Page:A literal translation of the Saxon Chronicle.djvu/122

110 the eastern side of the river, and fought with them, and the Christians gained the victory, but the King's Thane Ordhelm was slain there, and many others of the King's Thanes; and those (of the heathens) who escaped were saved by flight. When they came to their fortress and ships in Essex, the remnant again collected a large army from amongst the East Angles and Northumbrians before winter, and they secured their wives, and their ships, and their treasures, in East Anglia, and marched straight forward day and night until they came to a western town in Wirehall which is called Lega-ceaster (Chester).—And the King's troops could not overtake them until they were within the fortifications; nevertheless they encamped around the place for about two days, and they took all the cattle that were in the neighbourhood, and they slew the men whom they met without the fortress, and they burned the corn, or, together with their horses, consumed it. And this was about twelve months from the time that they came hither from beyond sea.

895.

This year, soon afterwards, the army went from Wirehall into North Wales, for they could not remain without corn or cattle to subsist on.—