CHAP. IX. His Conduct during his Seclusion. IX. 878. LET us now collect all that the most ancient CHAP. writers have transmitted to us of this afflictive crisis of Alfred's life. Their statements present us with all that was known or believed on this subject, by our ancestors who lived nearest to the times of our venerable king; and they are too interesting not to merit our careful preservation. THE period of Alfred's humiliation may be divided into four stages. 1st. What occurred between his leaving his throne and his reaching Athelney: 2d. The incidents which happened to him there before he began his active measures against the invaders: 3d. His exertions until he discovered himself again to his subjects: and 4th. The great battle which restored him to his kingdom. On each of these heads we will lay before the reader the circumstances which the best and most ancient authorities that we could explore have transmitted to us. On the first stage, the oldest authority that now remains is the Saxon life of St. Neot, written before the Conquest. He says of the king, that when the army approached "he was soon lost; he took flight, and left all his warriors, and his commanders, and all his people, his treasures and his treasure vessels, and preserved his life. He went hiding over hedges and ways, woods and wilds, till BOOK through the divine "guidance he came safe to the isle of Æthelney."1 IV. 878. THE life of St. Neot was first written in Alfred's time, and is quoted by his friend Asser. This primitive tract of Neot's biography is not now to be found; but we may reasonably suppose that the ancient lives of this saint which have survived to us were composed from it. THE next work in point of antiquity is the MS. Latin life of the same person in the Cotton Library, ascribed by the title of the MS. to an Abbot of Croyland in 1180. It says: "The king hearing that the rage and cruelty of the barbarians were rushing immediately upon him, and considering the dispersion of his people, began to fluctuate to and fro in his mind. At length yielding to his discreeter judgment, he retired from his enemies alone and unarmed, and exposed to be the sport of flight. As he was entirely ignorant whither he should turn himself, or where the necessity of his flight should impel him, he let fortune lead him, and came unexpectedly into a place surrounded on all sides with extensive marshes. This place was in the extreme boundary of England, on the borders of Britain, which, in their language, is called Ethelingaia, and in ours (Latin) means the royal island."3 THE fuller account of Matthew of Westminster 1 Tha re hene spa stichlic pæs, and sþa neh Englelande, he rone foppypht, fleamer cepte, hir cempen ealle foplet and hir hepetozen and eall hir theode, madmes and madmfaten and his life gebeaph. Fende tha lutigende zeond heges and þezer, zeond puder and pelder spa tha he thuph Godes pissunze gesund become to Echeling-eze. MSS. British Museum, Vespas. D. 14. 2 Ut in vita sancti patris Neoti legitur. Asser, p. 30. IX. seems to be taken chiefly from Ramsay's Life of CHAP. St. Neot, written within half a century after the preceding. "IN the extreme borders of the English people towards the west, there is a place called Æthelingeie, or the isle of the nobles. It is surrounded by marshes, and so inaccessible that no one can get to it but by a small vessel. It has a great wood of alders, which contains stags and goats, and many animals of that kind. Its solid earth is scarcely two acres in breadth. Alfred having left the few fellow-soldiers whom he had, that he might be concealed from his enemies, sought this place alone, where, seeing the hut of an unknown person, he turned to it, asked and received a shelter. For some days, he remained there as a guest and in poverty, and contented with the fewest necessaries. But the king, being asked who he was and what he sought in such a desert place, answered that he was one of the king's thegns, had been conquered with him in a battle, and flying from his enemies had reached that place. The herdsman believing his words, and moved with pity, carefully supplied him with the necessaries of life."4 878. adventures His first incident is thus described by his friend Alfred's Asser, with an allusion to a contemporary life of in EthelNeot not now extant. "He led an unquiet life there, at his cowherd's. It happened that on a certain day the rustic wife of this man prepared to bake her bread. The king, sitting then near the hearth, was making ready his bow and arrows, and other warlike instruments, when the ill-tempered woman beheld the loaves 4 Matt. West. p. 329, 330. ney. IV. 878. BOOK burning at the fire. She ran hastily and removed them, scolding the king, and exclaiming, You man! you will not turn the bread you see burning, but you will be very glad to eat it when done.' This unlucky woman little thought she was addressing the king, Alfred."5 THE same event is told in the Saxon life thus: "He took shelter in a swain's house, and also him and his evil wife diligently served. It happened that on one day the swain's wife heated her oven, and the king sat by it warming himself by the fire. She knew not then that he was the king. Then the evil woman was excited, and spoke to the king with an angry mind: Turn thou those loaves, that they burn not; for I see daily that thou art a great eater.' He soon obeyed this evil woman, because she would scold. He then, the good king, with great anxiety and sighing, called to his Lord imploring his pity."" 5 Asser, p. 30, 31. Although in the Cotton MSS. of Asser this passage is wanting, yet it was in Camden's ancient MSS., and the preceding words, " apud quandum suum vaccarium" are in the Cotton MS. Dr. Whitaker, in his usual hasty manner, boldly calls it an interpolation taken from Ramsay's Life of St. Neot, which he has printed. But Dr. W. did not know of the earlier life in the Claud. MS., nor of the still more ancient Saxon life, Vesp. D. 14., both of which contain the incident. Malmsbury also mentions the "in silvam profugus," and the subsequent education of the herdsman for the church, and his elevation to the see of Winchester, p. 242. 6 And on sumer гpaner hure hir hleop zepnde and eac гþýlce him and his yfele pife geopne hende. Pit zelamp sume deize tha thær spaner pif hætte hene open and re king thor big sæt hleoppinde hine beo than Fype. Than heo pen nyten the he king pepe. Tha peapth tha ýfele pir þæɲinze astýred and cpath to than kinge eoppe mode "Wend thu tha hlafer, tha heo ne foɲbeonnep: foppam ic zereo deizhamlice tha thu mycel æte eant." pe pær rone zeheprum than yfele pire. Foppan the heo nede scolde. De cha, pe gode king, mid mycelpe angrumnýrre and siccetunge to hir Drihten clypode, hir milbre biddende. MSS. Vesp. D. 14. THE Latin life gives a little more detail. ALFRED, a fugitive, and exiled from his people, came by chance and entered the house of a poor herdsman, and there remained some days concealed, poor and unknown. "It happened that on the Sabbath day, the herdsman as usual led his cattle to their accustomed pastures, and the king remained alone in the cottage with the man's wife. She, as necessity required, placed a few loaves, which some call loudas, on a pan with fire underneath, to be baked for her husband's repast and her own on his return. "WHILE she was necessarily busied like peasants on other affairs, she went anxious to the fire and ound the bread burning on the other side. She immediately assailed the king with reproaches: Why, man! do you sit thinking there, and are too proud to turn the bread? Whatever be your family, with such manners and sloth, what trust can be put in you hereafter? If you were even a nobleman, you will be glad to eat the bread which you neglect to attend to.' The king, though stung by her upbraidings, yet heard her with patience and mildness; and roused by her scolding, took care to bake her bread as she wished."7 MATTHEW of Westminster's statement of the same circumstance is to the same effect. "It happened that the herdsmar, one day, as usual, led his swine to their accustomed pasture, and the king remained at home alone with the wife. She placed her bread under the ashes of the fire to bake, and was employed in other business, when she saw the loaves burning, and said to the king in her rage, 'You will not turn the bread you see burning, though 7 MSS. Claud, A. 5. p. 157. СНАР. IX. 878. |