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THE STORY OF KING EDMUND.

193

men and children were left in the building. The abbot was slain as he was singing mass at the high altar, and all that were with him shared his fate, except one lad, Thurgar by name, on whom one of the Danish earls had pity, and who escaped a few days afterwards. From Croyland the Pagans went on to Peterborough. The monastery held out for a day against them, and one of their chiefs was wounded by a stone, it is said, in the attack. In revenge the Danes put every one to the sword, and burnt church and monastery to the ground. Within a few days the Abbey of Ely shared the same fate. Standing, as it did, on a hill surrounded by marshes, it seemed a safe place, and vast treasures had been collected there from all parts. Everything was plundered or destroyed by the Pagans.

The story of King Edmund is assigned to the year 870. He was the sub-king of East Anglia, and, venturing to attack a Danish force that issued from Thetford, was defeated. He fled from the field of battle, and hid himself under a bridge. But the glitter of his golden spurs as they shone in the moonlight revealed his presence to a passer-by, and he betrayed the King to the Danes. Hingvar, the Danish chief, offered Edmund his life if he would give up the Christian faith-so ran the story which his sword-bearer used to tell in after years in the Court of Athelstane, and which Archbishop Dunstan heard from his lips, and handed down to us. When he refused, the Danes bound him to a tree, and shot their arrows at him. At last Hingvar commanded that he should be beheaded. His remains were

privately buried by his followers, and afterwards removed to a town which afterwards received the name of St. Edmundsbury, and in which a splendid monastery was erected in his honour by the Danish king Canute.

East Anglia and Mercia were now helpless; but in Wessex the invaders met with an obstinate resistance. Early in the year they took up a position at Reading, which they strengthened with a rampart, constructed between the Thames and the Kennet.1 A Danish division, which had gone as far as Englefield (near Staines, and as much as twenty miles from Reading), was attacked by Ethelwulf, Alderman of Berkshire, and defeated with great loss. Ethelwulf then joined his forces with those of the king, and attacked the Danes at Reading. The battle went against the English, and Ethelwulf was slain. Four days afterwards there was another fight at Ashdune (the Hill of the Ash).2 Both armies were strong, and both threw up earthworks for defence. The Danes were commanded by two kings, who held the centre of the line, and a number of earls, who were posted on the two wings. The English, on the other hand, were led by King Ethelred and his younger brother Alfred. Alfred was the first to set his division in motion; Ethelred, who was busy hearing mass in his tent, and who would not stir till the divine office was

The Kennet flows through Reading town; the Thames is about a mile distant. The ground Letween the two rivers is level, and the rampart was probably intended to fortify this side of the position.

2 Probably not far from Lambourne Downs in West Berkshire. Ashdown Park and Ashbury preserve the name.

BATTLE OF AshDune.

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finished, was a long time in following him. Alfred, who was certainly not wanting in piety, refused to wait, and attacked the Danish wings. It had been arranged that the centre should be left to Ethelred. For a time the young prince bore the whole brunt of the battle. The crest of the hill was occupied by the Danes; the English came up from below to close with them. On the slope was a stunted thorn-tree ("which I myself," says the Chronicler, "have seen with my own eyes "), and it was here that the battle raged most fiercely. After a long struggle the Danes gave way. One of their kings fell on the field, and with him perished five earls and many thousand men. The survivors fled in confusion to "the stronghold from which they had sallied" (probably Reading), the English pursuing and slaying all they could reach. "Fourteen days after the struggle was renewed at Basing, in North Hampshire." This time the Danes were victorious. King Ethelred was wounded, and died "after Easter" (Easter fell this year on April 19th).

This narrative of the Danish war has carried me out of the chronological order of events. A short account of the successors of Egbert will complete this sketch of English history down to the time which I have now reached.

Ethelwulf, Egbert's son and immediate successor, was brought up by Swithun, a priest of Winchester, and was, perhaps, better fitted for a cloister than for a throne. In his first year (839) he formed the purpose of making a pilgrimage to Rome, though so closely was he occupied with the Danish wars, that

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