him with
their forces; and that prince, attended by Alfred, was obliged to march
against the enemy with the West Saxons alone, his hereditary subjects.
The Danes, being defeated in an action, shut themselves up in their
garrison; but quickly making thence an irruption, they routed the West
Saxons, and obliged them to raise the siege. An action soon after ensued
at Aston, in Berkshire, where the English, in the beginning of the day,
were in danger of a total defeat. Alfred, advancing with one division
of the army, was surrounded by the enemy in disadvantageous ground;
and Ethered, who was at that time hearing mass, refused to march to his
assistance till prayers should be finished;[*] but, as he afterwards
obtained the victory, this success, not the danger of Alfred, was
ascribed by the monks to the piety of that monarch.

[* Asser. p. 7. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 3 Sim.
Dunelm. p. 125. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 205.]

[Illustration: 035.jpg ALFRED BEFORE THE DANISH GENERAL]

ALFRED.

This battle of Aston did not terminate the war; another battle was a
little after fought at Basing, where the Danes were more successful; and
being reenforced by a new army from their own country, they became every
day more terrible to the English. Amidst these confusions, Ethered died
of a wound which he had received in an action with the Danes; and
left the inheritance of his cares and misfortunes, rather than of his
grandeur, to his brother Alfred, who was now twenty-two years of age.

This prince gave very early marks of those great virtues and shining
talents, by which, during the most difficult times, he saved his country
from utter ruin and subversion. Ethelwolf, his father, the year after
his return with Alfred from Rome, had again sent the young prince
thither with a numerous retinue; and a report being spread of the king's
death, the Pope, Leo III., gave Alfred the royal unction;[*] whether
prognosticating his future greatness from the appearances of his
pregnant genius, or willing to pretend, even in that age, to the right
of conferring kingdoms. Alfred, on his return home, became every day
more the object of his father's affections; but being indulged in all
youthful pleasures, he was much neglected in his education; and he had
already reached his twelfth year, when he was yet totally ignorant of
the lowest elements of literature. His genius was first roused by
the recital of Saxon poems, in which the queen to