he first break of day. To make
the surprise most effectual, it was necessary that it should take
place in the night; but then, on the other hand, the success, if they
should be successful, would require, in order to be followed up with
advantage, the light of day. Odun chose, therefore, the earliest dawn
as the time for his attempt, as this was the only period which would
give him at first darkness for his surprise, and afterward light for
his victory. The time was well chosen, the arrangements were all
well made, and the result corresponded with the character of the
preparations. The sally was triumphantly successful.

The Danes, who were all, except their sentinels, sleeping quietly and
secure, were suddenly aroused by the unearthly and terrific yells with
which the Saxons burst into the lines of their encampment. They flew
to arms, but the shock of the onset produced a panic and confusion
which soon made their cause hopeless. Odun and his immediate followers
pressed directly forward into Hubba's tent, where they surprised the
commander, and massacred him on the spot. They seized, too, to their
inexpressible joy, the sacred banner, which was in Hubba's tent, and
bore it forth, rejoicing in it, not merely as a splendid trophy of
their victory, but as a loss to their enemies which fixed and sealed
their doom.

The Danes fled before their enemies in terror, and the consternation
which they felt, when they learned that their banner had been captured
and their leader slain, was soon changed into absolute despair. The
Saxons slew them without mercy, cutting down some as they were running
before them in their headlong flight, and transfixing others with
their spears and arrows as they lay upon the ground, trampled down by
the crowds and the confusion. There was no place of refuge to which
they could fly except to their ships. Those, therefore, that escaped
the weapons of their pursuers, fled in the direction of the water,
where the strong and the fortunate gained the boats and the galleys,
while the exhausted and the wounded were drowned. The fleet sailed
away from the coast, and the Saxons, on surveying the scene of the
terrible contest, estimated that there were twelve hundred dead bodies
lying in the field.

This victory, and especially the capture of the Raven, produced vast
effects on the minds both of the Saxons and of the Danes, animating
and encouraging the one, and depressing the other with superstitious
as well