of Northumbria, who was such, a good king
that it was said a woman or child might
openly carry a purse of gold, in his reign,
without fear, allowed his child to be baptised,
and held a great council to consider whether
he and his people should all be Christians or
not. It was decided that they should be.
COIFI, the chief priest of the old religion,
made a great speech on the occasion. In this
discourse, he told the people that he had found
out the old gods to be impostors. "I am
quite satisfied of it," he said. "Look at me!
I have been serving them all my life, and they
have done nothing for me; whereas, if they
had been really powerful, they could not have
decently done less, in return for all I have
done for them, than make my fortune. As
they have never made my fortune, I am quite
convinced they are impostors!" When this
singular priest had finished speaking, he
hastily armed himself with sword and lance,
mounted a war-horse, rode at a furious gallop
in sight of all the people to the temple, and
flung his lance against it as an insult. From
that time, the Christian Religion spread itseli
among the Saxons, and became their faith.

The next very famous prince was EGBERT.
He lived about a hundred and fifty years
afterwards, and claimed to have a better right
to the throne of Wessex than BEORTRIC,
another Saxon prince who was at the head
of that kingdom, and who married EDBURGA,
the daughter of OFFA, king of another of the
seven kingdoms. This QUEEN EDBURGA was
a handsome murderess, who poisoned people
when they offended her. One day, she mixed
a cup of poison for a certain noble belonging
to the court; but, her husband drank of it
too, by mistake, and died. Upon this, the
people rose in great crowds, and running to
the palace, and thundering at the gates, cried,
"Down with the wicked queen, who poisons
men!" They drove her out of the country,
and abolished the title she had disgraced.
When years had passed away, some travellers
came home from Italy, and said that in the
town of Pavia they had seen a ragged beggar-
woman, who had once been handsome, but
was then shrivelled, bent, and yellow,
wandering about the streets, crying for bread;
and that this beggar-woman was the poisoning
English queen. It was, indeed, EDBURGA; and
so she died—without a shelter for her wretched
head.

EGBERT, not considering himself safe in
England, in consequence of his having claimed
the crown of Wessex (for, he thought his rival
might take him prisoner and put him to
death), sought refuge at the court of CHARLEMAGNE,
King of France. On the death of
BEORTRIC, so unhappily poisoned by mistake,
he came back to Britain; succeeded to the
throne of Wessex; conquered some of the
other monarchs of the seven kingdoms; added
their territories to his own; and, for the first
time, called the country over which he ruled,
England.

And now, new enemies arose, who, for a
long time, troubled England sorely. These
were the Northmen, the people of Denmark
and Norway, whom the English called the
Danes. They were a warlike people, quite at
home upon the sea, not Christians, very daring
and cruel. They came over in ships, and
plundered and burned wheresoever they
landed. Once, they beat EGBERT in battle.
Once, EGBERT beat them. But, they cared no
more for being beaten than the English
themselves. In the four following short reigns, of
ETHELWULF, and his three sons, ETHELBALD,
ETHELBERT, and ETHERED, they came back,
over and over again, burning and plundering,
and laying England waste. In the last-
mentioned reign, they seized EDMUND, King of
East England, and bound him to a tree.
Then, they proposed to him that he should
change his religion; but he, being a good
Christian, steadily refused. Upon that, they
beat him, made cowardly jests upon him, all
defenceless as he was, shot arrows at him,
and, finally, struck off his head. It is
impossible to say whose head they might have
struck off next, but for the death of KING
ETHERED, from a wound he had received in
fighting against them, and the succession to
his throne of the best and wisest king that
ever lived in England.

ALFRED THE GREAT was a young man,
three-and-twenty years of age, when he
became king. Twice in his childhood, he had
been taken to Rome, where the Saxon nobles
were in the habit of going, on journeys which
they supposed to be religious; and, once, he
had stayed for some time in Paris. Learning,
however, was so little cared for, then, that at
twelve years old, he had not been taught to
read; although, of the four sons of KING ETHELWULF,
he, the youngest, was the favourite. But,
he had, as most men who grow up to be great
and good are generally found to have had, an
excellent mother; and, one day, this lady,
whose name was OSBURGHA, happened, as she
was sitting among her sons, to read a book of
Saxon poetry. The art of printing was not
known until long and long after that period,
and the book, which was written, was what
is called "illuminated," with beautiful bright
letters, richly painted. The brothers admiring
it very much, their mother said, "I will give
it to that one of you four princes who first
learns to read." ALFRED sought out a tutor
that very day, applied himself to learn with
great diligence, and soon won the book. He
was proud of it, all his life.

This great king, in the first year of his
reign, fought nine battles with the Danes.
He made some treaties with them too, by
which the false Danes swore that they would
quit the country. They pretended to consider
that they had taken a very solemn oath, in
swearing this upon the holy bracelets that
they wore, and which were always buried with
them when they died; but, they cared little
for it, for they thought nothing of breaking