he departed to his army, and next day he led his men forth, and a great battle was fought, in which the English at last beat the Danes. 5. After this battle King Alfred invited the Danish king Guthrum to meet him; and they settled that the Danes should live quietly in the eastern and middle and northern parts of England, which were called the Danish country, or the Danelagh, and that they should be governed by Guthrum, and that Alfred and the English should keep the rest, and that there should be no more war. 6. Alfred now went back to his royal palace, and he made a great many good laws. The hardships he had suffered during his wanderings made him think with compassion of the sufferings of the poor people; and all his life he tried hard to make such laws as help poor people to live comfortably, and he was very angry whenever he found out that any of his judges were unjust to poor people, or his nobles cruel to them. 7. In those days very few people, except priests and monks, knew how to read and write. But one day, when Alfred was a little boy, the queen showed him and his brothers a beautiful book with painted pictures, and said she would give it to whichever of the boys could read it first. Before long Alfred went to the queen and read to her out of her book, and she kept her promise and gave it to him. 8. When once Alfred had learned to read, he liked reading so much that all his life long he gave as much time as he could to books. Like Bede the monk, he wished others to know the books he liked best, so he translated some of his favourite books from the Latin language into English. And now that he was a king again he set up a great many schools. 9. King Alfred was the most busy man in his kingdom. He found it very difficult to get all his work done in the day, so he appointed a time for doing each thing, and made a rule always to do it at that time. He resolved to spend, each day, eight hours in sleeping and eating and drinking, eight hours in business, and eight in prayer and study. But there were no clocks in those days, so he had candles made which burnt an inch every twenty minutes, and by watching these candles he could tell how the time was going. At first he was troubled because the wind used to make his candles burn too fast; so he invented boxes of transparent horn to set his candles in and keep them out of the wind. Indeed, there was nothing at which King Alfred was not clever and persevering. 7. DUNSTAN (B. 925; D. 988). 1. After Alfred was dead, there came two great kings, his son Edward and his grandson Athelstan, who fought against the Danes, and subdued them. But the kings after Athelstan were weak, and terrible times came upon England. There were fresh wars and fierce battles, and at last the Danes conquered and ruled over all England. 2. But this was not just yet, for there was a wise man called Dunstan, who strove hard for many years to make the Danes and English live together as one people. Dunstan was born near Glastonbury in the same year that Athelstan became king. He was the son of a great lord who possessed lands and wealth. He was a very clever boy, very pleasant and lovable, and he had beautiful golden hair. The monks of Glastonbury taught him reading and writing, Latin and Greek, and many curious and beautiful arts besides. He became a skilful painter and carver; he was clever at working in metals, and he could play beautifully on the harp. 3. When Dunstan grew up, he made up his mind to become a monk, and live with his old teachers in the Abbey of Glastonbury. So he put on a serge gown, and shaved off his golden hair, and lived in a little cell with a stone floor, as Bede did. He went on painting and playing on the harp and working in metals as before; and he gave all his work to the decoration of the abbey church. But at last, when Edgar, the grandson of Alfred, came to be king, he made Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury. 4. Dunstan was now a very busy man, for he was the king's chief counsellor, and was answerable for the welfare of the whole kingdom; and he tried hard to make the Danes and English live peaceably together. 5. But King Edgar died, and left two young sons. Edward, who was thirteen, was the eldest, and Edgar had wished him to reign; but his mother had been dead many years, and his stepmother, the Queen Elfrida, was determined that her own son Ethelred should be king. So there was a dispute, and the Meeting of the Wise Men of England was called to choose between them. Dunstan had no doubt that Edward ought to be king; so when the assembly was gathered together, Dunstan took Edward by the hand and led him into the midst of it, and solemnly charged the nobles to elect him. They knew that he was right, and they obeyed him. 6. But when the Wise Men elected Edward, the queen hated him more than ever, and determined to kill him. Now one day Edward was hunting near to Corfe Castle, where Elfrida and Ethelred lived; he was tired and thirsty, and he thought, "I will go and rest at Corfe, where my stepmother Elfrida and my brother Ethelred are." So he rode up to the door of the castle, and Elfrida came out to meet him, and she kissed him. 7. Then Edward said, "I am very thirsty; give me something to drink." And Elfrida sent a servant to fetch a cup of wine; and while the king was drinking the wine she made a sign to the servant, and he stabbed him in the back. The king, feeling the wound, cried out, "I am murdered," and, thrusting his spurs in his horse's sides, rode away; but he was too much hurt to be able to keep in his saddle. He fell, and caught his foot in the stirrup, and the horse galloped away, dragging him along the road; and so he died. 8. And now Ethelred was king, and Archbishop Dunstan crowned him. But as he put the crown on the boy's head, he said to him, "Since thou hast got |