Alfred, finding that success had rendered his enemics more remiss, collected some of his retainers. In the centre of a bog, formed by the stagnated waters of the Thone and Parret, in Somersetshire, he found two acres of firm ground, where he built a habitation, which he rendered secure by fortifications, and still more by the unknown and inaccessible roads that led to it. This place he called

Æthelingay, or the Isle of Nobles; and thence he made frequent and unexpected sallies on the Danes, who often felt the vigour of his arm, but knew not from what quarter the blow came. In this insulated place he was informed that Oddune, earl of Devonshire, had routed and killed Hubba the Dane, who had besieged him in his castle of Kinwith, near the mouth of the river Tau; and that he had got possession of the enchanted standard, or reafen, so called from containing the figure of a raven, which the Danes believed to have been interwoven by the three sisters of Hinguar and Hubba, with magical incantations, and to express by the motions of its wings the success or failure of any enterprise.

When Alfred was informed of this successful resistance, he left his retreat; but before he would assemble his subjects in arms, he resolved to inspect the situation of the enemy. Under the disguise of a harper, he entered their camp; his music obtained for him a welcome reception, and introduced him into the tent of their prince Guthrum ; and he was witness during several days to the supine security of the Danes, and their contempt to the English. Encouraged by what he observed, he sent private emissaries to the most considerable of his friends, and summoned them to meet him with their followers at Brixton, on the borders of Selwood Forest. The English having experienced that submission only increased the insolence and rapacity of their conquerors, repaired to the place of rendezvous with alacrity, and received with shouts of transport a monarch whom they had fondly loved, and whom they had long concluded to have been dead. Alfred immediately led them against the Danes, who, surprised to see an army of English, fled after a faint resistance, and suffered greatly in the pursuit: the remnant that escaped, were besieged by the victors in a fortified camp; and being reduced to extremity by hunger, they implored the clemency of Alfred, whose prudence con

verted them from mortal enemies into faithful friends and confederates. He proposed to Guthrum and his followers to repeople the desolated parts of East Anglia and Northumberland; but he required from them as a pledge of their future sincerity, that they should embrace christianity. The Danes complied; and Guthrum received, as the adopted son of Alfred, the name of Athelstan.

The success of this expedient seemed to correspond with Alfred's hopes: the greater part of the Danes settled peaceably in their new quarters; the more turbulent procured subsistence by ravaging the coasts of France; and England enjoyed for some years a state of tranquility. Alfred employed this period in establishing civil and military institutions, and in providing for the future defence of the island. He repaired the ruined cities; built castles and fortresses; and established a regular militia. Sensible that the best means of defending an island is by a navy, he increased the shipping of his kingdom both in number and strength, and trained his subjects to maritime conflicts. He stationed his vessels with such judgment as continually to intercept the Danish ships either before or after they had landed their troops; and by this means he repelled several inroads of the Danes.

At length Hastings, the celebrated Danish chief, having ravaged all the provinces of France, along the Loire and the Seine, appeared off the coast of Kent with three hundred and thirty sail; where the greater part of the Danes disembarked, and seized the fort of Apuldore. Hastings himself, with a fleet of eighty sail, entered the Thames, and fortifying Milton in Kent, spread his forces over the country, and committed the most dreadful ravages. Alfred, on the first alarm of this descent, hastened with a chosen band to the defence of his people; and collecting all the armed militia, he appeared in the field with a force superior to that of the enemy. The invaders, instead of increasing their spoil, were obliged to seek refuge in their fortifications. Tired of this situation, the Danes at Apuldore suddenly left their encampment, and attempted to march towards the Thames, and to penetrate into the heart of the kingdom; but Alfred, whose vigilance they could not escape, encountered and defeated them at Farnham. They fled to their ships, and escaped to Mersey in Essex, where they erected new works for their protection. Has

tings attempted a similar movement at the same time, and with the same success; after leaving Milton, he was glad to find refuge at Bamflete, near the isle of Canvey, where he threw up fortifications for his defence.

From these invaders the attention of Alfred was soon

distracted by another enemy. Guthrum was now dead; and his followers, encouraged by the appearance of so great a body of their countrymen, revolted against the authority of Alfred. They embarked on board of two hundred and forty vessels, and appeared before Exeter, in the west of England. Alfred immediately marched to the west, and suddenly attacking them, defeated them, and pursued them to their ships with great slaughter. In another attempt on the coast of Sussex, they were again repulsed, and some of their ships taken. Discouraged by these difficulties, they embarked, and returned to their settlements in Northumberland.

In the mean time, the Danes in Essex, having quitted their retreat, and united their forces under the command of Hastings, ravaged the inland country. The English army left in London attacked the Danish intrenchments at Bamflete, overpowered the garrison, and carried off the wife and two sons of Hastings. Alfred restored the captives to the Danish chief, on condition that he should quit the kingdom, to which he readily assented.

However, many of the Danes refused to follow Hastings. Great numbers of them seized and fortified Shobury, at the mouth of the Thames; and leaving a garrison there, they marched to Boddington, in the county of Gloucester, where they were reinforced by the Welsh, and erected fortifications for their protection. Alfred surrounded them with his whole force. After having endured the extremities of famine, they attacked the English, and a small number of them effected their escape; but most of them being taken, they were tried at Winchester, and hanged as public robbers.

This well-timed severity restored tranquility to England, and produced security to the government. Not only the East-Anglian and Northumberland Danes, but the Welsh, acknowledged the authority of Alfred. By prudence, by justice, and by valour, he had now established his sovereignty over all the southern parts of the island, from the English channel to the frontiers of Scotland;

when, in the vigour of his age, and in the full possession of his faculties, he expired, after a glorious reign of twenty-nine years and a half, in which he had deservedly attained the appellation of GREAT, and the title of founder of the English monarchy.

The character of Alfred, both in private and public life, is almost unrivalled in the annals of any age or nation. His virtues were so happily tempered together, and so ́justly blended, that each prevented the other from exceeding its proper boundaries. He reconciled the most enterprising spirit with the greatest moderation; the most severe justice with the gentlest lenity; the highest capacity and inclination for science, with the most shining talents for action. His civil and his military virtues are almost equally the objects of our admiration; and nature, also, as if so bright a production of her skill should be set in the fairest light, had bestowed on him every personal grace and accomplishment.

The martial exploits of Alfred afford only an imperfect. idea of his merit. His civil institutions, many of which still exist, and his encouragement of the arts and sciences, form the most prominent features of his reign. The violence and rapacity of the Danes had subverted all order throughout England, and introduced the greatest anarchy and confusion. To provide a remedy for the evils which their licentiousness had occasioned, and to render the execution of justice strict and regular, Alfred divided the kingdom into counties; these he subdivided into hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. Ten householders formed a tithing, who were answerable for each other's conduct, and over whom a headborough or borsholder was appointed to preside. Every man was obliged to register himself in some tithing; and none could change his habitation without a certificate from the headborough of the tithing to which he belonged.

When any person had been guilty of a crime, the headborough was summoned to answer for him; and if the headborough was unwilling to be surety for his appearance, the criminal was committed to prison till his trial. If the criminal fled, either before or after finding sureties, the headborough and tithing were exposed to the penalties of the law. Thirty-one days were allowed them for producing the criminal. If the time elapsed before they

could find him, the headborough and two other member of the tithing were obliged to appear, and together with three chief members of three neighbouring tithings, consisting of twelve in all, swear that the tithing was free from all privity both of the crime and of the escape of the criminal. If the headborough could not produce such a number of witnesses to their innocence, the tithing was compelled to pay a fine to the king. This institution obliged every man carefully to observe the conduct of his neighbours, and was a kind of surety for their behaviour.

In the administration of justice, the headborough summoned his tithing to assist him in deciding any trivial difference which occurred among the members. In affairs of greater moment, or in controversies between members of different tithings, the cause was brought before the hundred, which consisted of ten tithings, or one hundred families, and which was regularly assembled once in four weeks. In their method of decision we trace the origin of juries. Twelve freeholders were chosen, who, together with the presiding magistrate of that division, were sworn to administer impartial justice in the cause submitted to their jurisdiction.

The county court, which met twice a year, and consisted of the freeholders of the county, was superior to that of the hundred, from which it received appeals. The bishop with the aldermen presided in it. The latter originally possessed both the civil and military authority; but Alfred, sensible that this conjunction of power might render the nobility dangerous, appointed a sheriff in each county, who was equal with the aldermen in his judicial function, and whose office also consisted in guarding the rights of the crown from violation, and in levying the fines. In default of justice in these courts, an appeal lay to the king in council; but finding that his time would be entirely engrossed in hearing these appeals, Alfred took care to correct the ignorance or corruption of inferior magistrates, and to instruct his nobility in letters and laws. To guide them in the administration of justice, he framed a code of laws, which, though now lost, long served as the basis of English jurisprudence, and is generally deemed the origin of what is now denominated the common law.

To encourage learning among his subjects was no less the care of this illustrious prince. When he came to the