oaths and treaties too, as soon as it suited
their purpose, and coming back again to fight,
plunder, and burn, as usual. One fatal winter,
in the fourth year of KING ALFRED'S reign,
they spread themselves in great numbers over
the whole of England; and so dispersed and
routed the king's soldiers that the king was
left alone, and was obliged to disguise himself
as a common peasant, and to take refuge in the
cottage of one of his cowherds who did not
know his face.

Here, KING ALFRED, while the Danes sought
him far and wide, was left alone, one day, by
the cowherd's wife, to watch some cakes which
she put to bake upon the hearth. But, being
at work upon his bow and arrows, with which
he hoped to punish the false Danes when a
brighter time should come, and thinking
deeply of his poor unhappy subjects whom
they chased through the land, his noble mind
forgot the cakes, and they were burnt.
"What!" said the cowherd's wife, who
scolded him well when she came back, and
little thought she was scolding the king,
"You will be ready enough to eat them
by-and-by, and yet you cannot watch them,
idle dog?"

At length, the Devonshire men rose against
a new host of Danes who landed on their
coast; killed their chief, and captured their
flag, on which was represented the likeness of
a Raven—a very fit bird for a thievish army
like that, I think. The loss of their standard
troubled the Danes greatly, for, they believed
it to be enchanted; woven by the three
daughters of one father in a single afternoon—
and had a story among themselves that when
they were victorious in battle, the Raven
stretched his wings and seemed to fly; and
that when they were defeated, he would
droop. He had good reason to droop, now, if
he could have done anything half so sensible;
for, KING ALFRED joined the Devonshire men,
made a camp with them on a piece of firm
ground in the midst of a bog in Somersetshire,
and prepared to make a great attempt for
vengeance on the Danes, and the deliverance
of his oppressed people.

But, first, as it was important to know how
numerous these pestilent Danes were, and how
they were fortified, KING ALFRED, being a
good musician, disguised himself as a gleeman
or minstrel, and went, with his harp, to the
Danish camp. He played and sang in the
very tent of GUTHRUM the Danish leader, and
entertained the Danes as they caroused.
While he seemed to think of nothing but his
music, he was watchful of their tents, their
arms, their discipline, everything that he
desired to know. And right soon did this
great King entertain them to a very different
tune; for, summoning all his true followers
to meet him at an appointed place, where
they received him with joyful shouts and
tears, as the monarch whom many of them
had given up for lost or dead, he put himself
at their head, marched on the Danish camp,
defeated the Danes with great slaughter, and
besieged them for fourteen days to prevent
their escape. But, being as merciful as he
was good and brave, he then, instead of killing
them, proposed peace; on condition that they
should altogether depart from that Western
part of England, and settle in the East; and
that GUTHRUM should become a Christian, in
remembrance of the Divine religion which
now taught this conqueror, the noble ALFRED,
to forgive the enemy who had so often injured
him. This, GUTHRUM did. At his baptism,
KING ALFRED was his godfather. And
GUTHRUM was an honourable chief who well
deserved that clemency; for ever, afterwards,
he was loyal and faithful to the King. The
Danes under him were faithful too. They
plundered and burned no more, but worked
like honest men. They ploughed, and sowed,
and reaped, and led good, honest, English
lives. And I hope the children of those
Danes played, many a time, with Saxon
children in the sunny fields; and that Danish
young men fell in love with Saxon girls, and
married them; and that English travellers,
benighted at the doors of Danish cottages,
often went in for shelter until morning;
and that Danes and Saxons sat by the red
fire, friends, talking of KING ALFRED THE
GREAT.

All the Danes were not like these under
GUTHRUM; for, after some years, more of
them came over, in the old plundering and
burning way—among them a fierce pirate
of the name of HASTINGS, who had the
boldness to sail up the Thames to Gravesend,
with eighty ships. For three years, there was
war with these Danes; and there was a
famine in the country, too, and a plague, both
upon human creatures and beasts. But, KING
ALFRED, whose mighty heart never failed him,
built large ships nevertheless, with which to
pursue the pirates on the sea; and encouraged
his soldiers, by his brave example, to fight
valiantly against them on the shore. At last,
he drove them all away; and then there was
repose in England.

As great and good in peace, as he was
great and good in war, KING ALFRED never
rested from his labors to improve his people.
He loved to talk with clever men, and with
travellers from foreign countries, and to
write down what they told him, for his
people to read. He had studied Latin after
learning to read English; and, now, another
of his labors was, to translate Latin books into
the English-Saxon tongue, that his people
might be interested, and improved by their
contents. He made just laws, that they
might live more happily and freely; he
turned away all partial judges, that no wrong
might be done them; he was so careful of
their property, and punished robbers so
severely, that it was a common thing to say
that under the great KING ALFRED, garlands of
gold chains and jewels might have hung across
the streets, and no man would have touched