The impression made on the mind of the people by these events is traceable in two names: Athelney, which now represents Æthelinga Eig, the island of princes; and Borough Bridge, which means the bridge at the fortification. The fort which Alfred made in 878 is well preserved, the entrenchments occupying the summit of a conical hill near the east end of the bridge which spans the Parret, after its junction with the Tone.
How the king had employed the unrecorded months is manifest in the result. His muster-roll at Brixton Deveril, in the words of a contemporary, is brief yet eloquent: ‘Then in the seventh week after Easter he rode to Ecgbrihtes Stân, on the eastern side of Selwood, and to meet him at that place came the men of Somerset, all of them, and the Wiltshire men, and of Hampshire the part that was on the hither side of the sea; and of him fain they were.’ This passage of the Saxon Chronicle seems to render a satisfactory account of the manner in which the king had employed his time from Epiphany to Easter in the year 878.
Absorbed in this supreme effort, where his all was at stake, he may well have found no time for recovering his buried Jewel, and he may never have revisited the spot until his marks were all obliterated.
From the land beyond Pedrida, which had hitherto counted to the crown of Wessex only as a recent territorial acquisition, now started up around the fugitive king an army of devoted warriors, who resolutely threw their weight into the scale, and rescued the dynasty of their conquerors.
Such was the nature of the force which Alfred now with a swelling heart perceived to be entirely at his disposal, and he buckled to the task of employing them to the best advantage. From the entrenched hill by Borough Bridge he prosecuted the war against the Danes, whose basis was at Chippenham, and this he continued for six weeks. This he could do with a small force, as he had great advantages of position. Between him and the foe lay the fenny channel of the Brue, which he and his people were expert in crossing. So it was comparatively easy for him to harass them and retire to his fort.
This kind of warfare, continued for six weeks, must have had the designed effect of drawing off from the strength of the foe in Wiltshire, and causing them to concentrate their attention upon this feigned line of attack. For all this was only to amuse and distract the enemy, and so to facilitate the execution of a very different project, which the king was preparing. What was passing in Alfred’s mind may (in all essentials) be read in Lord Roberts’s narrative of his preparations for attacking the Afghans, when they were entrenched on the Peiwar Kotal in December, 1878[45]. By making display of reconnoitring parties and other preparations as for a front attack, carrying this on to the extent of raising batteries and mounting guns, till he had caused the enemy to make counter dispositions accordingly, he with the utmost secrecy by a circuitous night march made a flank attack, taking them unprepared, and promptly dislodged them from an apparently impregnable position. So Alfred, while waging the six weeks’ war, had his trusty messengers abroad all through Wiltshire and Hampshire, preparing for the tryst at Ecgbrihtes Stân.
Well may we exclaim with Sir Walter Besant—‘What follows is like a dream!’ Yea, verily, like a dream in its sudden transformation of the whole face and prospect of things, and equally unaccountable too; for no attempt to explain it by natural causes will ever match the stupendous result. It is not in order to dispel an illusion that we seek to trace the plan and the process—the illusion cannot be dispelled. No, rather it is in order to penetrate further into the action of a life that has kindled our admiration. Of that life we have a mirror in the enthusiasm with which his presence had fired the Welsh of Somerset beyond Pedrida. It is surely no mere accident that in the memorandum of that resolute force which mustered for his restoration, the first item should be—Sumorsæte alle.
[30] Among promising fields of exercise in exploring the bed of the sea, there is the coast from Swanage Bay round to St. Aldhelm’s Head, which might yield some durable relics from the loot of ancient monasteries. And if Alfred really did purchase the evacuation of Wareham in 877, ‘pecuniam dando,’ as Ethelwerd has it, the very coins may still be there, and in a good state of preservation.
[31] Þa gegaderode Æþered ealdormon and Æþelm ealdorman and Æþelnoþ ealdorman, and þa cinges þegnas þe þa æt ham æt þæm geweorcum wæron, of alcre byrig be eastan Pedredan, ge be westan Sealwuda ge be eastan; ge eac be norþan Temese, and be westan Sæfern, ge eac sum dæl þæs Norð Weal cynnes. Sax. Chron.,