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[Here follows his pedigree, to Adam. I do not put this forward as authentic; but, should any man compile another, I should be still more fain to call it apocryphal.']

§ 11. Now Alfred, when first he began to reign, was wholly given 'to serve the old man,' and lived a slave to luxury. Led on by kingly sway, he ' yielded his members servants to uncleanness' . . . and neither bore about, as a Christian should, nor cared to bear about, any mark of the sufferings of Christ, but on the contrary.

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§ 12. About this time it came to pass, according to the Danish law aforetold, Rollo and his mates, being turned out from Denmark, sought them a settlement in other lands; and on his way raided many an island and alongshore. Like wolves that rush suddenly from the wood, they would bring their keels to land, gather great spoil, and aboard again, in full sail, soon out of sight. Many therefore were the complaints brought before King Alfred, from the ports and sea places.

§ 13. Thereupon called he his Council, and after taking thought along with them, came to this rede, that it were better to make peace with Rollo and his gang; for how to lead his force against men thus rushing in from sea, he knew not. Howsoever, he got such peace as he would ; and Rollo joined by such Danes as were wandering through England with no certain dwelling-place, set sail, and entered Seine mouth, and, either with consent of the French or without it, gained there the seat and principality which his posterity still hold. . . .

§14. King Alfred, being chastened with many stripes from the hand of God and of man, turned from his wonted excess; and began to repent also for his past. Therefore went he to St. Neot, a man of holy life, whose name, by God's goodness, was of renown in the Court, to ask his counsel. The saint was then near the end of his days... at Nedestock, where he had long lived the ascetic life. It is in the furthest parts of Cornwall, and was called from St. Neot, its first in-dweller . . . for it was fit rather for wild beasts than for men, till the Saint with his own hand cut down the thickets and underwood.

§ 15. Sternly did the Saint rebuke him, as was meet, and, having been taught by Holy Writ to temper harshness with gentleness, he poured in oil and wine to the sinner's wounds. Thus he so struck fear into him, that he still gave him hope, and so inspired him with hope that he wavered not long, declaring to him boldly that the fire of hell was grievous, and grievous, too, the penance to be enjoined on him who would escape it. He counse!!ed him, moreover, as he hoped for pardon, to charter the English School [at Rome], and, without delay, to send an embassy thereupon unto our Lord the Pope. All this counsel the King fulfilled...

16. In the year 878 from the Incarnation of our Lord, and the seventh of King Alfred's reign, burst there forth, through the working of Danish law aforetold, a dreadsome plague, King Guthrum. In England landed he with a vast horde, like in cruelty unto their master and leader, debased

by all heathen superstition, and brutal beyond even those who had come before him. For he did not merely, like them, raid the sea-coasts, and the regions roundabout, and bear off his spoil, and re-embark; but he openly harried inland, and burnt down villages, cities, and towns, walls and all.

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§ 17. For in West Anglia and the Midlands the English, from the time they cast out the Britons, had lived at peace, which itself is no small incentive to vice, . . and gave themselves up to sloth and luxury, eating and drinking, even as the brute beasts. On them therefore came a brute beast in man's shape, King Guthrum to wit, brutal and ferocious toward each and all, who with sword and axe wrought his bestial will. Nay, he spared not even such as threw themselves at his feet. Neither old nor young, boy nor girl, mother nor maiden, spared he. For his eye spared none. And piteous was the slaughter that might be seen. There they lay in each road, and street, and crossway: old men with hoar and reverend locks, butchered at their own doors; young men headless, handless, footless; matrons foully dishonoured in the open street, and maidens with them; children stricken through with spears—all exposed to every eye and trodden under every foot. Some, too, there lay half burnt under their half-burnt houses, not having dared to leave them; for they who were driven from their hiding-places by the fire perished by the sword.

§ 18. Dark forecastings [rumours], moreover, lacked there not... such as filled even the stout of heart with terror, and drave them to flight. King Alfred himself, even, was fain the rather to yield to the word of sooth, than meet this ravening foe, while his own folk were so scattered and divided. These woes, full well he thought, had come on his kingdom for his sins, and his people's sins. So he vowed him then to bear humbly, as indeed he needs must, that yoke of Divine discipline which St. Neot had foretold should come upon him. He turned his back therefore, and feared with all wisdom, and fled to good purpose, and came even unto Athelney, in the utmost parts of the West, which the British call the Isle of Peers. It lieth in the midst of salt marshes; but there is a fair plain within.

§ 19. Hither came he; and amid the storm of trouble bursting over him, he took on him that patience which rejoiceth in adversities, and thus far at least showed himself stout-hearted.

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Deeply too did he bear in mind what he had often heard spoken by the saint: 'Mightiest torments await the mightiest'; and that word of the Apostle: 'The Lord Scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. . . . In a swineherd's hut he lay hid . . . and awaited patiently the day of consolation, which also St. Neot had foretold.

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[Here follows the story of the cakes, with the addition : ' Patiently did the King bear her reproaches, putting all down to the account of his penitence. "It is as you say," he replied. "I am dull indeed."... Then set he himself diligently to the work . . . and gave all his mind to it till the bread was meetly baked.' . .]

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§ 20. In the meantime God looked down upon the humble repentance of His King, and stretched forth His Holy Hand to free him. For, being found by a few of his old warriors, they led him to come forth into the open. There, in a few days, wrought he a fortress strong enough for his end, and gathered to him many a brave warrior, good at need. So was he able, through his repentance, to resist the more stoutly. At first, indeed, he hovered around the foe, and by twilight came upon them, when least looked for, out of his woods and fastnesses; but soon in broad daylight, and openly. When they made any move, well knew he their purpose, and came upon them ere they might fulfil it. And when he had struck his blow, he withdrew him into safety. So first cleared he the path to victory ; then did he make it his own.

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§ 21. Those warriors too who had fled the land, when they heard that King Alfred was once more in the field, with all speed crossed again the sea, and came to his leaguer; so day by day grew he stronger, and closelier harassed the foe. He sent, moreover, messengers to Rollo, who was ever warring upon the French, to come to his aid. And he, because of the kindness shown him by Alfred, . . . gave up, for that time, the siege of Paris, whereon he was set, and crossed back to England. So the King's host grew larger daily. And Guthrum also gathered no small force, and, careless of the lives of his men, wished only for the day of battle. But Alfred, though, through the Saint's promise, assured of victory, yet, like a good shepherd, had regard to his flock, and waited the day foretold by the Saint for fighting. On the top of a hill waited he, which he had heedfully taken first, for that it would have been the very place for the foe, had they but thought of it in time. .

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[Here follows the victory of Ethandune and the baptism of Guthrum.] § 22. With all justice ruled King Alfred his realm, even as St. Neot counselled him. For he put in writing the laws and right customs of the Kings before him, and handed them down to them that came after him to be kept. And many of the laws and customs of the old Britons turned he into the English tongue. Among these was the Merchene Leaga [Mercian Law]), set up by a wise and noble British Queen, Marcia [!]. Some too added he of his own, so founded upon justice that none may find any fault therein. Hence may it be seen how devout was his life, following the counsel of the Saint and the paths of righteousness.

§ 23. When King Alfred had fulfilled 28 years and a half of his reign, and 51 of his age, then paid he the debt due by corrupt human nature, and died in peace, on the 25th of October in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord 900.

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J

XI.

JOHN OF BROMPTON.

OHN OF BROMPTON was Abbot of Jorvaulx, in
Yorkshire, under Henry VI., and cannot therefore be

the writer of this chronicle, which, from internal evidence, is of the thirteenth century. It is called by his name because at the end of the MS. (in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) a footnote states it to be his (ie., as owner). The chronicle starts from the mission of Augustine, and begins with separate outlines of the histories of Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, and Sussex, consecutively; going on to deal with that of the Kings of All England,' to the death of Richard Cœur de Lion. It embodies the Codes of Ina, Alfred (including his treaty with Guthrum), Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund, Edgar, Ethelred, and Canute.

6

This chronicle makes use of Asser, Malmesbury, and other earlier authorities, but differs so notably in the sequence of events (especially in the Danish campaigns of Alfred) that the writer either had access to some independent source, now lost, or thought himself a historical redactor of the type with which the Higher Criticism of the present day has familiarized us-equal to rearranging the components of previous histories through the crucible of his own inner consciousness. No third explanation is possible; for he was evidently very far from a careless writer.

His chronicle is printed by Twysden in his 'Decem Scriptores' (1652).

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