which you neglect to attend to.' The king, though stung by her
upbraidings, yet heard her with patience and mildness, and roused by her
scolding, took care to bake her bread as she wished."

This fable has been variously narrated; some accounts making the
disguised prince busy in forming for himself a bow with arrows and other
instruments of war, while the woman gives vent to her indignation in
rhyme:

"To turn the burning cakes you have forgot,
Prompt as you are to eat them when they're hot."

In a short time the king's retreat became known to his adherents, who
flocking to him in numbers, he soon found himself enabled to carry on a
sort of guerilla warfare upon the nearest Danes. Growing bolder from the
general success of these sallies, he at length determined upon more
decisive measures; but before making the attempt, it was expedient to
learn the actual condition of his enemy. With this view he assumed the
costume of a Saxon minstrel, and ventured into the Danish camp at
Chippenham, about thirty miles distant from his stronghold among the
marshes. In this disguise he went from tent to tent, and, as some of the
chroniclers tell us, was admitted into the tent of Guthrum himself, the
Danish leader, his quality of gleeman assuring safety even to a Saxon.
Having obtained the necessary information, he returned to Athelney,
which he finally left on the seventh week after Easter, and rode to
_Egbert's Stone_, in the eastern part of _Selwood_, or the _Great Wood_.
Here he was met by all the neighboring folk of Somersetshire, Wiltshire,
and Hampshire, who had not, for fear of the pagans, fled beyond the sea.
Once more he encountered his enemies, and with a success almost as
marvellous as the vision of St. Neot, which announced it, he routed the
Danes at Ethendune with so much slaughter that they were glad to obtain
peace on such terms as he chose to dictate. Guthrum embraced
Christianity, and became the adopted son of Alfred.

The king's next care was to endeavor at amalgamating the Danes, who had
settled in the country, with the victorious Saxons; a wise policy, and
as wisely carried out. The result of it was, that when new hordes of
invaders poured down upon England, they met with no encouragement from
their countrymen already established in the island, and for want of this
support were easily put to flight. Nor was it by land only that Alfred
proved his superiority, being no less successful by sea against the
Da