Page:Source Problems in English History.djvu/54

 Ghent, being the very same troops who had formerly pitched their camp at Fulham. After a year they attempted to proceed farther; but the armies of the Franks assaulted them so vigorously that they gained

the victory, while the barbarians were put to flight. After the lapse of a year the above-mentioned army passed into the higher districts of the river Meuse, and established their camp at Ascloha. In the same year King Alfred put out to sea and met with four

of their ships; two of them he overcame and de- stroyed, and the remaining two surrendered. In the following year the above-named army set out for the districts above the Scheldt, at a place called Conde, and there fixed their winter quarters. After

the expiration of a single year a violent slaughter committed by the aforesaid army broke out on the higher districts of the Somme, near the town of Amiens, and there they pitched their camp for the winter. Then, after a year, they divided themselves

and spread over the country in two parts, the one occupying Louvain, and the other Rochester, and they besieged both these towns. They also constructed for themselves other smaller camps. The original inhabitants were defeated, till Alfred arrived

with his western band. . . . Some of them retreated beyond the sea. In the course of that year they renewed their treaty by giving hostages to the Angles, and twice in the year they divided the spoil obtained by fraud in the densely wooded district close to the