at, though Berne
deserved to die for the crime, he would give him a faint chance of
escape; he should be put in an open boat, and pushed out to sea and left
to the mercy of the waves.

After tossing for many days, Berne was washed up on a strange coast.

During those lonely days of tossing on the waves, instead of repenting
of his crime, Berne's wicked heart had been full of hatred for the King.
So when he heard that the land he had come to was Lothparch's own
kingdom, and that his two sons, Inguar and Hubba, were reigning in his
place, a horrible idea came into his mind. Asking to be taken before the
Princes, he made up and told them an awful lie, saying that when their
father, Lothparch, had been washed up, helpless, on the coast of
England, Edmund the King had caused him to be cruelly put to death.

Of course, this enraged Inguar and Hubba, and they at once collected a
huge and fierce army, and set out once more for East Anglia.

_A Fight to the Death._

Landing in the North, and marching from York southward, the Danes
plundered every city they passed through. They burned the monastery that
had been built at Croyland (St. Guthlac's isle), and also those at
Peterborough, Ramsey, Soham, and Ely. Meeting St. Edmund's army, they
defeated it completely, killed the brave General who commanded it, and
took Thetford by storm. Then they sent St. Edmund a message to say that
he must give up half his kingdom and pay heavy taxes, or they would do
the most terrible "frightfulness" throughout the land.

But St. Edmund and his men decided to make one great effort to keep
their land in liberty and true to the Christian Faith. At the head of
his gallant army, St. Edmund marched on Inguar's army, and a ghastly
battle began.

Arrows flew thick; swords clashed on shields; great spears tore men open
and left them to bleed to death. All day the battle raged, but at night
the Danes fell back exhausted, and St. Edmund held the field,
victorious. But as he stood in the moonlight and looked upon the scene
his heart sank.

Before him stretched the great battlefield, its trampled grass all
soaked in blood; and around him, silent for ever, lay his great army--an
army of dead men. With a heavy heart he led back his little handful of
tired and wounded soldiers to the camp.

The next day came terrible news. Hubba, with ten thousand men, had
marched up and joined his brother.

_The Martyr._

It was hopeless to try and resist any mo