those who have come down to Thetford. We have been among
the first sufferers, seeing that our lands lie round Thetford,
and hitherto I have hoped that there would be a general rising
against these invaders; but the king is indolent and unwarlike,
and I see that he will not arouse himself and call
his ealdormen and thanes together for a united effort until it
is too late. Already from the north the Danes are flocking
down into Mercia, and although the advent of the West Saxons
to the aid of the King of Mercia forced them to retreat
for a while, I doubt not that they will soon pour down again."

"'Tis a pity, father, that the Saxons are not all under one
leading; then we might surely defend England against the
Danes. If the people did but rise and fall upon each band of
Northmen as they arrived they would get no footing among us."

"Yes," the father replied, "it is the unhappy divisions
between the Saxon kingdoms which have enabled the Danes
to get so firm a footing in the land. Our only hope now lies
in the West Saxons. Until lately they were at feud with Mercia;
but the royal families are now related by marriage, seeing
that the King of Mercia is wedded to a West Saxon princess,
and that Alfred, the West Saxon king's brother and heir to
the throne, has lately espoused one of the royal blood of
Mercia. The fact that they marched at the call of the King of
Mercia and drove the Danes from Nottingham shows that
the West Saxon princes are alive to the common danger of
the country, and if they are but joined heartily by our people
of East Anglia and the Mercians, they may yet succeed in
checking the progress of these heathen. And now, Edmund,