5. But the low Voice spoke still lower: "Nay, I know the golden chain Of my love is purer, stronger, 6. But the Voice cried: "Once remember You devoted soul and mind To the welfare of your brethren, 7. "Nay;" and then the gentle answer Poor had been my Life's best efforts, Has the strength of Love and Death." III.-ALFRED THE GREAT. COLLIER. 1. There was a race of men, commonly called the Danes, but more correctly known as the Norsemen, who affected the history of all Western Europe, and especially the history of England, to an immense extent. They were something of the Saxon type-fierce, fair-haired warriors, whose eyes darted blue lightning, and whose chief weapons were the ax and the warhammer. Their favorite plan was to push up the rivers in their light vessels, which were painted and gilt to represent dragons, and so to penetrate a land very deeply and ravage it very cruelly. When they came to a town, they killed the people, carried off the wealth, and burned the houses to the ground. They carried a banner, on which the image of a huge raven was displayed in dark and terrible colors. They had a particular grudge against the Saxons, because the latter, for the most part, had abandoned heathenism and become Christians. 2. The man who most bravely and successfully fought against the Danes, was born about sixty years after they began to plunder the English shore. This was Alfred, the son of Ethulwulf and Osberga, and is celebrated in history as Alfred the Great Few kings, who have borne that additional name, have deserved it. so well. From his earliest days Alfred showed signs of ability far beyond what is common. A story is told of his childhood, which, though not certainly true, may ind a place in this book. 3. One day his mother, or rather his stepmother, showed Alfred and his brothers a book of Saxon poetry, bordered and adorned with very beautiful paintings or illuminations, as they were then called, and promised to give the precious manuscript to whichever of the Doy3 would repeat the poetry best. Alfred, aged abo it six, won the prize with some help from his tutor. But when Alfred came to the throne in his twentysecond year, he ran the risk at first of souring and displeasing his subjects by ruling them too harshly, and forcing new laws too violently upon them. 4. For this reason it was, that when the Danes made an attack by sea upon the southern shore, there were very few men who cared to help Alfred in beating them back; and so the young monarch was driven from his throne to hide himself among the woods and marshes of Somersetshire. This piece of temporary bad fortune did good both to him and to his people. It softened the sternness of his nature, and allowed them time to forget his early harshness. His hidingplace was the Island of Athelney, a little patch of ground covered with alder-trees. A bridge was built over the stream, and here the king lay, hidden but not forgotten, for a whole winter. 5. It was while he lived in this miserable condition that he found his way one day into the cabin of a max that herded oxen. The man was out, but his wife welcomed the wanderer, and invited him to sit down and warm himself at the fire of logs that crackled in the center of the clay floor. Alfred, who was dressed in the common clothes of a peasant, took out his knife and began to shape a part of his bow that needed trimming. The woman asked him to see that the cakes which were baking on the fire did not burn; but he was either too tired, or too much wrapped in thought, or too much devoted to the shaping of his bow; for, when she turned again to look, the bread was black and smoking. Little dreaming that she was scolding her king, the herdsman's wife poured out a torrent of shrill abuse, and told the culprit that, although he was lazy in watching the cakes, she was sure he would eat them greedily enough when they were baked. 、 6. When the news spread quietly among the Saxons of Wessex, that Alfred was living in the swamp of Athelney, the young men gathered secretly around him; and, when the white blossoms of the hawthorn came out, he left the island with a little army of brave men. Before engaging in battle, he is said to have taken the very dangerous step of going in a minstrel's dress into the camp of the Danes and playing there, until he was invited to feast with the chief. All the evening he played and sang most skillfully, and the unsuspicious Danes talked in the pauses of the music about their plans and their contempt of the conquered Saxons. 7. His ear, though he did not seem to listen, caught every word of the boastful talk, which was all the truer and less guarded, when the mead began to affect the soldiers' brains. When the revel was over, the minstrel stole away to the little Saxon bivouac1 in the forest of Selwood, and there made his arangements for a dash upon the Danes. Next day he managed to place his men between the Northmen and their camp which was a round or oval inclosure high upon a bill It was sunset before the battle was decided. Danes ran away up the sides of the hill and hid themselves in their camp, where for a fortnight, but no longer, they held out against the assaults of a Saxon army, which grew larger every day. By the battle of Ethandune, as the first encounter is called, Alfred regained the throne of Wessex.* The 8. Alfred though tortured by an internal illness, was a most active man. Having invented time-candles which burned down one inch every twenty minutes, and having then made lanterns of horn to keep the draughts from blowing out the lights, he divided his day into three equal parts, one allotted to business, a second to study and worship, and the third to rest and recreation. After a short sleep under a goatskin quilt Egbert and his immediate successors styled themselves Kings of Wessex;" since it was that kingdom which absorbed into itself all the smaller States in the South, and finally succeeded in making tributary to itself the larger kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northum bria. |