ble of his
calling five hundred men by the winding of his horn.

Not long after he was enabled to emerge from the trials of exile in
Athelney; and according to Asser, "In the seventh week after Easter, he
rode to Egbert's Stone in the eastern part of Selwood or the Great Wood,
called in the old British language Coit-mawr. 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; and when they saw the king
alive after such great tribulation, they received him, as he deserved,
with joy and acclamations and all encamped there for the night." Soon
afterward he made a treaty with the Danes, and became king of the whole
of England south of the Thames.

It was now Alfred's work to reorganize his kingdom, to strengthen the
coast defenses, to rebuild London, to arrange for a standing army, and
to make wise laws for the preservation of order and peace; and when all
this was accomplished, he turned his attention to the establishment of
monasteries and colleges. "In the mean-time," says old Asser, "the King,
during the frequent wars and other trammels of this present life, the
invasions of the Pagans, and his own daily infirmities of body,
continued to carry on the government, and to exercise hunting in all its
branches; to teach his workers in gold and artificers of all kinds, his
falconers, hawkers, and dog-keepers, to build houses majestic and good,
beyond all the precedents of his ancestors, by his new mechanical
inventions, to recite the Saxon books, and more especially to learn by
heart the Saxon poems, and to make others learn them also; for he alone
never desisted from studying, most diligently, to the best of his
ability; he attended the mass and other daily services of religion: he
was frequent in psalm-singing and prayer, at the proper hours, both of
the night and of the day. He also went to the churches, as we have
already said, in the night-time, to pray, secretly and unknown to his
courtiers; he bestowed alms and largesses both on his own people and on
foreigners of all countries; he was affable and pleasant to all, and
curious to investigate things unknown."

As regards Alfred's personal contribution to literature, it may be said
that over and above all disputed matters and certain lost works, they
represent a most valuable and voluminous assortment due directly to his
own royal and scholarly pen. History, secular and churchly, la