From the thorough way in which they robbed, burned, and murdered,
there can be no doubt that they enjoyed their work of destruction. In
their helplessness and terror, the panic-stricken monks added to their
usual prayers, this fervent petition: "From the fury of the Northmen,
good Lord deliver us!" The power raised up to answer that
supplication was Alfred the Great.

54. Alfred's Victories over the Danes: the White Horse.

After repeated defeats Alfred finally drove back these savage hordes,
who thought it a shame to earn by sweat what they could win by blood.

In these attacks Alfred led one half the army and his brother Ethelred
led the other. They met the Danes at Ashdown Ridge in Berkshire.
(See map facing p. 32.) While Ethelred stopped to pray for success,
Alfred, under the banner of the "White Horse,"--the common standard of
the English at that time,--began the attack and won the day.

Tradition declares that after the victory he ordered his army to
commemorate their triumph by carving that colossal figure of a horse
on the side of a neighboring chalk hill, which still remains so
conspicuous an object in the landscape. It was shortly after this
that Alfred became "King of the West Saxons"; but the war, far from
being ended, had in fact but just begun.

55. The Danes compel Alfred to retreat.

The Danes, reenforced by other invaders, overcame Alfred's forces and
compelled him to retreat. He fled to the wilds of Somersetshite, and