as the
Chronicles express it. The Earl Waltheof killed, with his own
battle-axe, twenty Normans in their flight, and, chasing a hundred
more into the woody marshes, took advantage of the dry season, like
our friends at Aescendune, and burned them all with the wood.

All over England the struggle spread. Hereward took the command at
the Camp of Refuge, in the Isle of Ely, and crippled the Normans
around. Somerset and Dorset rose again; the men of Chester and a
body of Welshmen under "Edric the Wild" (sometimes called the
Forester), besieged Shrewsbury. The men of Cornwall attacked
Exeter, and a large body of insurgents collected at Stafford.

It was in putting down the northern insurrection that William
devastated Yorkshire and Northumberland, with such severity that
the country did not recover for centuries, while the victims to
famine, fire, and sword equalled a hundred thousand. These
spasmodic insurrections were only the dying throes of Anglo-Saxon
liberty. Everywhere they miscarried, and the Normans prevailed.

xvii The readers of Alfgar the Dane will remember that we gave
a brief account of this interesting spot in that chronicle. It was
the town to which Edmund Ironside and Alfgar first repaired after
their escape from the Danes in the Isle of Wight.

xviii On one of these islands now stands the mill, on the other
the Nag's Head Inn; the site of the old abbey is chiefly occupied
by a brewery!

xix Monastic Offices.

These were seven in number, besides the night hours. Lauds, before
daybreak; Prime, 7 A.M.; Terce, 9 A.M.; Sext, noon; Nones, 3 P.M.;
Vespers, 6 P.M.; and Compline, 9 P.M. These were in addition to
many daily celebrations of Mass.

Our modern prayer-book Matins is an accumulation and abridgment of
Matins, Lauds, and Prime; our Evensong of Vespers and Compline.
Terce, Sext, and Nones, which consisted mainly of portions of Psalm
119, with varying Versicles and Collects, are unrepresented in our
Anglican office.

If the older reader is curious to learn of what Compline consisted,
he may be told that its main features were Psalms 4, 31, 91, and
184; the hymn, Te Lucis ante Terminum, "Before the ending of the
day."--H. A. & M. 15; and the Collect, "Lighten our Darkness."

xx Roll of the Conquerors.

These names are taken from a charter, long preserved in Battle
Abbey, and quoted in the notes to Thierry's Norman Conquest. It
gives a list of the principal warriors who fought at Hastings,
whose