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 Ethelwolfa, 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

better attested, than that there is some basis of truth in the story before us. It is certain that the WestSaxon kingdom was brought to the verge of subjection to a cruel foe, by whom nearly all the north of Europe was subdued, and that the abilities and vigour of Alfred alone reinstated it, and restored it to victory and to independence. The contemporary records of this crisis are few and brief, because the pen was at that time a feeble instrument to record the acts, whether of glory or of shame, which form the annals of mankind. But the transactions of the year 878 were handed down through the mouths of the people, as well as by the pen of the writer; they have been attested and panegyrized by a hundred chroniclers, who, living in different ages, have delighted to recapitulate his deeds, and have enlarged, with a loquaciousness, which is not only pardonable but praiseworthy, on his warlike achievements, his wisdom, his laws, his writings, and even on the defeats and vicissitudes of his chequered

career.

In examining the ancient chroniclers, which come nearest to the event itself, it is not a little remarkable that their most ancient authorities do not support the popular belief, as regards the place in which the king concealed himself and his few followers. It is most explicitly stated by all the six earliest writers, that the isle of Athelney was the place, not where he at first concealed himself, but where he afterwards constructed a fortress. The short narrative, which has been already quoted from Asser, contains almost all that we know about the first few weeks of his retirement; nor do the extracts which Turner has given us from the two ancient biographies of St. Neot, afford us b Sax. Ch. Ass. Ethel. Flor. Sim. Hunt.

much additional information, though they are the first documents which make no distinction between the preceding period of the king's exile, and his subsequent erection of a stronghold in Athelney. The oldest of these, which is in Saxon, says of the king, that when the army of the Danes approached," he was soon lost; he took flight, and left all his warriors, and his commanders, and all his people, his treasures and his treasure-vessels, and preserved his life. He went hiding over hedges and ways, woods and wilds, till through the Divine guidance he came safe to the isle of Athelney "."

The second of these manuscripts, in Latin, gives the following account of the same event. “The king, hearing that the rage and cruelty of the barbarians were rushing immediately upon him, and considering the dispersion of his people, began to fluctuate to and fro in his mind. At length, yielding to his discreeter judgment, he retired from his enemies alone and unarmed, and exposed to be the sport of flight. As he was entirely ignorant whither he should turn himself, or where the necessity of his flight should impel him, he let fortune lead him, and came unexpectedly into a place surrounded on all sides with extensive marshes. This place was in the extreme boundary of England, on the borders of Britain, which, in their

"Tha se here swa stithlic was, and swa neh Englelande, he sone forthirht, fleames cepte, his cempen ealle forlet and his heretogen and eall his theode, madmes and madmfaten and his life gebearh. Ferde tha lutigende geond heges and thegen, geond thudes and theldes, swa tha he thurh Godes wissunge gesund become to Æthelingeye. MSS. BRIT. MUs. Vesp. D. 14." Turner, i. 553, 4.

d i. e. Cornwall, called Britain from the Britons who inhabited it.

language, is called Ethelingai, and in ours (Latin) means the royal island"."

f

I do not attach much importance to these accounts, though they help to fill up the circle of evidence, as having been written at a very early period: but the writings, in which they occur, being biographies of Saints, are of a suspicious character, not so much for their historical inaccuracy, where there was no motive to depart from the truth, but from their declamatory nature. The paragraphs themselves are manifestly declamatory, and communicate no fresh fact, beyond the flight of Alfred, and that he fled alone. But those, who may have learnt the story from the lips of Alfred himself, tell us that he did not flee alone; for he was accompanied by a "few nobles, knights, and soldiers." Ethelwerd also, the chronicler, whose princely birth and connection with Alfred's family may have made him acquainted with many facts, though they did not enable him to relate them in very intelligible Latin, has distinctly said, that “Ethelnoth, duke of Somerset, was in a certain wood with a small band," and afterwards constructed the fortress for the king: he must therefore have been in Alfred's company, or in his immediate neighbourhood; for it may have been prudent that the king's faithful adherents should separate at times, both to procure subsistence, and also to elude the vigilance of the enemy. On this head, I am willing to adopt the remarks of Spelman, though they are based rather upon his just conception how the king would act, than upon established facts handed down to us by the chroniclers.

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During the time that the king (thus overpowered,