e. It
would be well if all men who are engaged in quarrels which they vainly
endeavor to settle by discussing and disputing about what is past and
gone, and can now never be recalled, would follow his example. In
all such cases we should say, let the past be forgotten, and, taking
things as they now are, let us see what we can do to secure peace and
happiness in future.

The policy which Alfred determined to adopt was, not to attempt the
utter extirpation of the Danes from England, but only to expel the
_armed forces_ from his own dominions, allowing those peaceably
disposed to remain in quiet possession of such lands in other parts of
the island as they already occupied. Instead, therefore, of treating
Guthrum with harshness and severity as a captive enemy, he told him
that he was willing not only to give him his liberty, but to regard
him, on certain conditions, as a friend and an ally, and allow him
to reign as a king over that part of England which his countrymen
possessed, and which was beyond Alfred's own frontiers. These
conditions were, that Guthrum was to go away with all his forces and
followers out of Alfred's kingdom, under solemn oaths never to return;
that he was to confine himself thenceforth to the southeastern part
of England, a territory from which the Saxon government had long
disappeared; that he was to give hostages for the faithful fulfillment
of these stipulations, without, however, receiving on his part
any hostages from Alfred. There was one other stipulation, more
extraordinary than all the rest, viz., that Guthrum should become a
convert to Christianity, and publicly avow his adhesion to the Saxon
faith by being baptized in the presence of the leaders of both armies,
in the most open and solemn manner. In this proposed baptism, Alfred
himself would stand his godfather.

This idea of winning over a pagan soldier to the Christian Church as
the price of his ransom from famine and death in the castle to which
his direst enemy had driven him--this enemy himself, the instrument
thus of so rude a mode of conversion, to be the sponsor of the new
communicant's religious profession--was one in keeping, it is true,
with the spirit of the times, but still it is one which, under the
circumstances of this case, only a mind of great originality and power
would have conceived of or attempted to carry into effect. Guthrum
might well be astonished at this unexpected turn in his affairs. A
few days before, he