But the pale fools wax mute when I point with my sword East, west, north, and south, shouting, "There am I lord!" 'Wold and waste, town and tower, hill, valley, and stream, Trembling, bow to my sway In the fierce battle-fray When the star that rules fate is this 'falchion's red gleam. MIGHT-GIVER! I kiss thee. 3. I have heard great harps sounding in bower and hall; The yell of the dying, The scream of the flying, When this arm wields Death's sickle and garners the grave.2 JOY-GIVER! I kiss thee. 4. Far isles of the ocean thy lightning hath known, And won him the glory of undying song. Keen cleaver of gay crests, Sharp piercer of broad breasts, Grim slayer of heroes, and scourge of the strong! 5. In a love more abiding than that the heart knows And noble blood springing, 4 And, cloven, yawn helmet, stout hauberk, and shield. 6. The smile of a maiden's eye soon may depart, Thy love does not slumber, But, star-like, burns fiercer the darker the night. 7. My children have perished by war or by wave; And scalds shall be singing The deeds we have done in our old fearless day. challenge, claim. fal-chion, a sword with curved point. jar-gon-ing', confused talk. 1 'Tis not the gray hawk's flight, &C.---The meaning is, the Norseman's possessions are not measured by the hawk's flight, nor by the hound's course, nor by the steed's power of galloping, but by the conquering power of his sword. The bounds of his lands are drawn with his brand alone. 2 Garners the grave, reaps the harvest of Death. 3 Brave measures of madness, wild or frantic movements. The word WILLIAM MOTHERWELL. 7.-KING ALFRED AND THE DANES. [King Alfred, fourth son of Æthelwulf, succeeded to the throne of Wessex in 871 A.D. Egbert had defeated the Danes and the men of Cornwall at Hengest'sDown in 835; but during the reigns of Alfred's father and his three brothers the invaders had made great progress. They had subdued Northumbria in 867, and East Anglia in the following year; and when Alfred came to the throne, they were gathering their strength for a determined attack on his kingdom.] A.D. 1. The West Saxons were now the only remaining power in England; and though supported by the vigour and abilities of Alfred, they were unable to resist the efforts of those ravagers who from all quarters invaded them. A new swarm of Danes came over 875 this year, under three princes, Guthrum, Oscital, and Amund; and having first joined their countrymen at Repton,1 they soon found the necessity of separating, in order to provide for their 'subsistence. Part of them, under the command of Haldene, their chieftain, marched into Northumberland, where they fixed their quarters; part of them took quarters at Cambridge, whence they dislodged in the ensuing summer, and seized Wareham,2 in the county of Dorset, the very centre of Alfred's dominions. 2. That prince so 'straitened them in these quarters that they were content to come to a treaty with him, and stipulated to depart his country. Alfred, well acquainted with their usual perfidy, obliged them to swear upon the holy relics to the observance of the treaty; not that he expected they would pay any 'veneration to the relics, but he hoped that if they now violated this oath, their impiety would infallibly draw down upon them the vengeance of Heaven. But the Danes, little apprehensive of the danger, suddenly, without seeking any pretence, fell upon Alfred's army, and having put it to rout, marched westward and took possession of Exeter. 3. The prince collected new forces, and exerted such vigour that he fought in one year eight battles with the (632) 3 He enemy, and reduced them to the utmost extremity. hearkened, however, to new proposals of peace; and was satisfied to stipulate with them that they would settle somewhere in England, and would not permit the entrance of more ravagers into the kingdom. But while he was expecting the execution of this treaty, which it seemed the interest of the Danes themselves to fulfil, he heard that another body had landed, and, having collected all the scattered troops of their countrymen, had surprised Chippenham, then a considerable town, and were exercising their usual ravages all around them. 4. This last incident quite broke the spirit of the Saxons, and reduced them to despair. Finding that, after all the miserable havoc which they had undergone in their persons and in their property, after all the vigorous actions which they had exerted in their own defence, a new band, equally greedy of spoil and slaughter, had disembarked among them, they believed themselves abandoned by Heaven to destruction, and delivered over to those swarms of robbers which the fertile North thus incessantly poured forth against them. Some left their country and retired into Wales, or fled beyond sea; others submitted to the conquerors, in hopes of appeasing their fury by a servile obedience. And every man's attention being now engrossed in concern for his own preservation, no one would hearken to the 'exhortations of the king, who summoned them to make, under his conduct, one effort more in defence of their prince, their country, and their liberties. 5. Alfred himself was obliged to 'relinquish the ensigns of his dignity, to dismiss his servants, and to seek shelter in the meanest disguises from the pursuit and fury of his enemies. He concealed himself under a peasant's habit, and lived some time in the house of a neat-herd who had been intrusted with the care of some of his cows. There passed here an incident which has been recorded by all the historians, and was long preserved by popular tradition; though it contains nothing memorable in itself, except so far as every circumstance is interesting which attends so much virtue and dignity reduced to such distress. The wife of the neat-herd was ignorant of the condition of her royal guest; and observing him one day busy by the fireside in trimming his bow and arrows, she desired him to take care of some cakes which were toasting, while she was employed elsewhere in other domestic affairs. But Alfred, whose thoughts were otherwise engaged, neglected the injunction; and the good woman on her return finding her cakes all burned, rated the king very severely, and 'upbraided him that he always seemed very well pleased to eat her warm cakes, though he was thus negligent in toasting them. 6. By degrees Alfred, as he found the search of the enemy become more remiss, collected some of his retainers, and retired into the centre of a bog, formed by the stagnating waters of the Tone and Parret, in Somersetshire. He here found two acres of firm ground; and building a habitation on them, rendered himself secure by its fortifications, and still more by the unknown and 'inaccessible roads which led to it, and by the forests and morasses with which it was every way 'environed. 4 7. This place he called Æthelingay, or the Isle of Nobles; and it now bears the name of Athelney. He thence made frequent and unexpected sallies upon the Danes, who often felt the vigour of his arm, but knew not from what quarter the blow came. He subsisted himself and his followers by the plunder which he acquired; he procured them 'consolation by revenge; and from small successes he opened their minds to hope that, notwithstanding his present low condition, more important victories might at length attend his valour. 8. When Alfred observed 'symptoms of successful resist |