ery well pleased to eat her warm cakes
though he was thus negligent in toasting them.[*]

By degrees, Alfred, as he found the search of the enemy become more
remiss, collected some of his retainers, and retired into the centre
of a bog, formed by the stagnating waters of the Thone and Parret, in
Somersetshire. He here found two acres of firm ground; and building a
habitation on them, rendered himself secure by its fortifications, and
still more by the unknown and inaccessible roads which led to it, and
by the forests and morasses with which it was every way environed. This
place he called AEthelingay, or the Isle of Nobles;[**] and it now bears
the name of Athelney. He thence made frequent and unexpected sallies
upon the Danes, who often felt the vigor of his arm, but knew not from
what quarter the blow came. He subsisted himself and his followers by
the plunder which he acquired; he procured them consolation by
revenge; and from small successes, he opened their minds to hope that,
notwithstanding his present low condition, more important victories
might at length attend his valor.

[* Asser. p. 9. M. West. p. 170.]

[** Chron. Sax. p. 85. W Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4. Ethelwerd,
lib iv. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 26.]

Alfred lay here concealed, but not inactive, during a twelvemonth; when
the news of a prosperous event reached his ears, and called him to the
field. Hubba the Dane, having spread devastation, fire, and slaughter
over Wales, had landed in Devonshire from twenty-three vessels, and laid
siege to the castle of Kinwith, a place situated near the mouth of the
small river Tau. Oddune, earl of Devonshire, with his followers, had
taken shelter there; and being ill supplied with provisions, and
even with water, he determined, by some vigorous blow, to prevent the
necessity of submitting to the barbarous enemy. He made a sudden sally
on the Danes before sun-rising; and taking them unprepared, he put them
to rout, pursued them with great slaughter, killed Hubba himself, and
got possession of the famous Reafen, or enchanted standard, in which the
Danes put great confidence.[*] It contained the figure of a raven, which
had been inwoven by the three sisters of Hinguar and Hubba, with
many magical incantations, and which, by its different movements,
prognosticated, as the Danes believed, the good or bad success of any
enterprise.[**]

When Alfred observed this symptom of successful resistance in his
subject