se an army, but the people
did not respond to his call. In addition to the battles which have been
spoken of several others had been fought in different parts of Wessex
by the ealdormen and their followers against bodies of invading Danes.
In the space of one year the Saxons had engaged in eight pitched
battles and in many skirmishes. Great numbers had been slain on both
sides, but the Danes ever received fresh accessions of strength, and
seemed to grow stronger and more numerous after every battle, while the
Saxons were dwindling rapidly. Wide tracts of country had been
devastated, the men slaughtered, and the women and children taken
captives, and the people, utterly dispirited and depressed, no longer
listened to the voices of their leaders, and refused again to peril
their lives in a strife which seemed hopeless. Alfred therefore called
his ealdormen together and proposed to them, that since the people
would no longer fight, the sole means that remained to escape
destruction was to offer to buy off the Danes.

The proposal was agreed to, for although none of them had any hope that
the Danes would long keep any treaty they might make, yet even a little
respite might give heart and spirit to the Saxons again. Accordingly
negotiations were entered into with the Danes, and these, in
consideration of a large money payment, agreed to retire from Wessex.
The money was paid, the Danes retired from Reading, which they had used
as their headquarters, and marched to London. King Burhred, the feeble
King of Mercia, could do nothing to oppose them, and he too agreed to
pay them a large annual tribute.

From the end of 872 till the autumn of 875 the country was
comparatively quiet. Alfred ruled it wisely, and tried to repair the
terrible damages the war had made. Edmund looked after his earldom, and
grew into a powerful young man of nineteen years old.

King Alfred had not deceived himself for a moment as to the future.
"The Danes," he said, "are still in England. East Anglia and
Northumbria swarm with them. Had this army, after being bought off by
us and my brother of Mercia, sailed across the seas and landed in
France there would have been some hope for us, but their restless
nature will not allow them to stay long in the parts which they have
conquered.

"In Anglia King Guthrum has divided the land among his jarls, and there
they seem disposed to settle down; but elsewhere they care not for the
land, preferring to leave i