considered as pertaining to the Church, such as study,
writing, and the consideration and management of ecclesiastical
affairs. These duties were performed, in those days, almost always by
clerical men, and in the retirement and seclusion of monasteries, and
were thus regarded as in some sense religious duties. We must conclude
that Alfred classed them thus, as he was a great student and writer
all his days, and there is no other place than this third head to
which the duties of this nature can be assigned. Thus understood, it
was a very wise and sensible division; though eight hours daily for
any long period of time, appropriated to services strictly devotional,
would not seem to be a wise arrangement, especially for a man in the
prime of life, and in a position demanding the constant exercise of
his powers in the discharge of active duties.

Thus the years of Alfred's life passed away, his kingdom advancing
steadily all the time in good government, wealth, and prosperity. The
country was not, however, yet freed entirely from the calamities
and troubles arising from the hostility of the Danes. Disorders
continually broke out among those who had settled in the land, and, in
some instances, new hordes of invaders came in. These were,
however, in most instances, easily subdued, and Alfred went on with
comparatively little interruption for many years, in prosecuting the
arts and improvements of peace. At last, however, toward the close of
his life, a famous Northman leader, named Hastings, landed in England
at the head of a large force, and made, before he was expelled, a
great deal of trouble. An account of this invasion will be given in
the next chapter.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CLOSE OF LIFE.

It was twelve or fifteen years after Alfred's restoration to his
kingdom, by means of the victory at Edendune, that the great invasion
of Hastings occurred. That victory took place in the year 878. It was
in the years 893-897 that Hastings and his horde of followers infested
the island, and in 900 Alfred died, so that his reign ended, as it had
commenced, with protracted and desperate conflicts with the Danes.

Hastings was an old and successful soldier before he came to England.
He had led a wild life for many years as a sea king on the German
Ocean, performing deeds which in our day entail upon the perpetrator
of them the infamy of piracy and murder, but which then entitled the
hero of them to a very wide-spread and hono