despair. Finding that, after all the miserable havoc which
they had undergone in their persons and in their property; after all
the vigorous actions which they had exerted in their own defence; a
new band, equally greedy of spoil and slaughter, had disembarked among
them; they believed themselves abandoned by Heaven to destruction, and
delivered over to those swarms of robbers, which the fertile north
thus incessantly poured forth against them. Some left their country
and retired into Wales, or fled beyond sea: others submitted to the
conquerors, in hopes of appeasing their fury by a servile obedience
[r]. And every man's attention being now engrossed in concern for his
own preservation, no one would hearken to the exhortations of the
king, who summoned them to make, under his conduct, one effort more in
defence of their prince, their country, and their liberties. Alfred
himself was obliged to relinquish the ensigns of his dignity, to
dismiss his servants, and to seek shelter, in the meanest disguises,
from the pursuit and fury of his enemies. He concealed himself under
a peasant's habit, and lived some time in the house of a neat-herd,
who had been intrusted with the care of some of his cows [s]. There
passed here an incident, which has been recorded by all the
historians, and was long preserved by popular tradition; though it
contains nothing memorable in itself, except so far as every
circumstance is interesting which attends so much virtue and dignity
reduced to such distress. The wife of the neat-herd was ignorant of
the condition of her royal guest; and observing him one day busy by
the fire-side in trimming his bows and arrows, she desired him to take
care of some cakes which were toasting, while she was employed
elsewhere in other domestic affairs. But Alfred, whose thoughts were
otherwise engaged, neglected this injunction; and the good woman, on
her return, finding her cakes all burnt, rated the king very severely,
and upbraided him, that he always seemed very well pleased to eat her
warm cakes, though he was thus negligent in toasting them [t].
[FN [r] Chron. Sax. p. 84. Alured Bever. p. 105. [s] Asser. p. 9.
[t] Ibid M. West, p. 170.]

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; an