the invaders. The
piratical Danes willingly followed in an excursion any prosperous
leader who gave them hopes of booty; but were not so easily induced to
relinquish their enterprise, or submit to return, baffled and without
plunder, into their native country. Great numbers of them, after the
departure of Hastings, seized and fortified Shobury, at the mouth of
the Thames; and having left a garrison there, they marched along the
River, till they came to Boddington, in the county of Gloucester;
where, being reinforced by some Welsh, they threw up intrenchments,
and prepared for their defence. The king here surrounded them with
the whole force of his dominions [w]; and as he had now a certain
prospect of victory, he resolved to trust nothing to chance, but
rather to master his enemies by famine than assault. They were
reduced to such extremities, that, having eaten their own horses, and
having many of them perished with hunger [x], they made a desperate
sally upon the English; and though the greater number fell in the
action, a considerable body made their escape [y]. These roved about
for some time in England, still pursued by the vigilance of Alfred;
they attacked Leicester with success, defended themselves in Hartford,
and then fled to Quatford, where they were finally broken and subdued.
The small remains of them either dispersed themselves among their
countrymen in Northumberland and East Anglia [z], or had recourse
again to the sea, where they exercised piracy, under the command of
Sigefert, a Northumbrian. This freebooter, well acquainted with
Alfred's naval preparations, had framed vessels of a new construction,
higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the English; but the
king soon discovered his superior skill, by building vessels still
higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the Northumbrians; and
falling upon them while they were exercising their ravages in the
west, he took twenty of their ships, and having tried all the
prisoners at Winchester, he hanged them as pirates, the common enemies
of mankind.
[FN [w] Chron. Sax. p. 94. [x] Ibid. M. West. p. 179. Flor. Wigorn.
p. 596. [y] Chron. Sax. p. 95. [z] Chron. Sax. p. 97.]

The well-timed severity of this execution, together with the excellent
posture of defence established every where, restored full tranquillity
to England, and provided for the future security of the government.
The East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes, on the first appe