m here; they tell a piteous story.

Ascension Tide, 1010.--

A sorrowful Ascension Tide indeed! They have landed in East Anglia. A
battle has been fought and lost. Nearly all the English leaders slain.

Whitsuntide.--

We can hardly keep the festival, the people are so excited by the
news; all Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (once more) are laid waste.
They are on the road to Bedford.

Edmund and Alfgar, with young Hermann, and all our fighting men, have
gone out on their own account against them.

July.--

The Danes elude all our troops. Edric persuades the king to go
eastward, and the Danes are westward. They go westward, and the Danes
are eastward. There is no chieftain. A witan is summoned; it will do
no good.

November.--

Northampton has fallen, cruelly fallen. The town is burned, and all
therein slain.

Edmund and Alfgar, with not more than half our men, have returned with
the news. Hermann is seriously wounded, but bears it bravely. He is
only sixteen now. There is mourning over all our fallen heroes; but
they have died so bravely. Edmund says they have slain far more than
twice their number of the marauders. Still his father will give him no
command. It is like private war so far as he is concerned; but many
fresh recruits have joined his standard, and will go out with him in
spring.

March 1011.--

The king and witan have again offered tribute to the Danes; it is
accepted. I do not think the peace will last long.

Michaelmas, 1011.--

Woe is me! the Danes have broken the peace; and Canterbury, the chief
seat of English Christendom, whence came to us the blessed Gospel, is
taken and burnt. Elfmar, the abbot of St. Augustine's--O false
shepherd! O wolf in sheep's clothing! betrayed it. The archbishop is
prisoner. God and the blessed saints preserve him!

Easter, 1012.--

Another saint is added to the calendar; the Archbishop Elphege has
suffered martyrdom. On Easter eve they told him he must find ransom or
die. But he not only firmly refused to give money, but forbade his
impoverished people to do so on his account. Then, on the following
Saturday, they led him to their hustings (or assembly), and shamefully
slaughtered him, casting upon him bones and the horns of oxen. And
then one smote him with an axe iron on the head, and with the blow he
sank down. His holy blood fell on the earth, and his soul he sent
forth to God's kingdom.

On the morrow they allowed the body to be taken to Londo