bowl, at their rude festivals.

But toward the end of a century following the victories of Alfred the
Danes again threatened an invasion, and in 981-991 they made several
landings, in the latter year overrunning much territory. King Ethelred
[the "Unready"] procured their departure by bribery, which led the Danes
to repeat their visit the next year, following it up by a descent in
force under King Sweyn of Denmark and Olaf of Norway. They defeated the
English in battle and ravaged a great part of the country, exacting as
before ruinous contributions from the already impoverished people. After
the siege and taking of London, 1011-1013, the flight of the cowardly
Ethelred to the court of Normandy, the sudden death of Sweyn, who had
been but a few months before proclaimed King of England, and the return
of Ethelred to his throne, Canute, the son of Sweyn, claimed the crown
and ravaged the land in the manner and custom of his race. The
complications and strife engendered by the rival claims of the Dane and
Edmund ["Ironside"], son of Ethelred, and which ended in the triumph of
Canute and the complete subjugation of England, are hereinafter narrated
by Hume, the English historian.)

The Danes had been established during a longer period in England than in
France; and though the similarity of their original language to that of
the Saxons invited them to a more early coalition with the natives, they
had hitherto found so little example of civilized manners among the
English that they retained all their ancient ferocity, and valued
themselves only on their national character of military bravery. The
recent as well as more ancient achievements of their countrymen tended
to support this idea; and the English princes, particularly Athelstan
and Edgar, sensible of that superiority, had been accustomed to keep in
pay bodies of Danish troops, who were quartered about the country and
committed many violences upon the inhabitants. These mercenaries had
attained to such a height of luxury, according to the old English
writers, that they combed their hair once a day, bathed themselves once
a week, changed their clothes frequently; and by all these arts of
effeminacy, as well as by their military character, had rendered
themselves so agreeable to the fair sex that they debauched the wives
and daughters of the English and dishonored many families. But what most
provoked the inhabitants was that, instead of defending them against
invaders