ient indication of their
intentions--within easy reach of Winchester itself; and there "they fed
from all the West Saxons' land." AEthelred was alarmed, and sent to Olaf,
who consented to meet him at Andover. There the king received him "with
great worship," and gifted him with kinglike gifts, and sent him away
with a promise never again to attack England. Olaf kept his word, and
returned no more. But still Swegen remained, and went on pillaging
Devonshire and Cornwall, wending into Tamar mouth as far as Lidford,
where his men "burnt and slew all that they found." Thence they betook
themselves to the Frome, and so up into Dorset, and again to Wight. In
999, on the eve of doomsday as men then thought, they sailed up Thames
and Medway, and attacked Rochester. The men of Kent stoutly fought them,
but, as usual, without assistance from other shires; and the Danes took
horses, and rode over the land, almost ruining all the West Kentings.
The king and his witan resolved to send against them a land fyrd and a
ship fyrd or raw levy. But the spirit of the West Saxons was broken, and
though the craft were gathered together, yet in the end, as the
Chronicle plaintively puts it, "neither ship fyrd nor land fyrd wrought
anything save toil for the folk, and the emboldening of their foes."

[1] See Mr. York-Powell's "Scandinavian Britain."

So, year after year, the endless invasion dragged on its course, and
everywhere each shire of Wessex fought for itself against such enemies
as happened to attack it. At last, in the year 1002, AEthelred once more
bought off the fleet, this time with 24,000 pounds; and some of the
Danes obtained leave to settle down in Wessex. But on St. Brice's day,
the king treacherously gave orders that all Danes in the immediate
English territory should be massacred. The West Saxons rose on the
appointed night, and slew every one of them, including Gunhild, the
sister of King Swegen, and a Christian convert. It was a foolhardy
attempt. Swegen fell at once upon Wessex, and marched up and down the
whole country, for two years. He burnt Wilton and Sarum, and then sailed
round to Norwich, where Ulfkytel, of East Anglia, gave him "the hardest
hand-play" that he had ever known in England. A year of famine
intervened; but in 1006 Swegen returned again, harrying and burning
Sandwich. All autumn the West Saxon fyrd waited for the enemy, but in
the end "it came to naught more than it had oft erst done." The host
took up