English literature. During an enforced truce, because of a swollen
stream that separated the two armies, a messenger is sent from the
Danes to Byrhtnoth, leader of the English forces, with a proposition
to purchase peace with English gold. Byrhtnoth, angry and resolute,
gave him this answer:--

"Hearest thou, pirate, what this folk sayeth? They will give you
spears for tribute, weapons that will avail you nought in
battle. Messenger of the vikings, get thee back. Take to thy people
a sterner message, that here stands a fearless earl, who with his
band wilt defend this land, the home of Aethelred, my prince, folk
and fold. Too base it seems to me that ye go without battle to your
ships with our money, now that ye have come thus far into our
country. Ye shall not so easily obtain treasure. Spear and sword,
grim battle-play, shall decide between us ere we pay tribute."

Though the battle was lost and Byrhtnoth slain, the spirit of the
man is an English inheritance. It is the same spirit that refused
ship-money to Charles I., and tea-money to George III.

The encroachments of tyranny and the stealthier step of royal
prerogative have shrunk before this spirit which through the
centuries has inspired the noblest oratory of England and
America. It not only inspired the great orators of the mother
country, it served at the same time as a bond of sympathy with the
American colonies in their struggle for freedom. Burke, throughout
his great speech on Conciliation, never lost sight of this idea:--

"This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies
probably than in any other people of the earth. The people of the
colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, sir, is a nation
which still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The
colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was
most predominant; and they took this bias and direction the moment
they parted from your bands. They are therefore not only devoted to
liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and our English
principles. ... The temper and character which prevail in our
colonies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot,
I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade
them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins the blood
of freedom circulates. The language in which they would hear you
tell them this tale would detect the imposition; your speech