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EDWARD THE ELDER, izz

who had been accustomed to subsist by rapine cand violence ”. The East-Anglian Danes joinedhis party: The Five-burgers, who were seatedin the heart of Mercia, began to put themselvesin motion; and the Englisti found that they wereagain menaced with those convulsions , fromwhich the valour and policy of Alfred had solately rescued them. The rebels, headed byEthelwald , made an incursion into the countiesof Glocester, Oxford, and Wilts; and havingexercised their ravages in these places , theyretired with their booty; before the king, whohad assembled an army, was able to approachthem. Edward, however, who was determinedthat his preparations should not be fruitless,conducted his forces into East-Anglia , andretaliated the injuries which the inhabitants hadcommitted , by spreading the like devastationamong them. Satiated with revenge , and loadedwith booty, he gave orders to retire: But theauthority of those ancient kings , which wasfeeble in peace, was not much better establishedin the field ; and the Kentifli men, greedy ofmore spoil, ventured, contrary to repeated orders,to stay behind him, and to take up their quartersin Bury. This disobedience proved in the issuefortunate to Edward. The Danes assaulted theKentisti men ; but met with so vigorous a resistance »that, though they gained the field of battle,

*’ Chron. Sax. p. ice. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de BurgoP- 24.

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