114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

C II A I'

II.

S93-

of war was stationed upon the coast; and beingprovided with warlike engines , as well as withexpert seamen, both Frisians and Enghsti, (forAlfred supplied the defects of his own subjects byengaging able foreigners in his service) maintain-ed a superiority over those smaller bands, withwhich England had so often been infested Y Bur.at last Hastings the famous Danish chief, havingravaged all the provinces of France, both alongthe sea-coast and the Loire and Seine, and beingobliged to quit that country, more by the deso-lation which he himself had occasioned , than bythe resistance of the inhabitants, appeared oft thecoast of Kent with a fleet of 330 fail. The greaterpart of the enemy disembarked in the Rother,and seized the fort of Apuldore. Hastings himself,commanding a fleet of eighty sail, entered theThames, and fortifying Milton in Kent, beganto spread his forces over the country, and tocommit the most destructive ravages. But Alfred,on the first alarm of this descent, flew to thedefence of his people , at the head of a selectband of soldiers, whom he always kept about hisperson SJ ; and gathering to him the armed mi-litia from all quarters, appeared in the field witha force superior to the enemy. All straggling,parties, whom necessity or love of plunder haddrawn to a distance from their chief encampment,

” Asser. p. 11. Chron. Sax. p. 86, St. M. 'Weit.p. 176.

.Aster. p. IQ.

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