Then Alfred girdled the hill with his forces, and for fourteen days closely besieged the Danes. Hunger, cold, fear, and despair gradually undermined the resolution of the besieged, and every day Alfred’s triumphant army was swelled by new recruits. On the fourteenth day Guthrum yielded, and humbly sued for peace. “They engaged to give the king as many hostages as he pleased, and to receive none from him in return—in which manner they had never before made peace with any one.”
“The king took pity on them, and received from them hostages, as many as he would. Thereupon the Danes swore that they would straightway leave the kingdom, and their king, Guthrum, promised to embrace Christianity and receive baptism.” Alfred himself was Guthrum’s sponsor at the ceremony, “receiving him as a son by adoption, and raising him up from the holy font of baptism. After this he remained twelve days with the king, who, together with all his companions, gave him rich gifts.”
In the year 879 the Danes left Chippenham, and after a time retired into East Anglia and settled down quietly in the Danelaw, according to the solemn treaty which the two kings had made. Again and again Viking fleets assailed Alfred, but he was more than a match for them. He no longer awaited their onsets, but built ships stronger and swifter than those of his foes, and thus was enabled to meet them on their own element. Alfred built the first English navy, and inaugurated that policy of naval defence which Britons of every succeeding age have recognized as the wisest and best. The foe who threatens our island shores must be met and vanquished on the encircling sea.
Right nobly did Alfred bestir himself during the few years of life remaining to him. He restored the towns, he founded monasteries, he gathered learned men about him, and laboured to build up England anew. Studious from his early years, he endeavoured to enrich his own mind and to encourage his people to learn the arts of reading and writing. Into the homely language understanded of the people he translated the best and most useful works of the Latin writers of his time, and founded schools, that the sons of his nobles might not grow up unlettered as their fathers. He gave the best of his attention to the four greatest things of national life—law, justice, religion, and education. He collected and studied the old laws of the nation: what was good he retained, what was bad he rejected. Never was king more eager to advance learning and make new discoveries. He sent embassies to the remotest parts of the then known world, and our earliest accounts of Arctic exploration are from his pen.
Method and order were the rule of his life. One portion of his income he allotted to his warriors and attendants; another to the buildings which his architects from beyond the seas erected for him; a third for the relief of foreigners; and the remainder for the Church, the schools, and the poor. His time, too, was methodically bestowed on good works. Eight hours each day were devoted to rest and refreshment; another eight hours to affairs of state; the remaining eight hours to study and religious exercises. To enable him rightly to apportion the time which he deemed so precious, he fashioned wax candles, six of which, burned in succession, marked the lapse of twenty-four hours. To guard against the irregularities caused by draughts, he enclosed his candles in lanterns of thin, transparent horn. Thus he measured his time, zealous that the golden sands should not run out unheeded, and that no day should pass without its tale of duty done, opportunities seized, and benefits conferred.
And now we must bid farewell to this peerless king. A thousand summers have come and gone since his countrymen bore him to his tomb, deeming that the light of their land had been extinguished. They loved and honoured him, and we revere his memory as that of probably the most perfect character in history. He remains as the mirror of monarchs in which they may perceive the elements of true majesty, and an inspiring example to all of triumphant devotion, fortitude, and faith.
Alfred in the Camp of the Danes.
(From the design by H. A. Bone. By permission of Antony Gibbs, Esq.)