Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/156

 104 STATESMEN AND SAGES a pan, with fire underneath, to be baked for her husband's repast on his return, as well as for her own. " While she was of need busied, peasant-like, upon other affairs, she went anxious to the fire, and found the bread burning on the other side. She immedi- ately assailed the king with reproaches. ' Why, man, do you sit thinking there, and are too proud to turn the bread ? Whatever be your family, with such man- ners and sloth, what trust can be put in you hereafter ? If you were a nobleman, you will be glad to eat the bread which you neglect to attend to.' The king, though stung by her upbraidings, yet heard her with patience and mildness, and roused by her scolding, took care to bake her bread as she wished." This fable has been variously narrated ; some accounts making the disguised prince busy in forming for himself a bow with arrows and other instruments of war, while the woman gives vent to her indignation in rhyme : " To turn the burning cakes you have forgot, Prompt as you are to eat them when they're hot." In a short time the king's retreat became known to his adherents, who flock- ing to him in numbers, he soon found himself enabled to carry on a sort of gue- rilla warfare upon the nearest Danes. Growing bolder from the general success of these sallies, he at length determined upon more decisive measures ; but before making the attempt, it was expedient to learn the actual condition of his enemy. With this view he assumed the costume of a Saxon minstrel, and ventured into the Danish camp at Chippenham, about thirty miles distant from his stronghold among the marshes. In this disguise he went from tent to tent, and, as some of the chroniclers tell us, was admitted into the tent of Guthrum himself, the Dan- ish leader, his quality of gleeman assuring safety even to a Saxon. Having ob- tained the necessary information, he returned to Athelney, which he finally left on the seventh week after Easter, and rode to Egbert's Stone, in the eastern part of Selwood, or the Great Wood. Here he was met by all the neighboring folk of Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, who had not, for fear of the pagans, fled beyond the sea. Once more he encountered his enemies, and with a success almost as marvellous as the vision of St. Neot, which announced it, he routed the Danes at Ethendune with so much slaughter that they were glad to obtain peace on such terms as he chose to dictate. Guthrum embraced Christianity, and be- came the adopted son of Alfred. The king's next care was to e"ndeavor at amalgamating the Danes, who had settled in the country, with the victorious Saxons ; a wise policy, and as wisely carried out. The result of it was, that when new hordes of invaders poured down upon England, they met with no encouragement from their countrymen already established in the island, and for want of this support were easily put to flight. Nor was it by land only that Alfred proved his superiority, being no less success- ful by sea against the Danes of East Anglia. These he defeated off their adopted coast, and captured thirteen of their ships, with all the treasure in them. Fearful as were the ravages committed by the Danes, they were yet, like