Mirror, strike our moral feeling as coming within the expressions of the "immoderate tyranny," which he is Isaid to have at first exhibited.

"That Alfred should desire the improvement of his people, was the natural result of his own improving mind. But, if he at first attempted to effect this by violence, and to precipitate, by pitiless exertions of power, that melioration which time and adapted education, laws, example, and institutions, only could produce, he acted with as much real tyranny as if he had shed their blood from the common passions of ordinary despots; but his motives must not be confounded with theirs: he meant well, though he may have acted in this respect injudiciously. Yet no motive can make crime not criminal. However men may palter with the question to serve temporary purposes, no end justifies bad means. Cruelty and violence are always evils, and tend to produce greater ones than those which they correct. We may therefore understand from the examples mentioned by Horne, that even Alfred's better purposes, thus executed, may have attached to the beginning of his reign the charges of tyranny and cruelty, and may have produced the temporary aversion of his people. They could not appreciate his great objects. They saw what they hated. They probably misconceived, for a time, his real character, and by their alienation may have contributed to amend it. Virtue, without intending it, will often act viciously from ignorance, prejudice, wrong advice, or undue alarm. Wisdom must unite with virtue to keep it from wrong conduct or deterioration; but true wisdom arises from the best human and divine tuition, and the gradual concurrence

of experience. Alfred possessed these in the latter part of his life, but in its earlier periods had not attained them "."

To comment upon these just remarks would be superfluous, nor is it necessary to shew that they can hardly apply, by way of explanation, to the obscure events of January, February, and March, 878, if the reader shall consider that I have discovered in the Chronicle of Brompton the narrative of a battle, which was the more efficient instrument of Alfred's discomfiture. If therefore I trespass a little longer upon the patience of my reader, it will be to lay before him the reflections of Spelman upon this subject, rather as a matter of curiosity, than as if it were essential to this delineation of Alfred's life. And yet it may be productive of benefit to the minds of many; for there are numerous individuals, in the variety of the human race, who will turn over and over again that which is in its nature incomprehensible or obscure, and will quit the examination, apparently satisfied, though they have gained no additional knowledge by the enquiry. The reflections of Spelman upon Alfred's supposed improprieties as a king are these: "Howsoever otherwise of great merit and eminent virtues, yet, as of himself he had no great desire to the crown, so neither could he, in the beginning of his reign, well frame himself to attend the function of so great a charge, his vehement affectation of literature, (to which he had so natural an inclination, and so little means of satisfaction,) his desire of knowledge and experience, in all the faculties of an universal wit; and again his hawking, hunting, and other exercises, to which his youth, and the active move of mind than body, did incline him, and in which Turner, vol. i. p. 550.

he was ever inventing or experimenting something or other, these in that vacancy of molestation (which after the battle of Wilton he for a year or two had at the beginning of his reign) so much took up his mind and thoughts, as that he but a little attended to the occasions and complaints of his poor subjects. And though (as they say) he were often admonished thereof by one Neotus, a kinsman of his, of reverend esteem in those days for exemplary life and holiness, yet so little did it work upon him, as that the holy man, having much lamented the king's averseness, sorrow at length resolving itself into a spirit of prophecy, foretold the king what crosses and afflictions he should for that cause certainly encounter: that he should be deprived of his kingdom, and live as it were an exile in his own country. And these, howsoever predicted, did assuredly (by the consent of all that have writ his actions) now abundantly befal the king"."

CHAP. XVI.

OF ALFRED'S LIFE IN THE WILDS AND MARSHES OF SOMERSETSHIRE ADVENTURE OF THE CAKES-LANDING OF THE DANES IN DEVONSHIRE -DEFEAT OF THE DANES, AND DEATH OF HUBBA-ST. CUTHBERT SAID TO HAVE APPEARED TO ALFRED IN THE SHAPE OF A PILGRIM.

THE defeat of Alfred's army at Chippenham brought the fortunes of the king to the lowest ebb. The field of battle lay at some distance within the frontier of Wessex, and the enemy was almost in the centre of the kingdom. Knowing also the skill and resources of Alfred, who required but a few days to repair his losses and again to be ready for battle, the Danes shewed the most extraordinary eagerness to capture him, and pursued him with such energy, that escape seemed almost hopeless. There could, however, be no hesitation in the king's mind where he should take refuge, and endeavour to rally and reinforce his discomfited soldiers. The eastern part of his kingdom, consisting of the counties of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, were recent acquisitions of his father Ethelwolf", and may be supposed to have entertained but a lukewarm allegiance towards a king to whom they were bound by the ties of conquest rather than of affection. Perhaps also from other causes, which are unknown to us, there was no hope for Alfred from the east, but behind him lay the extensive peninsula compre

hending the counties of Somerset, Dorset, and part of Devon, still faithful to his cause, and perhaps also not much the worse for the Danish invasions, which had either not reached to them, or had left but slight impression. Within ten miles of the battle-field was the forest of Selwood, occupying a large tract of country, in which the town of Frome and several others of much consequence are now situated. Behind the forest lay the mountainous district of Mendip, the fastnesses of which were once of a fearful character, and may be the better understood from the fact, that within the memory of persons still living, the communication between one place and another has been impeded by many difficulties, and in certain seasons of the year, if the weather is severe, has been altogether cut off. That Alfred should enter this great forest, with such troops as he could keep together, or whose fidelity led them to share the fortunes of their king, is in no wise remarkable in any age, where the inhabitants are engaged in a contest for their lives and possessions against a superior invading host: still less may we wonder that such a course should be adopted, at a time when the science of war was imperfect, the modes of destruction more simple, and the whole system of a desultory and predatory character, and based upon no established principles. But the flight of Alfred from his royal villa of Chippenham is as indistinctly and as differently told as all the other particulars of his life, and it is almost hopeless that we shall ever arrive at the exact truth of these most interesting events. But we must not shrink from examining all that has been left to enlighten this obscure subject; for, if we have but few data to guide us, it is consolatory to reflect, that nothing in history is