who will again have filled
up their ranks, and be as numerous as ever. So long as we continue to
fight, so long the Danes will slay, burn, and destroy wheresoever they
march, until there will remain of us but a few fugitives hidden in the
woods. We should be far better off did we cease to resist, and the
Danes become our masters, as they have become the masters of
Northumbria, Mercia, and Anglia.

"There, it is true, they have plundered the churches and thanes' houses
and have stolen all that is worth carrying away; but when they have
taken all that there is to take they leave the people alone, and
unmolested, to till the ground and to gain their livelihood. They do
not slay for the pleasure of slaying, and grievous as is the condition
of the Angles they and their wives and children are free from massacre
and are allowed to gain their livings. The West Saxons have showed that
they are no cowards; they have defeated the Northmen over and over
again when far outnumbering them. It is no dishonour to yield now when
all the rest of England has yielded, and when further fighting will
only bring ruin upon ourselves, our wives, and children."

Edmund could find no reply to this argument. He knew that even the king
despaired of ultimately resisting the Danish invasion, and after
listening to all that the thanes had to say he retired with Egbert
apart.

"What say you, Egbert? There is reason in the arguments that they use.
You and I have neither wives nor children, and we risk only our own
lives; but I can well understand that those who have so much to lose
are chary of further effort. What say you?"

"I do not think it will be fair to press them further," Egbert
answered; "but methinks that we might raise a band consisting of all
the youths and unmarried men in the earldom. These we might train
carefully and keep always together, seeing that the lands will still be
cultivated and all able to pay their assessment, and may even add to
it, since you exempt them from service. Such a band we could train and
practise until we could rely upon them to defeat a far larger force of
the enemy, and they would be available for our crew when we take to the
ship."

"I think the idea is a very good one, Egbert; we will propose it to the
thanes." The proposition was accordingly made that all married men
should be exempt from service, but that the youths above the age of
sixteen and the unmarried men should be formed into a band and kept