nd it without
defence; and fixing their station at Repton, in Derbyshire, they laid
the whole country desolate with fire and sword. Burrhed, despairing of
success against an enemy whom no force could resist, and no treaties
bind, abandoned his kingdom, and, flying to Rome, took shelter in a
cloister.[*] He was brother-in-law to Alfred, and the last who bore the
title of king in Mercia.

The West Saxons were now the only remaining power in England; and though
supported by the vigor and abilities of Alfred, they were unable to
sustain the efforts of those ravagers, who from all quarters invaded
them. A new swarm of Danes came over this year under three princes,
Guthrum, Oscitel, and Amund; and having first joined their countrymen at
Repton, they soon found the necessity of separating, in order to provide
for their subsistence. Part of them, under the command of Haldene,
their chieftain,[**] marched into Northumberland, where they fixed
their residence; part of them took quarters at Cambridge, whence they
dislodged in the ensuing summer and seized Wereham, in the county of
Dorset, the very centre of Alfred's dominions. That prince so straitened
them in these quarters, that they were content to come to a treaty with
him, and stipulated to depart his country. Alfred, well acquainted with
their usual perfidy, obliged them to swear upon the holy relics to the
observance of the treaty;[***] not that he expected they would pay any
veneration to the relics; but he hoped that, if they now violated this
oath, their impiety would infallibly draw down upon them the vengeance
of Heaven.

[* Asser. p. 8. Chron. Sax. p. 82. Ethelwerd, lib.
iv. cap. 4.]

[** Chron. Sax. p. 83.]

[*** Asser. p 8.]

But the Danes, little apprehensive of the danger suddenly, without
seeking any pretence, fell upon Alfred's army; and having put it to
rout, marched westward, and took possession of Exeter. The prince
collected new forces, and exerted such vigor, that he fought in one
year eight battles with the enemy,[*] and reduced them to the utmost
extremity. He hearkened, however, to new proposals of peace, and was
satisfied to stipulate with them, that they would settle somewhere in
England,[**] and would not permit the entrance of more ravagers into the
kingdom. But while he was expecting the execution of this treaty, which
it seemed the interest of the Danes themselves to fulfil, he heard that
another body had landed, and, hav