.[****]

[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6.]

[** Chron. Sax. p. 111. Hoveden, p. 422. H. Hunting, lib. v.
p. 354.]

[*** Hoveden, p. 422.]

[**** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6. Anglia Sacra,
vol. i. p. 212.]

But those annals, so uncertain and imperfect in themselves, lose all
credit when national prepossessions and animosities have place; and,
on that account, the Scotch historians, who, without having any more
knowledge of the matter, strenuously deny the fact, seem more worthy of
belief.

Constantine, whether he owed the retaining of his crown to the
moderation of Athelstan, who was unwilling to employ all his advantages
against him, or to the policy of that prince who esteemed the
humiliation of an enemy a greater acquisition than the subjection of
a discontented and mutinous people thought the behavior of the English
monarch more an object of resentment than of gratitude. He entered
into a confederacy with Anlaf, who had collected a great body of Danish
pirates, whom he found hovering in the Irish seas, and with some Welsh
princes, who were terrified at the growing power of Athelstan; and
all these allies made by concert an irruption with a great army into
England. Athelstan, collecting his forces, met the enemy hear Brunsbury,
in Northumberland, and defeated them in a general engagement. This
victory was chiefly ascribed to the valor of Turketul, the English
chancellor; for, in those turbulent ages, no one was so much occupied in
civil employments as wholly to lay aside the military character.[*]

[* The office of chancellor, among the Anglo-
Saxons, resembled more that of a secretary of state than
that of our present chancellor See Spelman in voce
Cancellarius.]

There is a circumstance, not unworthy of notice, which historians
relate, with regard to the transactions of this war. Anlaf, on the
approach of the English army, thought that he could not venture too
much to insure a fortunate event, and employing the artifice formerly
practised by Alfred against the Danes, he entered the enemy's camp, in
the habit of a minstrel. The stratagem was, for the present, attended
with like success. He gave such satisfaction to the soldiers, who
flocked about him, that they introduced him to the king's tent; and
Anlaf, having played before that prince and his nobles during their
repast, was dismissed with a handsome reward. His prudence kept him from
refusing the present; D