ve of their country and hatred of
the invaders and by humiliation at their previous defeat, fought with
such fury that the Danes began to give way. Then the Saxons pressed
them still more hotly, and the invaders presently lost heart and fled
in confusion, pursued in all directions by the exulting Saxons.

The Danish king Bergsecg and five jarls, the two Sidrocs, Osbearn,
Frene, and Hareld, were slain, and many thousands of their followers.
Great spoil of arms and armour fell into the hands of the victors.

Edmund had fought bravely in the battle at the head of his men. Egbert
had kept beside him, and twice, when the lad had been smitten to his
knees by the enemy, covered him with his shield and beat off the foe.

"You are over-young for such a fight as this, Edmund," he said when the
Danes had taken to flight. "You will need another four or five years
over your head before you can stand in battle against these fierce
Northmen. They break down your guard by sheer weight; but you bore
yourself gallantly, and I doubt not will yet be as famous a warrior as
was your brave father."

Edmund did not join in the pursuit, being too much bruised and
exhausted to do so; but Egbert with the men of Sherborne followed the
flying Danes until nightfall.

"You have done well, my young ealdorman," Prince Alfred said to the lad
after the battle. "I have been wishing much that you could be with me
during the past month, but I heard that you were building a strong fort
and deemed it better to let you continue your work undisturbed. When it
is finished I trust that I shall have you often near me; but I fear
that for a time we shall have but little space for peaceful pursuits,
for the Danes are coming, as I hear, in great troops westward, and we
shall have many battles to fight ere we clear the land of the them."

In those days a defeat, however severe, had not the same decisive
effect as it has in modern warfare. There were no cannons to lose, no
great stores to fall into the hands of the victors. The army was simply
dispersed, and its component parts reassembled in the course of a day
or two, ready, when reinforcements arrived, to renew the fight. Thus,
decisive as was the victory of Ashdown, Prince Alfred saw that many
such victories must be won, and a prolonged and exhausting struggle
carried on before the tide of invasion would be finally hurled back
from Wessex. The next few days were spent in making a fair distribution
of the spoi