se brave, but
ruthless, invaders. He was defeated; yet such was his skill and courage,
that he was able to maintain the struggle till at length a peace, or
rather a truce, was concluded between the combatants, for these
intervals of calm seldom lasted beyond a year. Neither was this the
worst of the evils that beset the Saxon prince. Any compact he might
make with one party of the Danes was considered binding only upon _that_
party, and had no influence whatever upon others of their countrymen,
who had different leaders and different interests. Thus, upon the
present occasion, Alfred had no sooner made terms with one piratical
horde than he was invaded by a fresh body of them under Rollo; and when
he had compelled these to abandon Wessex, and seek for an easier
conquest on the shores of Normandy, he was attacked by fresh bodies of
Danes already settled in the other parts of England. So long, however,
as they ventured to meet him in the open field, his skill secured him
the victory; till, taught by repeated defeats, they had recourse to
another system of tactics. "They used," says Burke, "suddenly to land
and ravage a part of the country; when a force opposed them they retired
to their ships and passed to some other part, which in a like manner
they ravaged, and then retired as before, until the country, entirely
harassed, pillaged, and wasted by their incursions, was no longer able
to resist them. Then they ventured safely to enter a desolated and
disheartened country and to establish themselves in it."

To meet this system of warfare it was necessary to create a navy at a
time when the Saxons knew not how to build ships, or to manage them when
built. But the genius of Alfred triumphed over every obstacle. He
brought shipwrights from the Continent, himself assisted the workmen in
their labors, and engaged Frisian seamen, the neighbors of the Danes,
and, like them, pirates.

The new armament being completed, Alfred fell upon a Danish fleet which
was bringing round a large force from Wareham to the relief of their
friends, besieged in Exeter. These he defeated at all points, taking or
destroying no less than one hundred and twenty, already damaged by a
previous storm, and perhaps, on that account, less capable of defence.
The Danes, whom he held cooped up in Exeter, found themselves in
consequence compelled to surrender, and, giving hostages not to trouble
Wessex any longer, they settled themselves in Mercia, after the e