Page:Dickens - A Child s History of England, 1900.djvu/28

20 to have a better right to the throne of Wessex than, another Saxon prince, who was at the head of that kingdom, and who married , the daughter of , a king of another of the seven kingdoms. This was a handsome murderess, who poisoned people when they offended her. One day, she mixed a cup of poison for a certain noble belonging to the court; but her husband drank of it too, by mistake, and died. Upon this, the people revolted, in great crowds; and running to the palace, and thundering at the gates, cried, "Down with the wicked queen, who poisons men!" They drove her out of the country, and abolished the title she had disgraced. When years had passed away, some travellers came home from Italy, and said that in the town of Pavia they had seen a ragged beggar-woman, who had once been handsome, but was then shrivelled, bent, and yellow, wandering about the streets, crying for bread; and that this beggar-woman was the poisoning English queen. It was, indeed, ; and so she died, without a shelter for her wretched head.

, not considering himself safe in England, consequence of his having claimed the crown of Wessex (for he thought his rival might take him prisoner and put him to death), sought refuge at the court of, King of France. On the death of, so unhappily poisoned by mistake, Egbert came back to Britain; succeeded to the throne of Wessex; conquered some of the other monarchs of the seven kingdoms; added their territories to his own; and, for the first time, called the country over which he ruled,.

And now, new enemies arose, who for a long time, troubled England sorely. These were the Northmen, the people of Denmark and Norway, whom the English called the Danes. They were a warlike people, quite at home upon the sea; not Christians; very daring and cruel. They came over in ships, and plundered and burned wheresoever they landed. Once, they beat in battle. Once, beat them. But, they cared no more for being beaten than the English themselves. In the four following short reigns, of, and his three sons, , , and they came back over and over again, burning and plundering and laying England waste. In the last-mentioned reign,