an opportunity should offer of annoying the enemy, who were now in possession of all the country. This chosen band, still faithful to their monarch, took shelter in the forests and marshes of Somerset, and thence made occasional irruptions upon straggling parties of the enemy. Their success, in this rapacious and dreary method of living, encouraged many more to join their society, till at lentgh, sufficiently augmented, they repaired to their monarch, who had by that time been reduced by famine to extremities.

Ausfall aus Mean while, Ubba, the chief of the Danish commandKenwith ers, carried terror over the whole land, and now ravaged the country of Wales without opposition. The only place where he found resistance was, in his return, from the castle of Kenwith, into which the earl of Devonshire had retired with a small body of troops. This gallant soldier, finding himself unable to sustain a siege, and knowing the danger of surrendering to a perfidious enemy, resolved, by one desperate effort, to sally out and force his way through the besiegers, sword in hand. The proposal was embraced by all his followers, while the Danes, secure in their numbers, and in their contempt of the enemy, were not only routed with great slaughter, but Ubba, their general, was slain. Alfred This victory once more restored courage to the dispiKundschafte rited Saxons; and Alfred, taking advantage of their fasells de vourable disposition, prepared to animate them to a viFeind aus gorous exertion of their superiority. He soon therefore apprised them of the place of his retreat, and instructed them to be ready with all their strength at a minute's warning. But no one was found who would undertake to give intelligence of the force and posture of the enemy. Not knowing, therefore, a person in whom to confide, he undertook this dangerous task himself. In the simple dress of a shepherd, with a harp in his hands, he

entered the Danish camp, tried all his arts to please, and was so much admired that he was brought into the presence of Guthrum, the Danish prince, with whom he remained some days. There he remarked the supine security of the Danes, their contempt of the English, their negligence in foraging and plundering, and their dissolute wasting of such ill-gotten booty. Having made his observations, he returned to his retreat, and, detaching proper emissaries among his subjects, appointed them to meet him in arms in the forest of Selwood,-a summons which they gladly obeyed.

M

It was against the most unguarded quarter of the Alfred grich enemy that Alfred made his most violent attack, while in Dann mit the Danes, surprised to behold an army of English, fly. whom they considered as totally subdued, made but a faint resistance, notwithstanding the superiority of their number. They were routed with great slaughter: and, though such as escaped fled for refuge into a fortified. camp in the neighbourhood, yet, being unprovided for a siege, in less than a fortnight they were com- A.D. pelled to surrender at discretion. By the con- 879. queror's permission, those who did not choose to embrace Christianity embarked for Flanders, under the command of one of their generals called Hastings. Guthrum, their prince, became a convert, with thirty of his nobles, and the king himself answered for him at the font.

Of the Danes who had enlisted with Hastings, a part alfred rustet returned, contrary to agreement, once more to ravage argen die that country where they had been so mercifully spared, Düren eine and, landing on the coasts of Kent, advanced towards flotte aus. Rochester, in hopes of surprising that city. They were soon, however, deterred from proceeding, by hearing that Alfred was upon his march to oppose them. That such depredations might be prevented for the future,

this monarch equipped a strong fleet, with which he attacked and destroyed sixteen of their vessels in the port of Harwich. There was now but the port of London open to the invaders; and as that city was weakly garrisoned, he soon reduced it to capitulation. Having augmented its fortifications, and embellished it with a number of new edifices, he delivered it in charge to his son-in-law, Ethelred, and thus secured the whole country from foreign danger.

Alfred had now attained the meridian of glory; he eine Militz aufpossessed a greater extent of territory than had ever been enjoyed by any of his predecessors; the kings of Wales did him homage for their possessions, the Northumbrians received a king of his appointment, and no enemy appeared to give him the least apprehension, or excite an alarm. In this state of prosperity and profound tranquillity, Alfred was diligently employed in cultivating the arts of peace, and in repairing the damages which the kingdom had sustained by war. After rebuilding the cities which had been destroyed by the Danes, he established a regular militia for the defence of the kingdom. He took care that all his subjects should be armed and registered; he assigned to them a regular rotation of duty; some were employed to cultivate the land, while others were appointed to repel any sudden invasion from the enemy. He took care to provide a naval force that was more than a match for the invaders, and trained his subjects as well in the practice of sailing as of naval engagements. A fleet of Morina hundred and twenty ships of war was thus stationed along the coasts; and, being well supplied with all things necessary, both for subsistence and war, it impressed the incursive enemy with awe. there succeeded some very formidable the king found it difficult to repress.

Not but that descents, which Hastings, the

Danish chieftain, in particular, appeared off the A. D. coast of Kent, with a fleet of three hundred and $93. thirty sail; and, although his forces were vigorously opposed and repulsed by the vigilance of Alfred, yet he found means to secure himself in the possession of Bamflete, near the isle of Canvey, in the county of Essex. But he was not long settled there when his garrison was overpowered by a body of the citizens of London, with great slaughter, and his wife and two sons made captives. These experienced the king's clemency; he restored them to Hastings, on condition. that he should depart from the kingdom. Nor were the East Anglian Danes, or the insurgents of Northumberland, much more successful. These broke into rebellion; and, yielding to their favourite habits of depredation, embarked on board two hundred and forty vessels, and appeared before Exeter. There, however, they met a very bloody reception from Alfred; and were so discouraged, that they put to sea again without attempting any other enterprise. A third body of pi

ratical Danes were even more unsuccessful than either of the former. Great numbers of them, after the departure of Hastings, seized and fortified Shobury, at the mouth of the Thames; and, having left a garrison there, marched along the banks of the river till they came to Bodington, in the county of Gloucester, where, being reinforced by a body of Welshmen, they threw up entrenchments, and prepared for defence. There they were surrounded by the king's forces, and reduced to the utmost extremity. After having eaten their horses, and many of them perishing with hunger, they made a desperate sally, in which numbers were cut to pieces. Those who escaped, being pursued by the vigilance of Alfred, were finally dispersed or totally destroyed. Nor did he treat the Northumbrian freebooters with

less severity. Falling upon them while they were exercising their ravages in the West, he took twenty of their ships; and having tried all the prisoners at Winchester, he hanged them as pirates, the common enemies of mankind.

Alfadiny. Having by this vigilance and well-timed severity given peace and total security to his subjects, his next care tungen und was to polish the country by arts, as he had protected tinsichtungen He is said to have drawn up a body of . fit by arms. laws; but those which remain to this day under his name seem to be only the laws already practised in the country by his Saxon ancestors, and to which, probably, . he gave his sanction. The trial by juries, mulcts and fines for offences, by some ascribed to him, are of much more ancient date. The care of Alfred for the encouragement of learning did not a little tend to improve the morals and restrain the barbarous habits of the people. When he came to the throne, he found the English sunk into the grossest ignorance and barbarism, proceeding from the continued disorders of the government, and from the ravages of the Danes. He himself complains that, on his accession, he knew not one person south of the Thames who could so much as interpret the Latin service. To remedy this deficiency, he invited over the most celebrated scholars from all parts of Europe; he founded, or at least re-established, the university of Oxford, and endowed it with many privileges. He gave in his own example the strongest incentives to study. He usually divided his time into three equal portions; one was given to sleep, and the refection of his body, diet, and exercise; another to the dispatch of business; and the third to study and devotion. He made a considerable progress in the different studies of grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, architecture, and geometry. He was an excellent historian,