e was work to hand on burnt hall and homestead, ruined
church, and wasted monastery. There was nought that men grieved
over more than the burning of King Ine's church at Glastonbury, for
that had been the pride of all the land. Once, after the Chippenham
flight, the monks had dared to go out in sad procession to meet the
fierce raiders at the long dike that bars the way to Avalon, and
for that time they had won safety for the place--maybe by the loss
of their treasures given as ransom, or, as some say, by the power
of fearless and unarmed men; for there were men in the Danish host
whose minds were noble, and might well be touched thereby. But
Hubba's men could not be withheld after they had lost their mighty
leader, and the place must feel their fury of revenge.

Now after the host was gone we went back to Taunton, and there
Alfred called together his Witan, that he might set all things in
order with their help; and at that time, before the levies were
dismissed, he bade me seek out such men as would take to the ships
as his paid seamen. Therein I had no hard task, for from the ruined
coast towns came seafarers, homeless and lonely, asking nought
better than to find a place in the king's fleet, and first of all
were the Parret-mouth men and my fisher of Wareham. Presently, with
one consent, the Witan made me leader of the king's Wessex sea
levies, offering me the rank and fee of an English ealdorman, with
power to demand help in the king's name from all sea-coast sheriffs
and port reeves in whatever was needed for the ships, being
answerable to the throne only for what I should do. And that I
accepted willingly for love of Alfred, who was my friend, and for
the sake of comradeship with those valiant men who had fought
beside me when Hubba fell, and at Edington.

Then must I set myself to my new charge, having nought to do with
all the inland work that was before the king; and when the next
day's business was over, I went to tell him of this wish of mine,
and of some other matters that were on my mind whereof one may
easily guess.

Alfred sat in his private chamber in the great house that King Ine
built, and on the table before him were a great ink horn and other
writing gear, and beside him sat on a low stool his chaplain,
reading to him out of a great book while the king wrote. The rough
horn cage wherein was a candle, that he had planned in wind-swept
Athelney, stood close at hand, against the time of dusk that wa