were joined by Eardulf's friend Edred, abbot of Carlisle; then, seeing the course of the Danes by the fires which they kindled, they took a favourable opportunity to assemble at the mouth of the Cumberland river Derwent, where a ship had been provided to convey the bishop and abbot, with a few select followers, to the Irish shores. The body of St. Cuthbert and the other relics and furniture were placed on board; and those who were to share their exile withdrew with their spiritual fathers privately, and set sail, leaving the remainder of the flock in great dismay when they found they were deserted. Eardulf, however, appears to have taken this step with a doubting conscience; and when a contrary wind and storm arose, he took it as a mark of the displeasure of God, and was right glad when he was landed after some perils at Whitherne, the ancient seat of Christianity in Galloway. A copy of the Gospels, of great value, beautifully written in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, and preserved in a case adorned with gold and jewels, was supposed to have been lost in the sea, but to their great joy it was shortly afterwards discovered on the shore. The Christians at Whitherne gave them a hearty reception, and they remained here for some time; but the bishop was anxious to revisit his suffering and scattered flock in Northumberland. At length, hearing of Halden's death, he determined to return. They were joined, as before, by many devoted friends, and wandering about the hills and hiding in woods, they continued to assemble round the bier of St. Cuthbert for many months for their daily service of psalmody and prayer. There was at this time still preserved a small monastery at Crayke, the situation, in the midst of deep woods, having protected it from the Danes. Here the abbot Geve offered them a refuge; and they remained four months, till the victories of Alfred having restored

some degree of safety to the Christians in the north, Eardulf was enabled to fix his see, where it remained for more than a century, at Chester-le-Street, to the north of Durham. The other bishoprics of Ripon, Hexham, and Whitherne, were never afterwards restored.

It is no wonder if, in the ages following, this flight of Eardulf, the preservation of the relics, and the strange escapes of this Christian flock, became the subject of many legendary tales. The almost total destruction of Christian priests and teachers had left the poor people of these northern counties in a state of religious destitution; and the Danish converts, who were henceforward mixed with the Saxons, were more ignorant and more superstitious than their predecessors, and never were equally enlightened or softened by the great truths of Christianity. But it is owing to the zeal and devoted patience of Eardulf, that the Church of Northumbria was still preserved. Without the public testimony afforded by his perilous journeys, it is probable that the labours of Columba's disciples, and the remembrance of Bede and his excellent associates, must have come in that province to a perpetual end. It was therefore with better reason that the Christians of Northumbria in the next generations were proud of tracing their descent to some of those who had helped to protect the wanderers, and especially to the true-hearted band who had guarded St. Cuthbert's bier.

CHAPTER XI.

REIGN OF ALFRED.

Where shall the holy cross find rest?

On a crown'd monarch's mailed breast:

Like some bright angel o'er the darkling scene,

Through court and camp he holds his heavenward course serene. The Christian Year.

AN'S necessity is God's opportunity. When the Christian realm of ancient England seemed to be on the brink of destruction, his providence raised up a man qualified by many eminent gifts both to restore the altar and maintain the throne. ALFRED, the fourth son of Ethelwolf, had been sent by his father at the age of seven years to Rome, to receive the rite of confirmation from the pope. It would seem that his father, not then expecting he would ever be called to wear the crown, had some thoughts of training him up for the service of the Church; but the boy's inclination was not for books so much as for the sports of the field. He returned, having in token of kindness been named pope Leo IV.'s adopted son; but he continued to shew no desire for instruction till he was caught, as other unwilling students have been, by the love of poetry and song. His mother-in-law Judith shewed him one day a beautifully written manuscript, with a capital letter elegantly adorned. This, she told him, contained the song to which he and his brothers had lately listened in the king's presence: "I will give it," she said, "to him who first learns to read it." Alfred began to learn his letters; and though good instructors were then scarce, from the destruction of learning

in the wars, he from this time laid the foundation of that knowledge which has raised his name so far above the generation in which he was born.

Nothing could be more disastrous than the state of England when he came to the crown. He was no more than twenty-three years of age when his brother Ethered died, leaving a large Danish army in the country, with which he had fought many bloody battles, and with which Alfred continued to fight after his death, till in one year he had met them nine times in open field. They still, however, poured fresh forces into the country; and at the close of the year were masters of all the province of Wessex, wherever they directed their march. The next year they wintered in London, then overran East Anglia and Mercia, and drove the last Mercian king Burhred, who had married Alfred's sister, over sea to take refuge and die at Rome. His wife ended her days in an Italian nunnery. They were now in possession of all England north of Thames, the Mercians offering no resistance. But while they were thus engaged in other provinces, Alfred began to build a fleet, and in A.D. 875 gained his first victory over a small fleet of their pirates at sea. In the following years they were again in the west; and in the seventh year of his reign their successful inroads had so broken the spirit of his people, that many began to fly across the sea to Ireland or France; and the king with difficulty saved himself, with a small band of followers, by taking refuge in the woods and fastnesses of the Somersetshire moors. The first hope of better fortune shone upon the Saxons in Devonshire, where they slew one of the sea-kings and eight hundred of his men, and took a kind of sacred standard, the loss of which broke somewhat of the spirit of these fierce pagans. It was woven by the sisters of Inguar and Ubba, the

brothers of the slain chief; and they are said to have divined by it the fortunes of the day. If the figure of a raven, which was represented on it, moved briskly in the wind, it was a sign of victory; but if it drooped and hung heavily, their hopes fell with it. Not long after, Alfred returned from his retreat, and by skilful marches cutting off the plundering parties, at length with a superior force shutting them up within their camp at Eḍingdon in Wiltshire, drove them by terror and famine to terms of peace. Their king Godram received baptism; and obtaining from Alfred permission to keep the kingdom of East Anglia, whose last king, Edmund, the saint of Bury, had been slain by the Danes a few years earlier, he died and was buried at Hadleigh in Suffolk, A.D. 890. There was a new and formidable invasion again towards the close of Alfred's reign; but he had now found a way of building ships of better force than the Danes possessed; and though the country suffered great ravages, he was victorious by sea and land.

"It pleased God," says the old Saxon bishop who writes the account of his life, Asser, bishop of Sherborne, "to give this illustrious king the experience of both extremes of fortune; to suffer him to be hard pressed by enemies, to be afflicted by adversities, to be humbled by losing the respect of his friends, as well as to gain victories over his foes, and to find prosperity in the midst of reverses; that he might know that there is one Lord of all, to whom every knee shall bow, and in whose hand are the hearts of kings; who putteth down the mighty from their seat, and exalteth the humble; who willeth that his faithful ones in the height of success should sometimes feel the rod of adversity, that they may neither despair of his mercy when brought low, nor when exalted be proud of the honour they enjoy,