Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/399



The piratical expeditions of the Northmen were more easily suppressed in France than in England, where, among the numerous islands contiguous to her coasts, their vessels could take refuge. Thus Wales suffered severely from their marauding attacks; the island of Anglesey was more than once pillaged by them; while, in Ireland, they long held the ports of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork. A Danish king resided in Dublin and in Waterford; and the invaders preserved their warlike spirit and predatory habits long after the remaining portions of the kingdom had acquired peaceful habits. The Scandinavian language survived the independence of the Northern pirates; and, centuries after these had ceased to dominate the seas, a Norse dialect was still spoken. Even to this day remnants of this original language remain in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, and is often used among the seafaring population, especially for the ordinary nautical expressions employed on board of their ships.

When Alfred ascended the throne, he found England overrun by the Danes, so that for a short time he was obliged to dissemble and to conceal himself, with the few faithful subjects who had not deserted him. In his retreat, however, he was the better able to arrange future plans, as he at once perceived that without an effective maritime force his island must be ever at the mercy of every piratical