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necessary as, from the precautionary measures of Alfred, it was difficult. The country was no longer open to incursions as formerly; a regular communication of defence, and a vigilant armed peasantry, directed by able men, secured the property of the country, and straitened the supplies of the invader. Hastings had to conquer, before he could subsist.

FROM his strong hold at Benfleet, Hastings marched with a portion of his united army to spread his depredations through Mercia. This excursion was fortunate for Alfred. The troops which he had allotted to act against the enemy in Mersey proceeded through London, and were joined by the warlike citizens. While Hastings was abroad, the Anglo-Saxons attacked those who remained in the intrenchment, forced their defence, threw them into complete confusion, and again carried away their wealth, women, and children, to London. Of the ships which lay under the protection of the fort, they broke up some, burnt others, and sailed with the rest to London and Rochester.43

THE wife and children of Hastings were again sent to Alfred. The king was strongly urged to put them to death, as an act of vengeance for the perfidy and cruelty of Hastings; but Alfred's nobler mind consulted only its generosity, and with that benevolent magnanimity so rare, not only in barbarous ages, but in civilised war, and yet which sheds new glory round the illustrious character who displays it, he loaded them with presents, and again sent them free to his rival.4

44

DURING these transactions Alfred had reached

43 Sax. Chron. 94.

44 Sax. Chron. 94. Matt. West. 347. Flor. 331.

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Exeter with so much expedition, that the invaders, CHAP. disconcerted by his unexpected presence, raised the siege of the town with precipitation, hastened to their ships, and committed themselves once more to the chance of the ocean. On their return round the southern shore, they attacked Chichester, on the coast of Sussex ; but the brave citizens repulsed them to the sea, slaying many hundreds, and taking some ships.45

BEFORE Alfred could return from Devonshire, Hastings had collected again his defeated army, and, keeping still on the sea-coast, where he might receive the supplies he needed, he erected a strong fortress at South Shobery, near the southeastern point of Essex there he was joined by numbers from Northumbria and East Anglia, and by another descendant from Ragnar Lodbrog.46 Confident from his numbers, and dissatisfied with his frustrated plan of defensive settlement, he appears to have adopted a new scheme of operations, in which rapid enterprise was the predominant feature.

HASTINGS sailed up the Thames into the heart of the king's dominions, and spread his forces over Mercia. By this intrepid measure, he had often scattered terror through France, and enriched himself with booty.

45 Sax. Chron. 94. 96. Flor. 331.

46 Ethelwerd mentions that Sigefert came to him with a powerful fleet from Northumbria, p. 847. The Annals of Ulster, p. 65., mention Sigfred, the son of Ingwar, as roaming about the British isles at at this period. Ethelwerd notices the death of Guthfred, king of Northumbria at this time, and his burial at York, p. 847. As Sigfred is stated, in the Ulster Annals, to have killed his brother Godfred about this period, p. 65., they are probably the Sigefert and Guthfred of Ethelwerd.

47 Ethelwerd says he extended his ravages to Stamford, between the Weolod and the thick wood called Ceoftefne, p. 847.

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He proceeded through Mercia to the Severn. But his presence roused to their duty the military commanders of every district which he traversed. Ethered, the governor of Mercia, two other aldermen, and the king's thanes, who were residing in the strong holds which he had erected, summoned the people of every borough from the east of Pedridan, the west of Selwood, and the east and north of the Thames, to the west of the Severn, with some portion of the North Welsh. The willing citizens united to protect their families and their property. Alfred advanced to join them, pursued the bold invaders to Buttington, on the Severn, and besieged them in their fortress, both by land and on the river.

SURROUNDED by the hostility of the country, and without shipping, they were obliged to submit to the blockade. They were lodged on both banks of the Severn, and they remained confined to their post for several weeks, enduring every extremity of distress. They killed a great part of their horses for their subsistence, and yet many perished by famine.4

48

THE Success with which the generals of Alfred, and their hasty levies, compelled such a spirit as that of Hastings to submit to a calamitous confinement, announces highly the energy and wisdom of the regulations by which Alfred had provided for the defence of his people.

ROUSED by their sufferings, the Northmen attempted to burst from their prison. They threw themselves upon the Anglo-Saxons, who occupied the eastern part of the blockade, and an ardent con

48 Sax. Chron. 95. M. West. 348.

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flict ensued, in which several royal thanes perished; CHAP. the Northmen were repulsed, many drowned, and some thousands were slain; but the rest effected their escape. These went directly forwards to Essex, and reached their intrenchments, and the ships they had abandoned, without further molestation.49

ALTHOUGH their bold enterprise, which had carried devastation into the centre of England, had ended in disaster, yet their spirit of adventure was not quelled. They were educated to exist with the most excited and most pleasurable vitality in the tempests of war, and no failure deterred them, because, having no homes but their ships, or a conquered country, no profession but piracy, no provisions but their spoils, they had no chances of enjoyment, or even existence, but from the battle. It was distressing to have an enemy to encounter, who must gain his point or perish; because there is a vivaciousness in his despair, which no danger can intimidate, no defeat, less than total annihilation, can destroy. He must act offensively while he lives. Desperate, and therefore fearless, he delights to multiply contests, because every encounter, presenting a possibility of success, is to him an advantage, and to his opponent a peril.

THE ruined bands of Hastings were in this situation when they regained their station in Essex. He might have manned his vessels, and sought the smiles of fortune on more prosperous shores; but wherever he went he must extort subsistence from plunder, and win his fortune with his sword. England had charms which overbalanced the discou

49 Sax. Chron. 95. Florence, 332.

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ragement of his discomfiture; and he resolved to wrestle with Alfred for the sceptre again.50

BEFORE the winter came on, Hastings had raised a large army from the East Anglians and Northumbrians. Their wives, their shipping, and their wealth, they confided to the East Anglians, and marching with that vigorous rapidity from which Hastings and the Northmen had so often derived their surest advantages, they rested neither night nor day till they had reached and fortified Chester in the Wirall. 51 Alfred was active to pursue, but he did not overtake them till they had surrounded themselves with fortifications, which the military knowledge of that day respected as impregnable. Alfred, for two days, besieged them, drove away all the cattle in the vicinity, slew every enemy who ventured beyond the encampment, and burnt and consumed all the corn of the district. 52

FROM Chester, Hastings led his bands for subsistence into North Wales: he plundered and then quitted it, with his booty; but not daring to molest West Saxony, or Mercia, where the troops of Alfred were watching his progress, he made a cir

50 Hastings is thus far distinctly mentioned. M. Westm. states him to have led the Northmen from Benfleet to the Severn, p. 347, 348., and carries on the history of the same army to Cwatbridge, 349. Hence there can be no doubt that he was still the chief leader.

51 Spelman, who, in his Life of Alfred, is generally accurate, construed Lega-ceaster to mean Leicester, but this town is spelt with an r before ceaster, as Legerceaster, Legraceaster. Sax. Chron. 25. and 106. The Wirall is thus described by Camden: "From the city (Chester) there runneth out a Chersonese into the sea, inclosed on one side with the estuary Dee, and on the other with the river Mersey; we call it Wirall; the Welsh, because it is a corner, Killgury. This was all heretofore a desolate forest, and not inhabited (as the natives say); but king Edward disforested it. Now it is well furnished with towns." Brit. Chesh.

52 Sax. Chron. 95.

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