feeling that +the power was now in his hands, had had ample time to reflect on the +course which he should pursue with his subjugated enemies; and the +result to which he came, and the measure which he adopted, evince, +as much as any act of his life, the greatness, and originality, and +nobleness of his character. Here were two distinct and independent +races on the same island, that had been engaged for many years in a +most fierce and sanguinary struggle, each gaining at times a +temporary and partial victory, but neither able entirely to subdue or +exterminate the other. The Danes, it is true, might be considered as +the aggressors in this contest, and, as such, wholly in the wrong; but +then, on the other hand, it was to be remembered that the ancestors of +the Saxons had been guilty of precisely the same aggressions upon the +Britons, who held the island before them; so that the Danes were, +after all, only intruding upon intruders. It was, besides, the general +maxim of the age, that the territories of the world were prizes open +for competition, and that the right to possess and to govern vested +naturally and justly in those who could show themselves the strongest. +Then, moreover, the Danes had been now for many years in Britain. Vast +numbers had quietly settled on agricultural lands. They had become +peaceful inhabitants. They had established, in many cases, friendly +relations with the Saxons. They had intermarried with them; and the +two races, instead of appearing, as at first, simply as two hostile +armies of combatants contending on the field, had been, for some +years, acquiring the character of a mixed population, established and +settled, though heterogeneous, and, in some sense, antagonistic still. +To root out all these people, intruders though they were, and send +them back again across the German Ocean, to regions where they no +longer had friends or home, would have been a desperate--in fact, an +impossible undertaking. + +Alfred saw all these things. He took, in fact, a general, and +comprehensive, and impartial view of the whole subject, instead of +regarding it, as most conquerors in his situation would have done, in +a _partisan_, that is, an exclusively _Saxon_ point of view. He +saw how impossible it was to undo what had been done, and wisely +determined to take things as they were, and make the best of the +present situation of affairs, leaving the past, and aiming only at +accomplishing the best that was now attainable for the future. It +would be well if all men who are engaged in quarrels which they vainly +endeavor to settle by discussing and disputing about what is past and +gone, and can now never be recalled, would follow his example. In +all such cases we should say, let the past be forgotten, and, taking +things as they now are, let us see what we can do to secure peace and +happiness in future. + +The policy which Alfred determined to adopt was, not to attempt the +utter extirpation of the Danes from England, but only to expel the +_armed forces_ from his own dominions, allowing those peaceably +disposed to remain in quiet possession of such lands in other parts of +the island as they already occupied. Instead, therefore, of treating +Guthrum with harshness and severity as a captive enemy, he told him +that he was willing not only to give him his liberty, but to regard +him, on certain conditions, as a friend and an ally, and allow him +to reign as a king over that part of England which his countrymen +possessed, and which was beyond Alfred's own frontiers. These +conditions were, that Guthrum was to go away with all his forces and +followers out of Alfred's kingdom, under solemn oaths never to return; +that he was to confine himself thenceforth to the southeastern part +of England, a territory from which the Saxon government had long +disappeared; that he was to give hostages for the faithful fulfillment +of these stipulations, without, however, receiving on his part +any hostages from Alfred. There was one other stipulation, more +extraordinary than all the rest, viz., that Guthrum should become a +convert to Christianity, and publicly avow his adhesion to the Saxon +faith by being baptized in the presence of the leaders of both armies, +in the most open and solemn manner. In this proposed baptism, Alfred +himself would stand his godfather. + +This idea of winning over a pagan soldier to the Christian Church as +the price of his ransom from famine and death in the castle to which +his direst enemy had driven him--this enemy himself, the instrument +thus of so rude a mode of conversion, to be the sponsor of the new +communicant's religious profession--was one in keeping, it is true, +with the spirit of the times, but still it is one which, under the +circumstances of this case, only a mind of great originality and power +would have conceived of or attempted to carry into effect. Guthrum +might well be astonished at this unexpected turn in his affairs. A +few days before, he saw himself on the brink of utter and absolute +destruction. Shut up with his famished soldiers in a gloomy castle, +with the enemy, bitter and implacable, as he supposed, thundering at +the gates, the only alternatives before him seemed to be to die of +starvation and phrensy within the walls which covered him, or by a +cruel military execution in the event of surrender. He surrendered at +last, as it would seem, only because the utmost that human cruelty +can inflict is more tolerable than the horrid agonies of thirst and +hunger. + +We can not but hope that Alfred was led, in some degree, by a generous +principle of Christian forgiveness in proposing the terms which he did +to his fallen enemy, and also that Guthrum, in accepting them, +was influenced, in part at least, by emotions of gratitude and by +admiration of the high example of Christian virtue which Alfred thus +exhibited. At any rate, he did accept them. The army of the Danes were +liberated from their confinement, and commenced their march to the +eastward; Guthrum himself, attended by thirty of his chiefs and many +other followers, became Alfred's guest for some weeks, until the most +pressing measures for the organization of Alfred's government could be +attended to, and the necessary preparations for the baptism could +be made. At length, some weeks after the surrender, the parties all +repaired together, now firm friends and allies, to a place near +Ethelney, where the ceremony of baptism was to be performed. + +The admission of this pagan chieftain into the Christian Church did +not probably mark any real change in his opinions on the question of +paganism and Christianity, but it was not the less important in its +consequences on that account. The moral effect of it upon the minds +of his followers was of great value. It opened the way for their +reception of the Christian faith, if any of them should be disposed to +receive it. Then it changed wholly the feeling which prevailed among +the Saxon soldiery, and also the Saxon chieftains, in respect to these +enemies. A great deal of the bitterness of exasperation with which +they had regarded them arose from the fact that they were pagans, +the haters and despisers of the rites and institutions of religion. +Guthrum's approaching baptism was to change all this; and Alfred, in +leading him to the baptismal font, was achieving, in the estimation +not only of all England, but of France and of Rome, a far greater +and nobler victory than when he conquered his armies on the field of +Edendune. + +The various ceremonies connected with the baptism were protracted +through several days. They were commenced at a place called Aulre, +near Ethelney, where there was a religious establishment and priests +to perform the necessary rites. The new convert was clothed in white +garments--the symbol of purity, then customarily worn by candidates +for baptism--and was covered with a mystic veil. They gave Guthrum +a new name--a Christian, that is, a Saxon name. Converted pagans +received always a new name, in those days, when baptized; and our +common phrase, _the Christian name_, has arisen from the circumstance. +Guthrum's Christian name was Ethelstan. Alfred was his godfather. +After the baptism the whole party proceeded to a town a few miles +distant, which Alfred had decided to make a royal residence, and there +other ceremonies connected with the new convert's admission to the +Church were performed, the whole ending with a series of great public +festivities and rejoicings. + +A very full and formal treaty of peace and amity was now concluded +between the two sovereigns; for Guthrum was styled in the treaty a +_king_, and was to hold, in the dominions assigned him to the eastward +of Alfred's realm, an independent jurisdiction. He agreed, however, by +this treaty, to confine himself, from that time forward, to the limits +thus assigned. If the reader wishes to see what part of England it was +which Guthrum was thus to hold, he can easily identify it by finding +upon the map the following counties, which now occupy the same +territory, viz., Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, and part of +Herefordshire. The population of all this region consisted already, in +a great measure, of Danes. It was the part most easily accessible from +the German Ocean, by means of the Thames and the Medway, and it had, +accordingly, become the chief seat of the Northmen's power. + +Guthrum not only agreed to confine himself to the limits thus marked +out, but also to consider himself henceforth as Alfred's friend and +ally in the event of any new bands of adventurers arriving on the +coast, and to join Alfred in his endeavors to resist them. In hoping +that he would fulfill this obligation, Alfred did not rely altogether +on Guthrum's oaths or promises, or even on the hostages that he held. +He had made it for his _interest_ to fulfill them. By giving him +peaceable possession of this territory, after having, by his +victories, impressed him with a very high idea of his own great +military resources and power, he had placed his conquered enemy under +very strong inducements to be satisfied with what he now possessed, +and to make common cause with Alfred in resisting the encroachments of +any new marauders. + +Guthrum was therefore honestly resolved on keeping his faith with his +new ally; and when all these stipulations were made, and the treaties +were signed, and the ceremonies of the baptism all performed, Alfred +dismissed his guest, with many presents and high honors. + +There is some uncertainty whether Alfred did not, in addition to the +other stipulations under which he bound Guthrum, reserve to himself +the superior sovereignty over Guthrum's dominions, in such a manner +that Guthrum, though complimented in the treaty with the title of +king, was, after all, only a sort of viceroy, holding his throne under +Alfred as his liege lord. One thing is certain, that Alfred took care, +in his treaty with Guthrum, to settle all the fundamental laws of both +kingdoms, making them the same for both, as if he foresaw the complete +and entire union which was ultimately to take place, and wished to +facilitate the accomplishment of this end by having the political and +social constitution of the two states brought at once into harmony +with each other. + +It proved, in the end, that Guthrum was faithful to his obligations +and promises. He settled himself quietly in the dominions which the +treaty assigned to him, and made no more attempts to encroach upon +Alfred's realm. Whenever other parties of Danes came upon the coast, +as they sometimes did, they found no favor or countenance from him. +They came, in some cases, expecting his co-operation and aid; but he +always refused it, and by this discouragement, as well as by open +resistance, he drove many bands away, turning the tide of invasion +southward into France, and other regions on the Continent. Alfred, in +the mean time, gave his whole time and attention to organizing the +various departments of his government, to planning and building towns, +repairing and fortifying castles, opening roads, establishing courts +of justice, and arranging and setting in operation the complicated +machinery necessary in the working of a well-conducted social state. +The nature and operation of some of his plans will be described more +fully in the next chapter. + +In concluding this chapter, we will add, that notwithstanding his +victory over Guthrum, and Guthrum's subsequent good faith, Alfred +never enjoyed an absolute peace, but during the whole remainder of his +reign was more or less molested with parties of Northmen, who came, +from time to time, to land on English shores, and who met sometimes +with partial and temporary success in their depredations. The most +serious of these attempts occurred near the close of Alfred's life, +and will be hereafter described. + + * * * * * + +The generosity and the nobleness of mind which Alfred manifested in +his treatment of Guthrum made a great impression upon mankind at the +time, and have done a great deal to elevate the character of our hero +in every subsequent age. All admire such generosity in others, however +slow they may be to practice it themselves. It seems a very easy +virtue when we look upon an exhibition of it like this, where we +feel no special resentments ourselves against the person thus nobly +forgiven. We find it, however, a very hard virtue to practice, when a +case occurs requiring the exercise of it toward a person who has done +_us_ an injury. Let those who think that in Alfred's situation they +should have acted as he did, look around upon the circle of their +acquaintance, and see whether it is easy for them to pursue a similar +course toward their personal enemies--those who have thwarted and +circumvented them in their plans, or slandered them, or treated them +with insult and injury. By observing how hard it is to change our +own resentments to feelings of forgiveness and good will, we can the +better appreciate Alfred's treatment of Guthrum. + +Alfred was famed during all his life for the kindness of his heart, +and a thousand stories were told in his day of his interpositions +to right the wronged, to relieve the distressed, to comfort the +afflicted, and to befriend the unhappy. On one occasion, as it is +said, when he was hunting in a wood, he heard the piteous cries of a +child, which seemed to come from the air above his head. It was found, +after much looking and listening, that the sounds proceeded from an +eagle's nest upon the top of a lofty tree. On climbing to the nest, +they found the child within, screaming with pain and terror. The eagle +had carried it there in its talons for a prey. Alfred brought down +the boy, and, after making fruitless inquiries to find its father and +mother, adopted him for his own son, gave him a good education, and +provided for him well in his future life. The story was all, very +probably, a fabrication; but the characters of men are sometimes +very strikingly indicated by the kind of stories that are _invented_ +concerning them. + +[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ALFRED.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CHARACTER OF ALFRED'S REIGN. + + +Perhaps the chief aspect in which King Alfred's character has +attracted the attention of mankind, is in the spirit of humanity and +benevolence which he manifested, and in the efforts which he made +to cultivate the arts of peace, and to promote the intellectual and +social welfare of his people, notwithstanding the warlike habits to +which he was accustomed in his early years, and the warlike influences +which surrounded him during all his life. Every thing in the outward +circumstances in which he was placed tended to make him a mere +military hero. He saw, however, the superior greatness and glory of +the work of laying the foundations of an extended and permanent power, +by arranging in the best possible manner the internal organization +of the social state. He saw that intelligence, order, justice, and +system, prevailing in and governing the institutions of a country, +constitute the true elements of its greatness, and he acted +accordingly. + +It is true, he had good materials to work with. He had the Anglo-Saxon +race to act upon at the time, a race capable of appreciating and +entering into his plans; and he has had the same race to carry them +on, for the ten centuries which have elapsed since he laid his +foundations. As no other race of men but Anglo-Saxons could have +produced an Alfred, so, probably, no other race could have carried +out such plans as Alfred formed. It is a race which has always been +distinguished, like Alfred their great prototype and model, for a +certain cool and intrepid energy in war, combined with and surpassed +by the industry, the system, the efficiency, and the perseverance with +which they pursue and perfect all the arts of peace. They systematize +every thing. They arrange--they organize. Every thing in their hands +takes form, and advances to continual improvement. Even while the +rest of the world remain inert, they are active. When the arts and +improvements of life are stationary among other nations, they are +always advancing with _them_. It is a people that is always making new +discoveries, pressing forward to new enterprises, framing new laws, +constituting new combinations and developing new powers; until now +after the lapse of a thousand years, the little island feeds and +clothes, directly or indirectly, a very large portion of the human +race, and directs, in a great measure, the politics of the world. + +Whether Alfred reasoned upon the capacities of the people whom he +ruled, and foresaw their future power, or whether he only followed the +simple impulses of his own nature in the plans which he formed and the +measures which he adopted, we can not know; but we know that, in fact, +he devoted his chief attention, during all the years of his reign, +to perfecting in the highest degree the internal organization of his +realm, considered as a great social community. His people were in a +very rude, and, in fact, almost half-savage state when he commenced +his career. He had every thing to do, and yet he seems to have had no +favorable opportunities for doing any thing. + +In the first place, his time and attention were distracted, during his +whole reign, by continued difficulties and contentions with various +hordes of Danes, even after his peace with Guthrum. These troubles, +and the military preparations and movements to which they would +naturally give rise, would seem to have been sufficient to have +occupied fully all the powers of his mind, and to have prevented him +from doing any thing effectual for the internal improvement of his +kingdom. + +Then, besides, there was another difficulty with which Alfred had to +contend, which one might have supposed would have paralyzed all his +energies. He suffered all his life from some mysterious and painful +internal disease, the nature of which, precisely, is not known, as the +allusions to it, though very frequent throughout his life, are very +general, and the physicians of the day, who probably were not very +skillful, could not determine what it was, or do any thing effectual +to relieve it. The disease, whatever it may have been, was a source of +continual uneasiness, and sometimes of extreme and terrible suffering. +Alfred bore all the pain which it caused him with exemplary patience; +and, though he could not always resist the tendency to discouragement +and depression with which the perpetual presence of such a torment +wears upon the soul, he did not allow it to diminish his exertions, or +suspend, at any time, the ceaseless activity with which he labored for +the welfare of the people of his realm. + +Alfred attached great importance to the education of his people. It +was not possible, in those days, to educate the mass, for there were +no books, and no means of producing them in sufficient numbers to +supply any general demand. Books, in those days, were extremely +costly, as they had all to be written laboriously by hand. The great +mass of the population, therefore, who were engaged in the daily toil +of cultivating the land, were necessarily left in ignorance; but +Alfred made every effort in his power to awaken a love for learning +and the arts among the higher classes. He set them, in fact, an +efficient example in his own case, by pressing forward diligently in +his own studies, even in the busiest periods of his reign. The spirit +and manner in which he did this are well illustrated by the plan he +pursued in studying Latin. It was this: + +He had a friend in his court, a man of great literary attainments and +great piety, whose name was Asser. Asser was a bishop in Wales when +Alfred first heard of his fame as a man of learning and abilities, and +Alfred sent for him to come to his court and make him a visit. Alfred +was very much pleased with what he saw of Asser at this interview, and +proposed to him to leave his preferments in Wales, which were numerous +and important, and come into his kingdom, and he would give him +greater preferments there. Asser hesitated. Alfred then proposed to +him to spend six months every year in England, and the remaining six +in Wales. Asser said that he could not give an answer even to this +proposal till he had returned home and consulted with the monks and +other clergy under his charge there. He would, however, he said, at +least come back and see Alfred again within the next six months, and +give him his final answer. Then, after having spent four days in +Alfred's court, he went away. + +The six months passed away and he did not return. Alfred sent a +messenger into Wales to ascertain the reason. The messenger found +that Asser was sick. His friends, however, had advised that he should +accede to Alfred's proposal to spend six months of the year in +England, as they thought that by that means, through his influence +with Alfred, he would be the better able to protect and advance the +interests of their monasteries and establishments in Wales. So Asser +went to England, and became during six months in the year Alfred's +constant friend and teacher. In the course of time, Alfred placed +him at the head of some of the most important establishments and +ecclesiastical charges in England. + +One day--it was eight or nine years after Alfred's victory over +Guthrum and settlement of the kingdom--the king and Asser were engaged +in conversation in the royal apartments, and Asser quoted some Latin +phrase with which, on its being explained, Alfred was very much +pleased, and he asked Asser to write it down for him in his book. So +saying, he took from his pocket a little book of prayers and other +pieces of devotion, which he was accustomed to carry with him for +daily use. It was, of course, in manuscript. Asser looked over it to +find a space where he could write the Latin quotation, but there was +no convenient vacancy. He then proposed to Alfred that he should make +for him another small book, expressly for Latin quotations, with +explanations of their meaning, if Alfred chose to make them, in the +Anglo-Saxon tongue. Alfred highly approved of this suggestion. The +bishop prepared the little parchment volume, and it became gradually +filled with passages of Scripture, in Latin, and striking sentiments, +briefly and tersely expressed, extracted from the writings of the +Roman poets or of the fathers of the Church. Alfred wrote opposite to +each quotation its meaning, expressed in his own language; and as he +made the book his constant companion, and studied it continually, +taking great interest in adding to its stores, it was the means +of communicating to him soon a very considerable knowledge of the +language, and was the foundation of that extensive acquaintance with +it which he subsequently acquired. + +Alfred made great efforts to promote in every way the intellectual +progress and improvement of his people. He wrote and translated books, +which were published so far as it was possible to publish books in +those days, that is, by having a moderate number of copies transcribed +and circulated among those who could read them. Such copies were +generally deposited at monasteries, and abbeys, and other such places, +where learned men were accustomed to assemble. These writings of +Alfred exerted a wide influence during his day. They remained in +manuscript until the art of printing was invented, when many of them +were printed; others remain in manuscript in the various museums of +England, where visitors look at them as curiosities, all worn and +corroded as they are, and almost illegible by time. These books, +though they exerted great influence at the time when they were +written, are of little interest or value now. They express ideas +in morals and philosophy, some of which have become so universally +diffused as to be commonplace at the present day, while others would +now be discarded, as not in harmony with the ideas or the philosophy +of the times. + +One of the greatest and most important of the measures which Alfred +adopted for the intellectual improvement of his people was the +founding of the great University of Oxford. Oxford was Alfred's +residence and capital during a considerable part of his reign. It is +situated on the Thames, in the bosom of a delightful valley, where +it calmly reposes in the midst of fields and meadows as verdant and +beautiful as the imagination can conceive. There was a monastery at +Oxford before Alfred's day, and for many centuries after his time acts +of endowment were passed and charters granted, some of which were +perhaps of greater importance than those which emanated from Alfred +himself. Thus some carry back the history of this famous university +beyond Alfred's time; others consider that the true origin of the +present establishment should be assigned to a later date than his +day. Alfred certainly adopted very important measures at Oxford for +organizing and establishing schools of instruction and assembling +learned men there from various parts of the world, so that he soon +made it a great center and seat of learning, and mankind have been +consequently inclined to award to him the honor of having laid the +foundations of the vast superstructure which has since grown up on +that consecrated spot. Oxford is now a city of ancient and venerable +colleges. Its silent streets; its grand quadrangles; its churches, and +chapels, and libraries; its secluded walks; its magnificent, though +old and crumbling architecture, make it, even to the passing traveler, +one of the wonders of England; and by the influence which it has +exerted for the past ten centuries on the intellectual advancement of +the human race, it is really one of the wonders of the world. + +Alfred repaired the castles which had become dilapidated in the wars; +he rebuilt the ruined cities, organized municipal governments for +them, restored the monasteries, and took great pains to place men +of learning and piety in charge of them. He revised the laws of the +kingdom, and arranged and systematized them in the most perfect manner +which was possible in times so rude. + +Alfred's personal character gave him great influence among his people, +and disposed them to acquiesce readily in the vast innovations and +improvements which he introduced--changes which were so radical and +affected so extensively the whole structure of society, and all the +customs of social life, that any ordinary sovereign would have met +with great opposition in his attempt to introduce them; but Alfred +possessed such a character, and proceeded in such a way in introducing +his improvements and reforms, that he seems to have awakened no +jealousy and to have aroused no resistance. + +He was of a very calm, quiet, and placid temper of mind. The crosses +and vexations which disturb and irritate ordinary men seemed never to +disturb his equanimity. He was patient and forbearing, never expecting +too much of those whom he employed, or resenting angrily the +occasional neglects or failures in duty on their part, which he well +knew must frequently occur. He was never elated by prosperity, nor +made moody and morose by the turning of the tide against him. In +a word, he was a philosopher, of a calm, and quiet, and happy +temperament. He knew well that every man in going through life, +whatever his rank and station, must encounter the usual alternations +of sunshine and storm. He determined that these alternations should +not mar his happiness, nor disturb the repose of his soul; that he +would, on the other hand, keeping all quiet within, press calmly and +steadily forward in the accomplishment of the vast objects to which he +felt that his life was to be given. He was, accordingly, never anxious +or restless, never impatient or fretful, never excited or wild; but +always calm, considerate, steady, and persevering, he infused his +own spirit into all around him. They saw him governed by fixed and +permanent principles of justice and of duty in all that he planned, +and in every measure that he resorted to in the execution of his +plans. It was plain that his great ruling motive was a true and honest +desire to promote the welfare and prosperity of his people, and the +internal peace, and order, and happiness of his realm, without any +selfish or sinister aims of his own. + +In fact, it seemed as if there were no selfish or sinister ends that +possessed any charms for Alfred's mind. He had no fondness or taste +for luxury or pleasure, or for aggrandizing himself in the eyes of +others by pomp and parade. It is true that, as was stated in a former +chapter, he was charged in early life with a tendency to some kinds +of wrong indulgence; but these charges, obscure and doubtful as they +were, pertained only to the earliest periods of his career, before the +time of his seclusion. Through all the middle and latter portions of +his life, the sole motive of his conduct seems to have been a desire +to lay broad, and deep, and lasting foundations for the permanent +welfare and prosperity of his realm. + +It resulted from the nature of the measures which Alfred undertook to +effect, that they brought upon him daily a vast amount of labor as +such measures always involve a great deal of minute detail. Alfred +could only accomplish this great mass of duty by means of the most +unremitting industry, and the most systematic and exact division of +time. There were no clocks or watches in those days, and yet it was +very necessary to have some plan for keeping the time, in order that +his business might go on regularly, and also that the movements and +operations of his large household might proceed without confusion. +Alfred invented a plan. It was as follows: + +He observed that the wax candles which were used in his palace and in +the churches burned very regularly, and with greater or less rapidity +according to their size. He ordered some experiments to be made, and +finally, by means of them, he determined on the size of a candle which +should burn three inches in an hour. It is said that the weight of wax +which he used for each candle was twelve pennyweights, that is, but +little more than half an ounce, which would make, one would suppose, a +_taper_ rather than a candle. There is, however, great doubt about the +value of the various denominations of weight and measure, and also of +money used in those days. However this may be, the candles were each a +foot long, and of such size that each would burn four hours. They were +divided into inches, and marked, so that each inch corresponded with a +third of an hour, or twenty minutes. A large quantity of these candles +were prepared, and a person in one of the chapels was appointed to +keep a succession of them burning, and to ring the bells, or give the +other signals, whatever they might be, by which the household was +regulated, at the successive periods of time denoted by their burning. + +As each of these candles was one foot long, and burned three inches in +an hour, it follows that it would last four hours; when this time +was expired, the attendant who had the apparatus in charge lighted +another. There were, of course, six required for the whole twenty-four +hours. The system worked very well, though there was one difficulty +that occasioned some trouble in the outset, which, however, was not +much to be regretted after all, since the remedying of it awakened the +royal ingenuity anew, and led, in the end, to adding to Alfred's other +glories the honor of being the inventor of _lanterns_! + +The difficulty was, that the wind, which came in very freely in those +days, even in royal residences, through the open windows, blew the +flames of these horological candles about, so as to interfere quite +seriously with the regularity of their burning. There was no glass +for windows in those days, or, at least, very little. It had been +introduced, it is said, in one instance, and that was in a monastery +in the north of England. The abbot, whose name was Benedict, brought +over some workmen from the Continent, where the art of making glass +windows had been invented, and caused them to glaze some windows in +his monastery. It was many years after this before glass came into +general use even in churches, and palaces, and other costly buildings +of that kind. In the mean time, windows were mere openings in stone +walls, which could be closed only by shutters; and inasmuch as +when closed they excluded the light as well as the air, they could +ordinarily be shut only on one side of the apartment at a time--the +side most exposed to the winds and storms. + +Alfred accordingly found that the flame of his candles was blown by +the wind, which made the wax burn irregularly; and, to remedy the +evil, he contrived the plan of protecting them by thin plates of horn. +Horn, when softened by hot water, can easily be cut and fashioned into +any shape, and, when very thin, is almost transparent. Alfred had +these thin plates of horn prepared, and set into the sides of a box +made open to receive them, thus forming a rude sort of lantern, within +which the time-keeping candles could burn in peace. Mankind have +consequently given to King Alfred the credit of having invented +lanterns. + +Having thus completed his apparatus for the correct measurement +of time, Alfred was enabled to be more and more systematic in the +division and employment of it. One of the historians of the day +relates that his plan was to give one third of the twenty-four hours +to sleep and refreshment, one third to business, and the remaining +third to the duties of religion. Under this last head was probably +included all those duties and pursuits which, by the customs of the +day, were considered as pertaining to the Church, such as study, +writing, and the consideration and management of ecclesiastical +affairs. These duties were performed, in those days, almost always by +clerical men, and in the retirement and seclusion of monasteries, and +were thus regarded as in some sense religious duties. We must conclude +that Alfred classed them thus, as he was a great student and writer +all his days, and there is no other place than this third head to +which the duties of this nature can be assigned. Thus understood, it +was a very wise and sensible division; though eight hours daily for +any long period of time, appropriated to services strictly devotional, +would not seem to be a wise arrangement, especially for a man in the +prime of life, and in a position demanding the constant exercise of +his powers in the discharge of active duties. + +Thus the years of Alfred's life passed away, his kingdom advancing +steadily all the time in good government, wealth, and prosperity. The +country was not, however, yet freed entirely from the calamities +and troubles arising from the hostility of the Danes. Disorders +continually broke out among those who had settled in the land, and, in +some instances, new hordes of invaders came in. These were, +however, in most instances, easily subdued, and Alfred went on with +comparatively little interruption for many years, in prosecuting the +arts and improvements of peace. At last, however, toward the close of +his life, a famous Northman leader, named Hastings, landed in England +at the head of a large force, and made, before he was expelled, a +great deal of trouble. An account of this invasion will be given in +the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE CLOSE OF LIFE. + + +It was twelve or fifteen years after Alfred's restoration to his +kingdom, by means of the victory at Edendune, that the great invasion +of Hastings occurred. That victory took place in the year 878. It was +in the years 893-897 that Hastings and his horde of followers infested +the island, and in 900 Alfred died, so that his reign ended, as it had +commenced, with protracted and desperate conflicts with the Danes. + +Hastings was an old and successful soldier before he came to England. +He had led a wild life for many years as a sea king on the German +Ocean, performing deeds which in our day entail upon the perpetrator +of them the infamy of piracy and murder, but which then entitled the +hero of them to a very wide-spread and honorable fame. Afterward +Hastings landed upon the Continent, and pursued, for a long time, +a glorious career of victory and plunder in France. In these +enterprises, the tide, indeed, sometimes turned against him. On one +occasion, for instance, he found himself obliged to give way before +his enemies, and he retreated to a church, which he seized and +fortified, making it his castle until a more favorable aspect of his +affairs enabled him to issue forth from this retreat and take +the field again. Still he was generally very successful in his +enterprises; his terrible ferocity, and that of his savage followers, +were dreaded in every part of the civilized world. + +Hastings had made one previous invasion of England; but Guthrum, +faithful to his covenants with Alfred, repulsed him. But Guthrum was +now dead, and Alfred had to contend against his formidable enemy +alone. + +Hastings selected a point on the southern coast of England for his +landing. Guthrum's Danes still continued to occupy the eastern part of +England, and Hastings went round on the southern coast until he got +beyond their boundaries, as if he wished to avoid doing any thing +directly to awaken their hostility. Guthrum himself, while he lived, +had evinced a determination to oppose Hastings's plans of invasion. +Hastings did not know, now that Guthrum was dead, whether his +successors would oppose him or not. He determined, at all events, +to respect their territory, and so he passed along on the southern +shore of England till he was beyond their limits, and then prepared +to land. + +[Illustration: HASTINGS BESIEGED IN THE CHURCH.] + +He had assembled a large force of his own, and he was joined, +in addition to them, by many adventurers who came out to attach +themselves to his expedition from the bays, and islands, and harbors +which he passed on his way. His fleet amounted at least to two hundred +and fifty vessels. They arrived, at length, at a part of the coast +where there extends a vast tract of low and swampy land, which was +then a wild and dismal morass. This tract, which is known in modern +times by the name of the Romney Marshes, is of enormous extent, +containing, as it does, fifty thousand acres. It is now reclaimed, and +is defended by a broad and well-constructed dike from the inroads of +the sea. In Hastings's time it was a vast waste of bogs and mire, +utterly impassable except by means of a river, which, meandering +sluggishly through the tangled wilderness of weeds and bushes in a +deep, black stream, found an outlet at last into the sea. + +Hastings took his vessels into this river, and, following its turnings +for some miles, he conducted them at last to a place where he found +more solid ground to land upon. But this ground, though solid, was +almost as wild and solitary as the morass. It was a forest of vast +extent, which showed no signs of human occupancy, except that the +peasants who lived in the surrounding regions had come down to the +lowest point accessible, and were building a rude fortification there. +Hastings attacked them and drove them away. Then, advancing a little +further, until he found an advantageous position, he built a strong +fortress himself and established his army within its lines. + +His next measure was to land another force near the mouth of the +Thames, and bring them into the country, until he found a strong +position where he could intrench and fortify the second division as he +had done the first. These two positions were but a short distance from +each other. He made them the combined center of his operations, going +from them in all directions in plundering excursions. Alfred soon +raised an army and advanced to attack him; and these operations were +the commencement of a long and tedious war. + +A detailed description of the events of this war, the marches and +countermarches, the battles and sieges, the various success, first of +one party and then of the other, given historically in the order of +time, would be as tedious to read as the war itself was to endure. +Alfred was very cautious in all his operations, preferring rather +to trust to the plan of wearing out the enemy by cutting off their +resources and hemming them constantly in, than to incur the risk of +great decisive battles. In fact, watchfulness, caution, and delay +are generally the policy of the invaded when a powerful force has +succeeded in establishing itself among them; while, on the other hand, +the hope of _invaders_ lies ordinarily in prompt and decided action. +Alfred was well aware of this, and made all his arrangements with +a view to cutting off Hastings's supplies, shutting him up into as +narrow a compass as possible, heading him off in all his predatory +excursions, intercepting all detachments, and thus reducing him at +length to the necessity of surrender. + +At one time, soon after the war began, Hastings, true to the character +of his nation for treachery and stratagem, pretended that he was ready +to surrender, and opened a negotiation for this purpose. He agreed to +leave the kingdom if Alfred would allow him to depart peaceably, and +also, which was a point of great importance in Alfred's estimation, to +have his two sons baptized. While, however, these negotiations were +going on between the two camps, Alfred suddenly found that the main +body of Hastings's army had stolen away in the rear, and were marching +off by stealth to another part of the country. The negotiations were, +of course, immediately abandoned, and Alfred set off with all his +forces in full pursuit. All hopes of peace were given up, and the +usual series of sieges, maneuverings, battles, and retreats was +resumed again. + +On one occasion Alfred succeeded in taking possession of Hastings's +camp, when he had left it in security, as he supposed, to go off for a +time by sea on an expedition. Alfred's soldiers found Hastings's wife +and children in the camp, and took them prisoners. They sent the +terrified captives to Alfred, to suffer, as they supposed, the long +and cruel confinement or the violent death to which the usages of +those days consigned such unhappy prisoners. Alfred baptized the +children, and then sent them, with their mother, loaded with presents +and proofs of kindness, back to Hastings again. + +This generosity made no impression upon the heart of Hastings, or, at +least, it produced no effect upon his conduct. He continued the war +as energetically as ever. Months passed away and new re-enforcements +arrived, until at length he felt strong enough to undertake an +excursion into the very heart of the country. He moved on for a time +with triumphant success; but this very success was soon the means of +turning the current against him again. It aroused the whole country +through which he was passing. The inhabitants flocked to arms. They +assembled at every rallying point, and, drawing up on all sides nearer +and nearer to Hastings's army, they finally stopped his march, and +forced him to call all his forces in, and intrench himself in the +first place of retreat that he could find. Thus his very success was +the means of turning his good fortune into disaster. + +And then, in the same way, the success of Alfred and the Saxons soon +brought disaster upon them too, in their turn; for, after succeeding +in shutting Hastings closely in, and cutting off his supplies of food, +they maintained their watch and ward over their imprisoned enemies +so closely as to reduce them to extreme distress--a distress and +suffering which they thought would end in their complete and absolute +submission. Instead of ending thus, however, it aroused them to +desperation. Under the influence of the phrensy which such hopeless +sufferings produce in characters like theirs, they burst out one day +from the place of their confinement, and, after a terrible conflict, +which choked up a river which they had to pass with dead bodies and +dyed its waters with blood, the great body of the starving desperadoes +made their escape, and, in a wild and furious excitement, half a +triumph and half a retreat, they went back to the eastern coast of the +island, where they found secure places of refuge to receive them. + +In the course of the subsequent campaigns, a party of the Danes came +up the River Thames with a fleet of their vessels, and an account is +given by some of the ancient historians of a measure which Alfred +resorted to to entrap them, which would seem to be scarcely credible. +The account is, that he _altered the course of the river_ by digging +new channels for it, so as to leave the vessels all aground, when, of +course, they became helpless, and fell an easy prey to the attacks of +their enemies. This is, at least, a very improbable statement, for a +river like the Thames occupies always the lowest channel of the land +through which it passes to the sea. Besides, such a river, in order +that it should be possible for vessels to ascend it from the ocean, +must have the surface of its water very near the level of the surface +of the ocean. There can, therefore, be no place to which such waters +could be drawn off, unless into a valley below the level of the sea. +All such valleys, whenever they exist in the interior of a country, +necessarily get filled with water from brooks and rains, and so become +lakes or inland seas. It is probable, therefore, that it was some +other operation which Alfred performed to imprison the hostile vessels +in the river, more possible in its own nature than the drawing off of +the waters of the Thames from their ancient bed. + +Year after year passed on, and, though neither the Saxons nor the +Danes gained any very permanent and decisive victories, the invaders +were gradually losing ground, being driven from one intrenchment and +one stronghold to another, until, at last, their only places of refuge +were their ships, and the harbors along the margin of the sea. Alfred +followed on and occupied the country as fast as the enemy was driven +away; and when, at last, they began to seek refuge in their ships, he +advanced to the shore, and began to form plans for building ships, and +manning and equipping a fleet, to pursue his retiring enemies upon +their own element. In this undertaking, he proceeded in the same calm, +deliberate, and effectual manner, as in all his preceding measures. He +built his vessels with great care. He made them twice as long as those +of the Danes, and planned them so as to make them more steady, more +safe, and capable of carrying a crew of rowers so numerous as to be +more active and swift than the vessels of the enemy. + +When these naval preparations were made, Alfred began to look out for +an object of attack on which he could put their efficiency to the +test. He soon heard of a fleet of the Northmen's vessels on the coast +of the Isle of Wight, and he sent a fleet of his own ships to attack +them. He charged the commander of this fleet to be sparing of life, +but to capture the ships and take the men, bringing as many as +possible to him unharmed. + +There were nine of the English vessels, and when they reached the Isle +of Wight they found six vessels of the Danes in a harbor there. Three +of these Danish vessels were afloat, and came out boldly to attack +Alfred's armament. The other three were upon the shore, where they had +been left by the tide, and were, of course, disabled and defenseless +until the water should rise and float them again. Under these +circumstances, it would seem that the victory for Alfred's fleet would +have been easy and sure; and at first the result was, in fact, in +Alfred's favor. Of the three ships that came out to meet him, two were +captured, and one escaped, with only five men left on board of it +alive. The Saxon ships, after thus disposing of the three living and +moving enemies, pushed boldly into the harbor to attack those which +were lying lifeless on the sands. They found, however, that, though +successful in the encounter with the active and the powerful, they +were destined to disaster and defeat in approaching the defenseless +and weak. They got aground themselves in approaching the shoals on +which the vessels of their enemies were lying. The tide receded and +left three of the vessels on the sands, and kept the rest so separated +and so embarrassed by the difficulties and dangers of their situation +as to expose the whole force to the most imminent danger. There was a +fierce contest in boats and on the shore. Both parties suffered very +severely; and, finally, the Danes, getting first released, made their +escape and put to sea. + +Notwithstanding this partial discomfiture, Alfred soon succeeded in +driving the ships of the Danes off his coast, and in thus completing +the deliverance of his country. Hastings himself went to France, where +he spent the remainder of his days in some territories which he had +previously conquered, enjoying, while he continued to live, and for +many ages afterward, a very extended and very honorable fame. Such +exploits as those which he had performed conferred, in those days, +upon the hero who performed them, a very high distinction, the luster +of which seems not to have been at all tarnished in the opinions of +mankind by any ideas of the violence and wrong which the commission of +such deeds involved. + +Alfred's dominions were now left once more in peace, and he himself +resumed again his former avocations. But a very short period of his +life, however, now remained. Hastings was finally expelled from +England about 897. In 900 or 901 Alfred died. The interval was spent +in the same earnest and devoted efforts to promote the welfare and +prosperity of his kingdom that his life had exhibited before the war. +He was engaged diligently and industriously in repairing injuries, +redressing grievances, and rectifying every thing that was wrong. +He exacted rigid impartiality in all the courts of justice; he held +public servants of every rank and station to a strict accountability; +and in all the colleges, and monasteries, and ecclesiastical +establishments of every kind, he corrected all abuses, and enforced a +rigid discipline, faithfully extirpating from every lurking place all +semblance of immorality or vice. He did these things, too, with so +much kindness and consideration for all concerned, and was actuated +in all he did so unquestionably by an honest and sincere desire to +fulfill his duty to his people and to God, that nobody opposed him. +The good considered him their champion, the indifferent readily caught +a portion of his spirit and wished him success, while the wicked were +silenced if they were not changed. + +Alfred's children had grown up to maturity, and seemed to inherit, +in some degree, their father's character. He had a daughter, named +AEthelfleda, who was married to a prince of Mercia, and who was famed +all over England for the superiority of her mental powers, her +accomplishments, and her moral worth. The name of his oldest son was +Edward; he was to succeed Alfred on the throne, and it was a source +now of great satisfaction to the king to find this son emulating his +virtues, and preparing for an honorable and prosperous reign. Alfred +had warning, in the progress of his disease, of the approach of his +end. When he found that the time was near at hand, he called his son +Edward to his side, and gave him these his farewell counsels, which +express in few words the principles and motives by which his own life +had been so fully governed. + +"Thou, my dear son, set thee now beside me, and I will deliver thee +true instructions. I feel that my hour is coming. My strength is gone; +my countenance is wasted and pale. My days are almost ended. We must +now part. I go to another world, and thou art to be left alone in the +possession of all that I have thus far held. I pray thee, my dear +child, to be a father to thy people. Be the children's father and the +widow's friend. Comfort the poor, protect and shelter the weak, and, +with all thy might, right that which is wrong. And, my son, govern +_thyself_ by _law_. Then shall the Lord love thee, and God himself +shall be thy reward. Call thou upon him to advise thee in all thy +need, and he shall help thee to compass all thy desires." + +Alfred was fifty-two years of age when he died. His death was +universally lamented. The body was interred in the great cathedral at +Winchester. The kingdom passed peacefully and prosperously to his son, +and the arrangements which Alfred had spent his life in framing and +carrying into effect, soon began to work out their happy results. The +constructions which he founded stand to the present day, strengthened +and extended rather than impaired by the hand of time; and his memory, +as their founder, will be honored as long as any remembrance of the +past shall endure among the minds of men. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE SEQUEL. + + +The romantic story of Godwin forms the sequel to the history of +Alfred, leading us onward, as it does, toward the next great era in +English history, that of William the Conqueror. + +Although, as we have seen in the last chapter, the immediate effects +of Alfred's measures was to re-establish peace and order in his +kingdom, and although the institutions which he founded have continued +to expand and develop themselves down to the present day, still it +must not be supposed that the power and prosperity of his kingdom and +of the Saxon dynasty continued wholly uninterrupted after his death. +Contentions and struggles between the two great races of Saxons +and Danes continued for some centuries to agitate the island. The +particular details of these contentions have in these days, in a +great measure, lost their interest for all but professed historical +scholars. It is only the history of great leading events and the lives +of really extraordinary men, in the annals of early ages, which can +now attract the general attention even of cultivated minds. The vast +movements which have occurred and are occurring in the history of +mankind in the present century, throw every thing except what is +really striking and important in early history into the shade. + +The era which comes next in the order of time to that of Alfred in the +course of English history, as worthy to arrest general attention, is, +as we have already said, that of William the Conqueror. The life of +this sovereign forms the subject of a separate volume of this series. +He lived two centuries after Alfred's day; and although, for the +reasons above given, a full chronological narration of the contentions +between the Saxon and Danish lines of kings which took place during +this interval would be of little interest or value, some general +knowledge of the state of the kingdom at this time is important, and +may best be communicated in connection with the story of Godwin. + +Godwin was by birth a Saxon peasant, of Warwickshire. At the time when +he arrived at manhood, and was tending his father's flocks and herds +like other peasants' sons, the Saxons and the Danes were at war. It +seems that one of Alfred's descendants, named Ethelred, displeased his +people by his misgovernment, and was obliged to retire from England. +He went across the Channel, and married there the sister of a Norman +chief named Richard. Her name was Emma. Ethelred hoped by this +alliance to obtain Richard's assistance in enabling him to recover his +kingdom. The Danish population, however, took advantage of his absence +to put one of their own princes upon the throne. His name was Canute. +He figures in English history, accordingly, among the other English +kings, as Canute the Dane, that appellation being given him to mark +the distinction of his origin in respect to the kings who preceded and +followed him, as they were generally of the Saxon line. + +It was this Canute of whom the famous story is told that, in order to +rebuke his flatterers, who, in extolling his grandeur and power, had +represented to him that even the elements were subservient to his +will, he took his stand upon the sea-shore when the tide was coming +in, with his flatterers by his side, and commanded the rising waves +not to approach his royal feet. He kept his sycophantic courtiers in +this ridiculous position until the encroaching waters drove them away, +and then dismissed them overwhelmed with confusion. The story is told +in a thousand different ways, and with a great variety of different +embellishments, according to the fancy of the several narrators; all +that there is now any positive evidence for believing, however, is, +that probably some simple incident of the kind occurred, out of which +the stories have grown. + +Canute did not hold his kingdom in peace. Ethelred sent his son across +the Channel into England to negotiate with the Anglo-Saxon powers for +his own restoration to the throne. An arrangement was accordingly made +with them, and Ethelred returned, and a violent civil war immediately +ensued between Ethelred and the Anglo-Saxons on the one hand, and +Canute and the Danes on the other. At length Ethelred fell, and his +son Edmund, who was at the time of his death one of his generals, +succeeded him. Emma and his two other sons had been left in Normandy. +Edmund carried on the war against Canute with great energy. One of his +battles was fought in the county of Warwick, in the heart of England, +where the peasant Godwin lived. In this battle the Danes were +defeated, and the discomfited generals fled in all directions from the +field wherever they saw the readiest hope of concealment or safety. +One of them, named Ulf,[1] took a by-way, which led him in the +direction of Godwin's father's farm. + +Night came on, and he lost his way in a wood. Men, when flying under +such circumstances from a field of battle, avoid always the public +roads, and seek concealment in unfrequented paths, where, they easily +get bewildered and lost. Ulf wandered about all night in the forest, +and when the morning came he found himself exhausted with fatigue, +anxiety, and hunger, certain to perish unless he could find some +succor, and yet dreading the danger of being recognized as a Danish +fugitive if he were to be discovered by any of the Saxon inhabitants +of the land. At length he heard the shouts of a peasant who was coming +along a solitary pathway through the wood, driving a herd to their +pasture. Ulf would gladly have avoided him if he could have gone on +without succor or help. His plan was to find his way to the Severn, +where some Danish ships were lying, in hopes of a refuge on board +of them. But he was exhausted with hunger and fatigue, and utterly +bewildered and lost; so he was compelled to go forward, and take the +risk of accosting the Saxon stranger. + +He accordingly went up to him, and asked him his name. Godwin told him +his name, and the name of his father, who lived, he said, at a little +distance in the wood. While he was answering the question, he gazed +very earnestly at the stranger, and then told him that he perceived +that he was a Dane--a fugitive, he supposed, from the battle. Ulf, +thus finding that he could not be concealed, begged Godwin not to +betray him. He acknowledged that he was a Dane, and that he had made +his escape from the battle, and he wished, he said, to find his way to +the Danish ships in the Severn. He begged Godwin to conduct him there. +Godwin replied by saying that it was unreasonable and absurd for a +Dane to expect guidance and protection from a Saxon. + +Ulf offered Godwin all sorts of rewards if he would leave his herd and +conduct him to a place of safety. Godwin said that the attempt, were +he to make it, would endanger his own life without saving that of +the fugitive. The country, he said, was all in arms. The peasantry, +emboldened by the late victory obtained by the Saxon army, were every +where rising; and although it was not far to the Severn, yet to +attempt to reach the river while the country was in such a state +of excitement would be a desperate undertaking. They would almost +certainly be intercepted; and, if intercepted, their exasperated +captors would show no mercy, Godwin said, either to him or to his +guide. + +Among the other inducements which Ulf offered to Godwin was a valuable +gold ring, which he took from his finger, and which, he said, should +be his if he would consent to be his guide. Godwin took the ring into +his hand, examined it with much apparent curiosity, and seemed to +hesitate. At length he yielded; though he seems to have been induced +to yield, not by the value of the offered gift, but by compassion for +the urgency of the distress which the offer of it indicated, for he +put the ring back into Ulf's hand, saying that he would not take any +thing from him, but he would try to save him. + +Instead, however, of undertaking the apparently hopeless enterprise of +conducting Ulf to the Severn, he took him to his father's cottage and +concealed him there. During the day they formed plans for journeying +together, not to the ships in the Severn, but to the Danish camp. They +were to set forth as soon as it was dark. When the evening came +and all was ready, and they were about to commence their dangerous +journey, the old peasant, Godwin's father, with an anxious countenance +and manner, gave Ulf this solemn charge: + +"This is my _only_ son. In going forth to guide you under these +circumstances, he puts his life at stake, trusting to your honor. He +can not return to me again, as there will be no more safety for him +among his own countrymen after having once been a guide for you. When, +therefore, you reach the camp, present my son to your king, and ask +him to receive him into his service. He can not come again to me." +Ulf promised very earnestly to do all this and much more for his +protector; and then bidding the father farewell, and leaving him in +his solitude, the two adventurers sallied forth into the dark forest +and went their way. + +After various adventures, they reached the camp of the Danes in +safety. Ulf faithfully fulfilled the promises that he had made. He +introduced Godwin to the king, and the king was so much pleased with +the story of his general's escape, and so impressed with the marks of +capacity and talent which the young Saxon manifested, that he gave +Godwin immediately a military command in his army. In fact, a young +man who could leave his home and his father, and abandon the cause +of his countrymen forever under such circumstances, must have had +something besides generosity toward a fugitive enemy to impel him. +Godwin was soon found to possess a large portion of that peculiar +spirit which constitutes a soldier. He was ambitious, stern, +energetic, and always successful. He rose rapidly in influence and +rank, and in the course of a few years, during which King Canute +triumphed wholly over his Saxon enemies, and established his dominion +over almost the whole realm, he was promoted to the rank of a king, +and ruled, second only to Canute himself, over the kingdom of Wessex, +one of the most important divisions of Canute's empire. Here he lived +and reigned in peace and prosperity for many years. He was married, +and he had a daughter named Edith, who was as gentle and lovely as her +father was terrible and stern. They said that Edith sprung from Godwin +like a rose from its stem of thorns. + +A writer who lived in those days, and recorded the occurrences of the +times, says that, when he was a boy, his father was employed in some +way in Godwin's palace, and that in going to and from school he was +often met by Edith, who was walking, attended by her maid. On such +occasions Edith would stop him, he said, and question him about his +studies, his grammar, his logic, and his verses; and she would often +draw him into an argument on those subtle points of disputation which +attracted so much attention in those days. Then she would commend him +for his attention and progress, and order her woman to make him a +present of some money. In a word, Edith was so gentle and kind, and +took so cordial an interest in whatever concerned the welfare and +happiness of those around her, that she was universally beloved. She +became in the end, as we shall see in due time, the English queen. + +In the mean time, while Godwin was governing, as vicegerent, the +province which Canute had assigned him, Canute himself extended his +own dominion far and wide, reducing first all England under his sway, +and then extending his conquests to the Continent. Edmund, the Saxon +king, was dead. His brothers Edward and Alfred, the two remaining sons +of Ethelred, were with their mother in Normandy. They, of course, +represented the Saxon line. The Saxon portion of Canute's kingdom +would of course look to them as their future leaders. Under these +circumstances, Canute conceived the idea of propitiating the Saxon +portion of the population, and combining, so far as was possible, the +claims of the two lines, by making the widow Emma his own wife. He +made the proposal to her, and she accepted it, pleased with the +idea of being once more a queen. She came to England, and they were +married. In process of time they had a son, who was named Hardicanute, +which means Canute _the strong_. + +Canute now felt that his kingdom was secure; and he hoped, by making +Hardicanute his heir, to perpetuate the dominion in his own family. It +is true that he had older children, whom the Danes might look upon as +more properly his heirs; and Emma had also two older children, the +sons of Ethelred, in Normandy. These the _Saxons_ would be likely +to consider as the rightful heirs to the throne. There was danger, +therefore, that at his death parties would again be formed, and the +civil wars break out anew. Canute and Emma therefore seem to have +acted wisely, and to have done all that the nature of the case +admitted to prevent a renewal of these dreadful struggles, by +concentrating their combined influence in favor of Hardicanute, who, +though not absolutely the heir to either line, still combined, in some +degree, the claims of both of them. Canute also did all in his +power to propitiate his Anglo-Saxon subjects. He devoted himself to +promoting the welfare of the kingdom in every way. He built towns, he +constructed roads, he repaired and endowed the churches. He became a +very zealous Christian, evincing the ardor of his piety, whether real +or pretended, by all the forms and indications common in those days. +Finally, to crown all, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome. He set out +on this journey with great pomp and parade, and attended by a large +retinue, and yet still strictly like a pilgrim. He walked, and carried +a wallet on his back, and a long pilgrim's staff in his hand. This +pilgrimage, at the time when it occurred, filled the world with its +fame. + +At length King Canute died, and then, unfortunately, it proved that +all his seemingly wise precautions against the recurrence of civil +wars were taken in vain. It happened that Hardicanute, whom he had +intended should succeed him, was in Denmark at the time of his +father's death. Godwin, however, proclaimed him king, and attempted to +establish his authority, and to make Emma a sort of regent, to govern +in his name until he could be brought home. The Danish chieftains, on +the other hand, elected and proclaimed one of Canute's older sons, +whose name was Harold;[2] and they succeeded in carrying a large part +of the country in his favor. Godwin then summoned Emma to join him +in the west with such forces as she could command, and both parties +prepared for war. + +Then ensued one of those scenes of terror and suffering which war, +and sometimes the mere fear of war, brings often in its train. It +was expected that the first outbreak of hostilities would be in the +interior of England, near the banks of the Thames, and the inhabitants +of the whole region were seized with apprehensions and fears, which +spread rapidly, increased by the influence of sympathy, and excited +more and more every day by a thousand groundless rumors, until the +whole region was thrown into a state of uncontrollable panic and +confusion. The inhabitants abandoned their dwellings, and fled in +dismay into the eastern part of the island, to seek refuge among the +fens and marshes of Lincolnshire, and of the other counties around. +Here, as has been already stated in a previous chapter when describing +the Abbey of Croyland, were a great many monasteries, and convents, +and hermitages, and other religious establishments, filled with monks +and nuns. The wretched fugitives from the expected scene of war +crowded into this region, besieging the doors of the abbeys and +monasteries to beg for shelter, or food, or protection. Some built +huts among the willow woods which grew in the fens; others encamped at +the road-sides, or under the monastery walls, wherever they could +find the semblance of shelter. They presented, of course, a piteous +spectacle--men infirm with sickness or age, or exhausted with anxiety +and fatigue; children harassed and way-worn; and helpless mothers, +with still more helpless babes at their breasts. The monks, instead +of being moved to compassion by the sight of these unhappy sufferers, +were only alarmed on their own account at such an inundation of +misery. They feared that they should be overwhelmed themselves. Those +whose establishments were large and strong, barred their doors against +the suppliants, and the hermits, who lived alone in detached and +separate solitudes, abandoned their osier huts, and fled themselves to +seek some place more safe from such intrusions. + +And yet, after all, the whole scene was only a false alarm. Men acting +in a panic are almost always running into the ills which they think +they shun. The war did not break out on the banks of the Thames at +all. Hardicanute, deterred, perhaps, by the extent of the support +which the claims of Harold were receiving, did not venture to come to +England, and Emma and Godwin, and those who would have taken their +side, having no royal head to lead them, gave up their opposition, and +acquiesced in Harold's reign. The fugitives in the marshes and fens +returned to their homes; the country became tranquil; Godwin held his +province as a sort of lieutenant general of Harold's kingdom, and +Emma herself joined his court in London, where she lived with him +ostensibly on very friendly terms. + +Still, her mind was ill at ease. Harold, though the son of her +husband, was not her own son, and the ambitious spirit which led her +to marry for her second husband her first husband's rival and enemy, +that she might be a second time a queen, naturally made her desire +that one of her own offspring, either on the Danish or the Saxon side, +should inherit the kingdom; for the reader must not forget that Emma, +besides being the mother of Hardicanute by her second husband Canute, +the Danish sovereign, was also the mother of Edward and Alfred by her +first husband Ethelred, of the Anglo-Saxon line, and that these two +sons were in Normandy now. The family connection will be more apparent +to the eye by the following scheme: + + + Ethelred the Saxon. Emma. Canute the Dane. + ------\/---------------/\-------------\/-------- + Edward. Hardicanute. + Alfred. + + +Harold was the son of Canute by a former marriage. Emma, of +course, felt no maternal interest in him, and though compelled by +circumstances to acquiesce for a time in his possession of the +kingdom, her thoughts were continually with her own sons; and since +the attempt to bring Hardicanute to the throne had failed, she began +to turn her attention toward her Norman children. + +After scheming for a time, she wrote letters to them, proposing +that they should come to England. She represented to them that the +Anglo-Saxon portion of the people were ill at ease under Harold's +dominion, and would gladly embrace any opportunity of having a Saxon +king. She had no doubt, she said, that if one of them were to appear +in England and claim the throne, the people would rise in mass to +support him, and he would easily get possession of the realm. She +invited them, therefore, to repair secretly to England, to confer with +her on the subject; charging them, however, to bring very few, if any, +Norman attendants with them, as the English people were inclined to be +very jealous of the influence of foreigners. + +The brothers were very much elated at receiving these tidings; so much +so that in their zeal they were disposed to push the enterprise much +faster than their mother had intended. Instead of going, themselves, +quietly and secretly to confer with her in London, they organized an +armed expedition of Norman soldiers. The youngest, Alfred, with +an enthusiasm characteristic of his years, took the lead in these +measures. He undertook to conduct the expedition. The eldest consented +to his making the attempt. He landed at Dover, and began his march +through the southern part of the country. _Godwin_ went forth to meet +him. Whether he would join his standard or meet him as a foe, no one +could tell. Emma considered that Godwin was on her side, though even +she had not recommended an armed invasion of the country. + +It is very probable that Godwin himself was uncertain, at first, +what course to pursue, and that he intended to have espoused Prince +Alfred's cause if he had found that it presented any reasonable +prospect of success. Or he may have felt bound to serve Harold +faithfully, now that he had once given in his adhesion to him. Of +course, he kept his thoughts and plans to himself, leaving the world +to see only his deeds. But if he had ever entertained any design of +espousing Alfred's cause, he abandoned it before the time arrived for +action. As he advanced into the southern part of the island, he called +together the leading Saxon chiefs to hold a council, and he made +an address to them when they were convened, which had a powerful +influence on their minds in preventing their deciding in favor of +Alfred. However much they might desire a monarch of their own line, +this, he said, was not the proper occasion for effecting their end. +Alfred was, it was true, an Anglo-Saxon by descent, but he was a +Norman by birth and education. All his friends and supporters were +Normans. He had come now into the realm of England with a retinue of +Norman followers, who would, if he were successful, monopolize the +honors and offices which he would have to bestow. He advised the +Anglo-Saxon chieftains, therefore, to remain inactive, to take no part +in the contest, but to wait for some other opportunity to re-establish +the Saxon line of kings. + +The Anglo-Saxon chieftains seem to have considered this good advice. +At any rate, they made no movement to sustain young Alfred's cause. +Alfred had advanced to the town of Guilford. Here he was surrounded +by a force which Harold had sent against him. There was no hope or +possibility of resistance. In fact, his enemies seem to have arrived +at a time when he did not expect an attack, for they entered the gates +by a sudden onset, when Alfred's followers were scattered about the +town at the various houses to which they had been distributed. They +made no attempt to defend themselves, but were taken prisoners one by +one, wherever they were found. They were bound with cords, and carried +away like ordinary criminals. + +Of Alfred's ten principal Norman companions, nine were beheaded. For +some reason or other the life of one was spared. Alfred himself +was charged with having violated the peace of his country, and was +condemned to lose his eyes. The torture of this operation, and the +inflammation which followed, destroyed the unhappy prince's life. +Neither Emma nor Godwin did any thing to save him. It was wise policy, +no doubt, in Emma to disavow all connection with her son's unfortunate +attempt, now that it had failed; and ambitious queens have to follow +the dictates of policy instead of obeying such impulses as maternal +love. She was, however, secretly indignant at the cruel fate which her +son had endured, and she considered Godwin as having betrayed him. + +After this dreadful disappointment, Emma was not likely to make any +farther attempts to place either of her sons upon the throne; but +Harold seems to have distrusted her, for he banished her from the +realm. She had still her Saxon son in Normandy, Alfred's brother +Edward, and her Danish son in Denmark. She went to Flanders, and there +sent to Hardicanute, urging him by the most earnest importunities to +come to England and assert his claims to the crown. He was doubly +bound to do it now, she said, as the blood of his murdered brother +called for retribution, and he could have no honorable rest or peace +until he had avenged it. + +There was no occasion, however, for Hardicanute to attempt force +for the recovery of his kingdom, for not many months after these +transactions Harold died, and then the country seemed generally to +acquiesce in Hardicanute's accession. The Anglo-Saxons, discouraged +perhaps by the discomfiture of their cause in the person of Alfred, +made no attempt to rise. Hardicanute came accordingly and assumed the +throne. But, though he had not courage and energy enough to encounter +his rival Harold during his lifetime, he made what amends he could by +offering base indignities to his body after he was laid in the +grave. His first public act after his accession was to have the body +disinterred, and, after cutting off the head, he threw the mangled +remains into the Thames. The Danish fishermen in the river found them, +and buried them again in a private sepulcher in London, with such +concealed marks of respect and honor as it was in their power to +bestow. + +Hardicanute also instituted legal proceedings to inquire into the +death of Alfred. He charged the Saxons with having betrayed him, +especially those who were rich enough to pay the fines by which, in +those days, it was very customary for criminals to atone for their +crimes. Godwin himself was brought before the tribunal, and charged +with being accessory to Alfred's death. Godwin positively asserted his +innocence, and brought witnesses to prove that he was entirely free +from all participation in the affair. He took also a much more +effectual method to secure an acquittal, by making to King Hardicanute +some most magnificent presents. One of these was a small ship, +profusely enriched and ornamented with gold. It contained eighty +soldiers, armed in the Danish style, with weapons of the most +highly-finished and costly construction. They each carried a Danish +axe on the left shoulder, and a javelin in the right hand, both richly +gilt, and they had each of them a bracelet on his arm, containing six +ounces of solid gold. Such at least is the story. The presents might +be considered in the light either of a bribe to corrupt justice, or +in that of a fine to satisfy it. In fact, the line, in those days, +between bribes to purchase acquittal and fines atoning for the offense +seems not to have been very accurately drawn. + +Hardicanute, when fairly established on his throne, governed his realm +like a tyrant. He oppressed the Saxons especially without any mercy. +The effect of his cruelties, and those of the Danes who acted under +him, was, however, not to humble and subdue the Saxon spirit, but +to awaken and arouse it. Plots and conspiracies began to be formed +against him, and against the whole Danish party. Godwin himself began +to meditate some decisive measures, when, suddenly, Hardicanute died. +Godwin immediately took the field at the head of all his forces, +and organized a general movement throughout the kingdom for calling +Edward, Alfred's brother, to the throne. This insurrection was +triumphantly successful. The Danish forces that undertook to resist it +were driven to the northward. The leaders were slain or put to flight. +A remnant of them escaped to the sea-shore, where they embarked on +board such vessels as they could find, and left England forever; and +this was the final termination of the political authority of the +Danes over the realm of England--the consummation and end of Alfred's +military labors and schemes, coming surely at last, though deferred +for two centuries after his decease. + +What follows belongs rather to the history of William the Conqueror +than to that of Alfred, for Godwin invited Edward, Emma's Norman son, +to come and assume the crown; and his coming, together with that of +the many Norman attendants that accompanied or followed him, led, in +the end, to the Norman invasion and conquest. Godwin might probably +have made himself king if he had chosen to do so. His authority over +the whole island was paramount and supreme. But, either from a natural +sense of justice toward the rightful heir, or from a dread of the +danger which always attends the usurping of the royal name by one who +is not of royal descent, he made no attempt to take the crown. He +convened a great assembly of all the estates of the realm, and there +it was solemnly decided that Edward should be invited to come to +England and ascend the throne. A national messenger was dispatched to +Normandy to announce the invitation. + +It was stipulated in this invitation that Edward should bring very few +Normans with him. He came, accordingly, in the first instance, almost +unattended. He was received with great joy, and crowned king with +splendid ceremonies and great show, in the ancient cathedral at +Winchester. He felt under great obligations to Godwin, to whose +instrumentality he was wholly indebted for this sudden and most +brilliant change in his fortunes; and partly impelled by this feeling +of gratitude, and partly allured by Edith's extraordinary charms, he +proposed to make Edith his wife. Godwin made no objection. In fact, +his enemies say that he made a positive stipulation for this match +before allowing the measures for Edward's elevation to the throne to +proceed too far. However this may be, Godwin found himself, after +Edward's accession, raised to the highest pitch of honor and power. +From being a young herdsman's son, driving the cows to pasture in +a wood, he had become the prime minister, as it were, of the whole +realm, his four sons being great commanding generals in the army, and +his daughter the queen. + +The current of life did not flow smoothly with him, after all. We can +not here describe the various difficulties in which he became involved +with the king on account of the Normans, who were continually coming +over from the Continent to join Edward's court, and whose coming +and growing influence strongly awakened the jealousy of the English +people. Some narration of these events will more properly precede the +history of William the Conqueror. We accordingly close this story of +Godwin here by giving the circumstances of his death, as related by +the historians of the time. The readers of this narrative will, of +course, exercise severally their own discretion in determining how far +they will believe the story to be true. + +The story is, that one day he was seated at Edward's table, at some +sort of entertainment, when one of his attendants, who was bringing +in a goblet of wine, tripped one of his feet, but contrived to save +himself by dexterously bringing up the other in such a manner as to +cause some amusement to the guests; Godwin said, referring to the +man's feet, that _one brother saved the other_. "Yes," said the king, +"brothers have need of brothers' aid. Would to God that mine were +still alive." In saying this he directed a meaning glance toward +Godwin, which seemed to insinuate, as, in fact, the king had sometimes +done before, that Godwin had had some agency in young Alfred's +death. Godwin was displeased. He reproached the king with the +unreasonableness of his surmises, and solemnly declared that he was +wholly innocent of all participation in that crime. He imprecated the +curse of God upon his head if this declaration was not true, wishing +that the next mouthful of bread that he should eat might choke him if +he had contributed in any way, directly or indirectly, to Alfred's +unhappy end. So saying, he put the bread into his mouth, and in the +act of swallowing it he was seized with a paroxysm of coughing and +suffocation. The attendants hastened to his relief, the guests rose in +terror and confusion. Godwin was borne away by two of his sons, and +laid on his bed in convulsions. He survived the immediate injury, but +after lingering five days he died. + +Edward continued to reign in prosperity long after this event, and he +employed the sons of Godwin as long as he lived in the most honorable +stations of public service. In fact, when he died, he named one of +them as his successor to the throne. + +[Footnote 1: Pronounced _Oolf_] + +[Footnote 2: Spelled sometimes Herald] + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of King Alfred of England, by Jacob Abbott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING ALFRED OF ENGLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 16545.txt or 16545.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/4/16545/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lesley Halamek and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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