ALFRED.

105

execution of this treaty, which it seemed theinterest of the Danes themselves to fulfil, heheard that another body had landed, and havingcollected all the scattered troops of their coun-trymen, had surprized Chippenham, then a con-siderable town , and were exercising their usualravages all around them.

This last incident quite broke the spirit ofthe Saxons, and reduced them to despair. Findingthat, after all the miserable havoc, which theyhad undergone in their persons and in theirproperty; after all the vigorous actions, whichthey had exerted in their own defence ; a newband, equally greedy of spoil and slaughter, haddisembarked among them; they believed themselvesabandoned by heaven to destruction , and deliveredover to those swarms of robbers, which thefertile north thus incessantly poured forth againstthem. Some left their country, and retired intoWales or fled beyond sea: Others submitted tothe conquerors , in hopes of appeasing their furyby a servile obedience ": And every man’s attentionbeing now engrossed in concern for his own pre-servation, no one would hearken to the exhorta-tions of the King, who summoned them to make,under his conduct, one effort more in defenceof their prince, their country, and their liberties.Alfred himself was obliged to relinquish theensigns of his dignity , to dismiss his servants,and to seek shelter , in the meanest disguises,

CHAP,

XI.

1 * Chron. Sax. p. 84. Alured Beverl. p. 105.