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depart the kingdom. This shameful expedient cwas attended with the success which might beexpected. The Danes next year appeared offthe eastern coast, in hopes of subduing a people,who defended themselves by their money, whichinvited assailants , instead of their arms, whichrepelled them. But the Englissi, sensible os theirfolly, had, in the interval, assembled in a greatcouncil, and had determined to collect at Londona fleet able of giving battle to the enemy 1 ;though that judicious measure failed of success,from the treachery of Alfric, duke of IMercia,whose name is infamous in the annals of thatage, by the calamities which his repeated perfidybrought upon his country. This nobleman had,in 983 , succeeded to his father , Alfere , in thatextensive command; but being deprived of ittwo years after, and banished the kingdom, hewas obliged to employ all his intrigue, and all this power, which was too great for a subject,to be restored to his country, and reinstated inhis authority. Having had experience of thecredit and malevolence of his enemies , he thence-forth trusted for security, not to his servicesor to the affections of his fellow-citizens, but tothe influence which he had obtained over hisvassals, and to the public calamities, which, hethought, must, in every revolution, render hisassistance necessary. Having fixed this resolution,he determined to prevent all such successes as might

HAP

III.

1 Chron. Sax. p. 126,