The Dragon and The Raven: Or The Days of King Alfred
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G. A. Henty >> The Dragon and The Raven: Or The Days of King Alfred
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At this moment Edmund and Egbert appeared at the door of
the hut. As he had expected from the nature of the
colloquy Edmund saw King Alfred standing contrite and
ashamed before the angry dame.
"My beloved sovereign!" he cried, running in and falling
on his knees.
"My trusted Edmund," Alfred exclaimed cordially, "right
glad am I to see you, and you too, my valiant Egbert; truly I
feared that the good ship Dragon had long since fallen into
the hands of our enemy."
"The Dragon lies not many miles hence, your majesty, in
the hole in which she was built, by the river Parrot; she has
done bravely and has brought home a rich store of booty, a
large share of which has been hidden away for your majesty,
and can be brought here in a few hours should you wish it."
"Verily I am glad to hear it, Edmund, for I have long
been penniless; and I have great need of something at least
to pay this good woman for all the trouble she has been at
with me, and for her food which my carelessness has destroyed,
as you may have heard but now."
Edmund and Egbert joined in the king's merry laugh.
The dame looked a picture of consternation and fell upon
her knees.
"Pardon me, your majesty," she cried; "to think that I
have ventured to abuse our good King Alfred, and have even
in mine anger lifted my hand against him!"
"And with right good-will too," the king said laughing.
"Never fear, good dame, your tongue has been rough but
your heart has been kindly, or never would you have borne
so long with so shiftless a serving-man. But leave us now,
I pray ye, for I have much to say to my good friends here.
And now, Edmund, what news do you bring? I do not ask after
the doings of the Dragon, for that no doubt is a long story
which you shall tell me later, but how fares it with my kingdom?
I have been in correspondence with several of my thanes,
who have from time to time sent me news of what passes without.
From what they say I deem that the time for action is at last
nigh at hand. The people are everywhere desperate at the
oppression and exactions of the Danes, and are ready to
risk everything to free themselves from so terrible a yoke.
I fled here and gave up the strife because the Saxons
deemed anything better than further resistance. Now that they
have found out their error it is time to be stirring again."
"That is so," Edmund said; "Egbert and I have found the
people desperate at their slavery, and ready to risk all did a
leader but appear. My own people will all take up arms the
instant they receive my summons; they have before now
proved their valour, and in my crew of the Dragon you have a
body which will, I warrant me, pierce through any Danish
line."
"This tallies with what I have heard," Alfred said, "and
in the spring I will again raise my banner; but in the meantime
I will fortify this place. There are but two or three spots
where boats can penetrate through the morasses; were strong
stockades and banks erected at each landing-place we might
hold the island in case of defeat against any number of the
enemy."
"That shall be done," Edmund said, "and quickly. I have
a messenger here with me, and others waiting outside the
swamp, and can send and bring my crew of the Dragon here
at once."
"Let that be one man's mission," the king said; "the others
I will send off with messages to the thanes of Somerset,
who are only awaiting my summons to take up arms. I will
bid them send hither strong working parties, but to make no
show in arms until Easter, at which time I will again spread
the Golden Dragon to the winds. The treasure you speak of
will be right welcome, for all are so impoverished by the Danes
that they live but from hand to mouth, and we must at least
buy provisions to maintain the parties working here. Arms,
too, must be made, for although many have hidden their
weapons, the Danes have seized vast quantities, having issued
an order that any Saxon found with arms shall be at
once put to death. Money will be needed to set all the
smithies to work at the manufacture of pikes and swords. Hides
must be bought for the manufacture of shields. It will be best
to send orders to the ealdormen and thanes to send hither
privately the smiths, armourers, and shield-makers in the
villages and towns. They cannot work with the Danes ever about,
but must set up smithies here. They must bring their tools
and such iron as they can carry; what more is required we
must buy at the large towns and bring privately in carts to
the edge of the morass. The utmost silence and secrecy must
be observed, that the Danes may obtain no news of our
preparations until we are ready to burst out upon them."
A fortnight later Athelney presented a changed appearance.
A thousand men were gathered there. Trees had been
cut down, a strong fort erected on the highest ground, and
formidable works constructed at three points where alone a
landing could be effected. The smoke rose from a score of
great mounds, where charcoal-burners were converting timber
into fuel for the forges. Fifty smiths and armourers were
working vigorously at forges in the open air, roofs thatched
with rushes and supported by poles being erected over them
to keep the rain and snow from the fires. A score of boats
were threading the mazes of the marshes bringing men and
cattle to the island. All was bustle and activity, every face
shone with renewed hope. King Alfred himself and his thanes
moved to and fro among the workers encouraging them at
their labours.
Messengers came and went in numbers, and from all
parts of Wessex King Alfred received news of the joy which
his people felt at the tidings that he was again about to raise
his standard, and of the readiness of all to obey his summons.
So well was the secret kept that no rumour of the
storm about to burst upon them reached the Danes. The
people, rejoicing and eager as they were, suffered no evidence
of their feelings to be apparent to their cruel masters,
who, believing the Saxons to be finally crushed, were lulled
into a false security. The king's treasure had been brought
from its hiding-place to Athelney, and Edmund and Egbert
had also handed over their own share of the booty to the
king. The golden cups and goblets he had refused to take,
but had gladly accepted the silver.
Edmund and Egbert had left Athelney for a few days on
a mission. The king had described to them minutely where
he had hidden the sacred standard with the Golden Dragon.
It was in the hut of a charcoal-burner in the heart of the
forests of Wiltshire. Upon reaching the hut, and showing to
the man the king's signet-ring, which when leaving the
standard he had told him would be the signal that any who might
come for it were sent by him, the man produced the standard
from the thatch of his cottage, in which it was deeply
buried, and hearing that it was again to be unfurled called
his two stalwart sons from their work and at once set out
with Edmund and Egbert to join the army.
Easter came and went, but the preparations were not
yet completed. A vast supply of arms was needed, and while
the smiths laboured at their work Edmund and Egbert drilled
the fighting men who had assembled, in the tactics which
had on a small scale proved so effective. The wedge shape
was retained, and Edmund's own band claimed the honour
of forming the apex, but it had now swollen until it contained
a thousand men, and as it moved in a solid body, with its
thick edge of spears outward, the king felt confident that it
would be able to break through the strongest line of the Danes.
From morning till night Edmund and Egbert, assisted
by the thanes of Somerset who had gathered there, drilled
the men and taught them to rally rapidly from scattered order
into solid formation. Unaccustomed to regular tactics
the ease and rapidity with which these movements came to
be carried out at the notes of Edmund's bugle seemed to all
to be little less than miraculous, and they awaited with
confidence and eagerness their meeting with the Danes on the
field.
At the end of April messengers were sent out bidding
the Saxons hold themselves in readiness, and on the 6th of
May Alfred moved with his force from Athelney to Egbertesstan
(now called Brixton), lying to the east of the forest of
Selwood, which lay between Devonshire and Somerset. The
Golden Dragon had been unfurled. On the fort in Athelney,
and after crossing the marshes to the mainland it was carried
in the centre of the phalanx.
On the 12th they reached the appointed place, where
they found a great multitude of Saxons already gathered.
They had poured in from Devonshire, Somerset, and
Wiltshire, from Dorset and Hants. In spite of the vigorous
edicts of the Danes against arms a great proportion of them
bore weapons, which had been buried in the earth, or concealed
in hollow trees or other hiding-places until the time
for action should again arrive.
As they saw the king approaching at the head of his
band, with the Golden Dragon fluttering in the breeze, a
great shout of joy arose from the multitude, and they crowded
round the monarch with shouts of welcome at his reappearance
among them, and with vows to die rather than again to
yield to the tyranny of the Northmen. The rest of the day
was spent in distributing the newly fashioned arms to those
who needed them, and in arranging the men in bands under
their own thanes, or, in their absence, such leaders as the
king appointed.
Upon the following morning the army started, marching
in a north-easterly direction against the great camp of
the Danes at Chippenham. That night they rested at Okeley,
and then marched on until in the afternoon they came within
sight of the Danes gathered at Ethandune, a place supposed
to be identical with Edington near Westbury.
As the time for Alfred's reappearance approached the
agitation and movement on the part of the people had
attracted the attention of the Danes, and the news of his
summons to the Saxons to meet him at Egbertesstan having come
to their ears, they gathered hastily from all parts under
Guthorn their king, who was by far the most powerful viking
who had yet appeared in England, and who ruled East Anglia
as well as Wessex. Confident of victory the great Danish
army beheld the approach of the Saxons. Long accustomed
to success, and superior in numbers, they regarded with
something like contempt the approach of their foes.
In the centre Alfred placed the trained phalanx which
had accompanied him from Athelney, in the centre of which
waved the Golden Dragon, by whose side he placed himself.
Its command he left in the hands of Edmund, he himself
directing the general movements of the force. On his right
were the men of Somerset and Hants; on the left those of
Wilts, Dorset, and Devon.
His orders were that the advance was to be made with
regularity; that the whole line were to fight for a while on
the defensive, resisting the onslaught of the Danes until he
gave the word for the central phalanx to advance and burst
through the lines of the enemy, and that when these had been
thrown into confusion by this attack the flanks were to charge
forward and complete the rout. This plan was carried out. The
Danes advanced with their usual impetuosity, and for hours
tried to break through the lines of the Saxon spears. Both
sides fought valiantly, the Danes inspired by their pride in
their personal prowess and their contempt for the Saxons;
the Saxons by their hatred for their oppressors, and their
determination to die rather than again submit to their bondage.
At length, after the battle had raged some hours, and
both parties were becoming wearied from their exertions,
the king gave Edmund the order.
Hitherto his men had fought in line with the rest; but at
the sound of his bugle they quitted their places, and, ere the
Danes could understand the meaning of this sudden movement,
had formed themselves into their wedge, raised a mighty
shout, and advanced against the enemy. The onslaught was
irresistible. The great wedge, with its thick fringe of spears,
burst its way straight through the Danish centre carrying all
before it. Then at another note of Edmund's bugle it broke
up into two bodies, which moved solidly to the right and left,
crumpling up the Danish lines.
Alfred now gave the order for a general advance, and
the Saxon ranks, with a shout of triumph, flung themselves
upon the disordered Danes. Their success was instant and
complete. Confounded at the sudden break up of their line,
bewildered by these new and formidable tactics, attacked in
front and in flank, the Danes broke and fled. The Saxons
pursued them hotly, Edmund keeping his men well together
in case the Danes should rally. Their rout, however, was too
complete; vast numbers were slain, and the remnant of their
army did not pause until they found themselves within the
shelter of their camp at Chippenham.
No quarter was given by the Saxons to those who fell
into their hands, and pressing upon the heels of the flying
Danes the victorious army of King Alfred sat down before
Chippenham. Every hour brought fresh reinforcements to
the king's standard. Many were already on their way when
the battle was fought; and as the news of the victory spread
rapidly every man of the West Saxons capable of bearing arms
made for Chippenham, feeling that now or never must a complete
victory over the Danes be obtained.
No assault was made upon the Danish camp. Confident in his
now vastly superior numbers, and in the enthusiasm which
reigned in his army, Alfred was unwilling to waste
a single life in an attack upon the entrenchments, which must
ere long surrender from famine. There was no risk of
reinforcements arriving to relieve the Danes. Guthorn had led
to the battle the whole fighting force of the Danes in Wessex
and East Anglia. This was far smaller than it would have
been a year earlier; but the Northmen, having once completed
their work of pillage, soon turned to fresh fields of
adventure. Those whose disposition led them to prefer a
quiet life had settled upon the land from which they had
dispossessed the Saxons; but the principal bands of rovers,
finding that England was exhausted and that no more plunder
could be had, had either gone back to enjoy at home the
booty they had gained, or had sailed to harry the shores of
France, Spain, and Italy.
Thus the position of the Danes in Chippenham was
desperate, and at the end of fourteen days, by which time
they were reduced to an extremity by hunger, they sent
messengers into the royal camp offering their submission. They
promised if spared to quit the kingdom with all speed, and
to observe this contract more faithfully than those which they
had hitherto made and broken. They offered the king as
many hostages as he might wish to take for the fulfilment of
their promises. The haggard and emaciated condition of
those who came out to treat moved Alfred to pity.
So weakened were they by famine that they could scarce
drag themselves along. It would have been easy for the Saxons
to have slain them to the last man; and the majority of
the Saxons, smarting under the memory of the cruel oppression
which they had suffered, the destruction of home and
property, and the slaughter of friends and relations, would
fain have exterminated their foes. King Alfred, however,
thought otherwise.
Guthorn and the Danes had effected a firm settlement
in East Anglia, and lived at amity with the Saxons there. They
had, it is true, wrested from them the greatest portion of
their lands. Still peace and order were now established. The
Saxons were allowed liberty and equal rights. Intermarriages
were taking place, and the two peoples were becoming welded
into one. Alfred then considered that it would be well to
have the king of this country as an ally; he and his settled
people would soon be as hostile to further incursions of the
Northmen as were the Saxons themselves, and their interests
and those of Wessex would be identical.
Did he, on the other hand, carry out a general massacre
of the Danes now in his power he might have brought upon
England a fresh invasion of Northmen, who, next to plunder,
loved revenge, and who might come over in great hosts
to avenge the slaughter of their countrymen. Moved, then,
by motives of policy as well as by compassion, he granted the
terms they asked, and hostages having been sent in from the
camp he ordered provisions to be supplied to the Danes.
The same night a messenger of rank came in from
Guthorn saying that he intended to embrace Christianity.
The news filled Alfred and the Saxons with joy. The king, a
sincere and devoted Christian, had fought as much for his
religion as for his kingdom, and his joy at the prospect of
Guthorn's conversion, which would as a matter of course be
followed by that of his subjects, was deep and sincere.
To the Saxons generally the temporal consequence of
the conversion had no doubt greater weight than the spiritual.
The conversion of Guthorn and the Danes would be a
pledge far more binding than any oaths of alliance between
the two kingdoms. Guthorn and his followers would be
viewed with hostility by their countrymen, whose hatred of
Christianity was intense, and East Anglia would, therefore,
naturally seek the close alliance and assistance of its
Christian neighbour.
Great were the rejoicings in the Saxon camp that night.
Seldom, indeed, has a victory had so great and decisive an
effect upon the future of a nation as that of Ethandune. Had
the Saxons been crushed, the domination of the Danes in
England would have been finally settled. Christianity would
have been stamped out, and with it civilization, and the
island would have made a backward step into paganism and
barbarism which might have delayed her progress for centuries.
The victory established the freedom of Wessex, converted
East Anglia into a settled and Christian country, and
enabled King Alfred to frame the wise laws and statutes and
to establish on a firm basis the institutions which raised Saxon
England vastly in the scale of civilization, and have in no
small degree affected the whole course of life of the English
people.
CHAPTER XII: FOUR YEARS OF PEACE
Seven weeks afterwards Guthorn, accompanied by thirty
of his noblest warriors, entered Alfred's camp, which was
pitched at Aller, a place not far from Athelney.
An altar was erected and a solemn service performed,
and Guthorn and his companions were all baptized, Alfred
himself becoming sponsor for Guthorn, whose name
was changed to Athelstan. The Danes remained for twelve
days in the Saxon camp. For the first eight they wore, in
accordance with the custom of the times, the chrismal, a white
linen cloth put on the head when the rite of baptism was
performed; on the eighth day the solemn ceremony known
as the chrism, the loosing or removal of the cloths, took place
at Wedmore. This was performed by the Ealdorman
Ethelnoth.
During these twelve days many conferences were held
between Alfred and Athelstan as to the future of the two
kingdoms. While the Danes were still in the camp a
witenagemot or Saxon parliament was held at Wedmore. At
this Athelstan and many of the nobles and inhabitants of
East Anglia were present, and the boundary of the two kingdoms
was settled. It was to commence at the mouth of the
Thames, to run along the river Lea to its source, and at
Bedford turn to the right along the Ouse as far as Watling
Street. According to this arrangement a considerable portion
of the kingdom of Mercia fell to Alfred's share.
The treaty comprehended various rules for the conduct
of commerce, and courts were instituted for the trial of
disputes and crimes. The Danes did not at once leave Mercia,
but for a considerable time lay in camp at Cirencester; but all
who refused to become Christians were ordered to depart
beyond the seas, and the Danes gradually withdrew within
their boundary.
Guthorn's conversion, although no doubt brought about
at the moment by his admiration of the clemency of Alfred,
had probably been for some time projected by him. Mingling
as his people did in East Anglia with the Christian Saxons
there, he must have had opportunities for learning the
nature of their tenets, and of contrasting its mild and
beneficent teaching with the savage worship of the pagan gods.
By far the greater proportion of his people followed their king's
example; but the wilder spirits quitted the country, and under
their renowned leader Hasting sailed to harry the shores
of France. The departure of the more turbulent portion of
his followers rendered it more easy for the Danish king to
carry his plans into effect.
After the holding of the witan Edmund and Egbert at
once left the army with their followers, and for some months
the young ealdorman devoted himself to the work of restoring
the shattered homes of his people, aiding them with loans
from the plunder he had gained on the seas, Alfred having
at once repaid him the sums which he had lent at Athelney.
As so many of his followers had also brought home money
after their voyage, the work of rebuilding and restoration went
on rapidly, and in a few months the marks left of the ravages
by the Danes had been well-nigh effaced.
Flocks and herds again grazed in the pastures, herds of
swine roamed in the woods, the fields were cultivated, and
the houses rebuilt. In no part of Wessex was prosperity so
speedily re-established as in the district round Sherborne
governed by Edmund. The Dragon was thoroughly overhauled
and repaired, for none could say how soon fresh fleets of the
Northmen might make their appearance upon the southern
shores of England. It was not long, indeed, before the
Northmen reappeared, a great fleet sailing up the Thames
at the beginning of the winter. It ascended as high as Fulham,
where a great camp was formed. Seeing that the Saxons and
East Anglians would unite against them did they advance
further, the Danes remained quietly in their encampment
during the winter, and in the spring again took ship and sailed
for France.
For the next two years England enjoyed comparative
quiet, the Danes turning their attention to France and Holland,
sailing up the Maas, Scheldt, Somme, and Seine. Spreading
from these rivers they carried fire and sword over a great
extent of country. The Franks resisted bravely, and in two
pitched battles defeated their invaders with great loss. The
struggle going on across the Channel was watched with great
interest by the Saxons, who at first hoped to see the Danes
completely crushed by the Franks.
The ease, however, with which the Northmen moved
from point to point in their ships gave them such immense
advantage that their defeats at Hasle and Saucourt in no way
checked their depredations. Appearing suddenly off the
coast, or penetrating into the interior by a river, their hordes
would land, ravage the country, slay all who opposed them,
and carry off the women and children captives, and would
then take to their ships again before the leaders of the Franks
could assemble an army.
Alfred spent this time of repose in restoring as far as
possible the loss and damage which his kingdom had
suffered. Many wise laws were passed, churches were rebuilt,
and order restored; great numbers of the monks and wealthier
people who had fled to France in the days of the Danish
supremacy now returned to England, which was for the time
freer from danger than the land in which they had sought
refuge; and many Franks from the districts exposed to the
Danish ravages came over and settled in England.
Gradually the greater part of England acknowledged
the rule of Alfred. The kingdom of Kent was again united to
that of Wessex; while Mercia, which extended across the
centre of England from Anglia to Wales, was governed for Alfred
by Ethelred the Ealdorman, who was the head of the powerful
family of the Hwiccas, and had received the hand of
Alfred's daughter Ethelfleda. He ruled Mercia according to
its own laws and customs, which differed materially from those
of the West Saxons, and which prevented a more perfect union
of the two kingdoms until William the Conqueror welded
the whole country into a single whole. But Ethelred
acknowledged the supremacy of Alfred, consulted him upon all
occasions of importance, and issued all his edicts and orders
in the king's name. He was ably assisted by Werfrith, the Bishop
of Worcester. The energy and activity of these leaders enabled
Mercia to keep abreast of Wessex in the onward progress
which Alfred laboured so indefatigably to promote.
Edmund, when not occupied with the affairs of his earldom,
spent much of his time with the king, who saw in him a
spirit of intelligence and activity which resembled his own.
Edmund was, however, of a less studious disposition than his
royal master; and though he so far improved his education
as to be able to read and write well, Alfred could not persuade
him to undertake the study of Latin, being, as he said,
well content to master some of the learning of that people by
means of the king's translations.
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