he expected, opposed him so
strongly with all her influence that he was very soon glad to get safely
back. His brother Alfred was not so fortunate. Believing in an
affectionate letter, written some time afterwards to him and his brother,
in his mother's name (but whether really with or without his mother's
knowledge is now uncertain), he allowed himself to be tempted over to
England, with a good force of soldiers, and landing on the Kentish coast,
and being met and welcomed by Earl Godwin, proceeded into Surrey, as far
as the town of Guildford. Here, he and his men halted in the evening to
rest, having still the Earl in their company; who had ordered lodgings
and good cheer for them. But, in the dead of the night, when they were
off their guard, being divided into small parties sleeping soundly after
a long march and a plentiful supper in different houses, they were set
upon by the King's troops, and taken prisoners. Next morning they were
drawn out in a line, to the number of six hundred men, and were
barbarously tortured and killed; with the exception of every tenth man,
who was sold into slavery. As to the wretched Prince Alfred, he was
stripped naked, tied to a horse and sent away into the Isle of Ely, where
his eyes were torn out of his head, and where in a few days he miserably
died. I am not sure that the Earl had wilfully entrapped him, but I
suspect it strongly.

Harold was now King all over England, though it is doubtful whether the
Archbishop of Canterbury (the greater part of the priests were Saxons,
and not friendly to the Danes) ever consented to crown him. Crowned or
uncrowned, with the Archbishop's leave or without it, he was King for
four years: after which short reign he died, and was buried; having never
done much in life but go a hunting. He was such a fast runner at this,
his favourite sport, that the people called him Harold Harefoot.

Hardicanute was then at Bruges, in Flanders, plotting, with his mother
(who had gone over there after the cruel murder of Prince Alfred), for
the invasion of England. The Danes and Saxons, finding themselves
without a King, and dreading new disputes, made common cause, and joined
in inviting him to occupy the Throne. He consented, and soon troubled
them enough; for he brought over numbers of Danes, and taxed the people
so insupportably to enrich those greedy favourites that there were many
insurrections, especially one at Worcester, where the citizens ros