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coast with merciless fury, and put ashore all theEnglish hostages at Sandwich , after having- cutoff their hands and noses. He was obliged, bythe necessity of his affairs, to make a voyage toDenmark; but returning loon after, he continuedhis depredations along the southern coast: Heeven broke into the counties of Dorset, Wilts,and Somerset; where an army was assembled againsthim, under the command of prince Edtnond andduke Edric. The latter still continued his perfidiousmachinations : After endeavouring in vain to getthe prince into his power, he found means todisperse the army ; and he then openly desertedto Canute with forty vessels.

Notwithstanding this misfortune, Edmondwas not disconcerted; but assembling all theforce of England, was in a condition to give battleto the enemy. The king had had such frequentexperience of perfidy among his subjects, that hehad lost all confidence in them : He remained atLondon, pretending sickness, but really fromapprehensions, that they intended to buy theirpeace, by delivering him into the hands of hisenemies. The army called aloud for their sovereignto march at their head against the Danes; and onhis refusal to take the field, they were so discour-aged , that those vast preparations becameineffectual for the defence of the kingdom. Edmond,deprived of all regular supplies to maintain hissoldiers, was obliged to commit equal ravageswith those which were practised by the Danes;and after making some fruitless expeditions into

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