d the horsemen rode
towards the ships. Then went they west-ward into Oxfordshire,
and thence to Buckinghamshire, and so along the Ouse till they
came to Bedford, and so forth to Temsford, always burning as they
went. Then returned they to their ships with their spoil, which
they apportioned to the ships. When the king's army should have
gone out to meet them as they went up, then went they home; and
when they were in the east, then was the army detained in the
west; and when they were in the south, then was the army in the
north. Then all the privy council were summoned before the king,
to consult how they might defend this country. But, whatever was
advised, it stood not a month; and at length there was not a
chief that would collect an army, but each fled as he could: no
shire, moreover, would stand by another. Before the feast-day of
St. Andrew came the enemy to Northampton, and soon burned the
town, and took as much spoil thereabout as they would; and then
returned over the Thames into Wessex, and so by Cannings-marsh,
burning all the way. When they had gone as far as they would,
then came they by midwinter to their ships.

A.D. 1011. This year sent the king and his council to the army,
and desired peace; promising them both tribute and provisions, on
condition that they ceased from plunder. They had now overrun
East-Anglia [1], and Essex [2], and Middlesex [3], and
Oxfordshire [4], and Cambridgeshire [5], and Hertfordshire [6],
and Buckinghamshire [7], and Bedfordshire [8], and half of
Huntingdonshire [9], and much of Northamptonshire [10]; and, to
the south of the Thames, all Kent, and Sussex, and Hastings, and
Surrey, and Berkshire, and Hampshire, and much of Wiltshire. All
these disasters befel us through bad counsels; that they would
not offer tribute in time, or fight with them; but, when they had
done most mischief, then entered they into peace and amity with
them. And not the less for all this peace, and amity, and
tribute, they went everywhere in troops; plundering, and
spoiling, and slaying our miserable people. In this year,
between the Nativity of St. Mary and Michaelmas, they beset
Canterbury, and entered therein through treachery; for Elfmar
delivered the city to them, whose life Archbishop Elfeah formerly
saved. And there they seized Archbishop Elfeah, and Elfward the
king's steward, and Abbess Leofruna, (56) and Bishop Godwin; and
Abbot Elfmar they suffered to go away. And they took