e sums which he had lent at
Athelney. As so many of his followers had also brought home money after
their voyage, the work of rebuilding and restoration went on rapidly,
and in a few months the marks left of the ravages by the Danes had been
well-nigh effaced.

Flocks and herds again grazed in the pastures, herds of swine roamed in
the woods, the fields were cultivated, and the houses rebuilt. In no
part of Wessex was prosperity so speedily re-established as in the
district round Sherborne governed by Edmund. The Dragon was thoroughly
overhauled and repaired, for none could say how soon fresh fleets of
the Northmen might make their appearance upon the southern shores of
England. It was not long, indeed, before the Northmen reappeared, a
great fleet sailing up the Thames at the beginning of the winter. It
ascended as high as Fulham, where a great camp was formed. Seeing that
the Saxons and East Anglians would unite against them did they advance
further, the Danes remained quietly in their encampment during the
winter, and in the spring again took ship and sailed for France.

For the next two years England enjoyed comparative quiet, the Danes
turning their attention to France and Holland, sailing up the Maas,
Scheldt, Somme, and Seine. Spreading from these rivers they carried
fire and sword over a great extent of country. The Franks resisted
bravely, and in two pitched battles defeated their invaders with great
loss. The struggle going on across the Channel was watched with great
interest by the Saxons, who at first hoped to see the Danes completely
crushed by the Franks.

The ease, however, with which the Northmen moved from point to point in
their ships gave them such immense advantage that their defeats at
Hasle and Saucourt in no way checked their depredations. Appearing
suddenly off the coast, or penetrating into the interior by a river,
their hordes would land, ravage the country, slay all who opposed them,
and carry off the women and children captives, and would then take to
their ships again before the leaders of the Franks could assemble an
army.

Alfred spent this time of repose in restoring as far as possible the
loss and damage which his kingdom had suffered. Many wise laws were
passed, churches were rebuilt, and order restored; great numbers of the
monks and wealthier people who had fled to France in the days of the
Danish supremacy now returned to England, which was for the time freer
from danger than t