ETHEL WOLF.

93

subjection. But tlie Englisb, more military than chap.the Britons, whom, a few centuries before , n.they had treated with like violence , roused themsel-ves with a vigour proportioned to the exigency.

Ceorle , governor of Devonshire, sought a battlewith one body of the Danes at Wiganburgh ”,and put them to rout with great slaughter. KingAthelstan attacked another at sea near Sandwich,sunk nine of their fin ps , and put the rest toflight”. A body of them, however, ventured, forthe first time, to take up winter-quarters inEngland,and receiving in the spring a strong reinforcementof their countrymen in 350 vessels, they advan-ced from the Isle of Thanet, where they hadstationed themselves ; burnt the cities of Londonand Canterbury; and having put to flight Brichtric ,who now governed Mercia, under the title ofKing, they marched into the heart of Surrey,and laid every place waste around them. Ethelwolf,impelled by the urgency of the danger, marchedagainst them, at the head of the West-Saxons;and carrying with him his second son , Ethel-bald, gave them battle at Okely, and gained abloody victory over them. This advantage pro-cured but a short respite to the English. TheDanes still maintained their settlement in the Isleof Thanet ; and being attacked by Ealher andIluda, governors of Kent and Surrey, thoughdefeated in the beginning of the action , they

H. Hunt. lib. 5. Ethelvvard, lib. Z. cap. 3. SimeonDunelin. p. 120.

Chron. Sax. p. 74. Asserius, p. 2.