A Hero King - A Romance of the Days of Alfred the Great

A Hero King. A Romance Of The Days Of Alfed The Great. CHAPTER I: A THOUSAND YEARS AGO east wind brought the locusts, and they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkenecl. Evne so the raven swept with its black wings across the mighty ocean, swooped down on the wliite cliffs and shingly beach of Saxon Anglia, darkening the land, and bringing in its wake the fierce Northmen, whose path was marked by pillage and slaughter. On through the fertile fields, over hill and dale, the pagans pressed, clevouriig the lalld women and children fled before the villages and honesteads were laid low, and still the hordes callie on, shadowed by the wings of that bird of ill-onien. And the people rose as one man, and the great earldomen and thanes gathered round their king and went fort to battle, like the Israelites of old against the heathen. Standing on the brow of a hill, the Saxon king, Ethelwulf looked down upon a vast forest of oaks, the plain of Aclea, and beheld, crowding along the Roman road which wound through the valley, the whole heathen army, laden with the spoils of the city of London and his soul waxed wroth within him. Men of Wessex, he said, turning to his army, shall we deliver our country over to the idolaters Were it not a sacrilege for the earth is the Lords. Gaze no longer at my golden dragon, but lift your eyes to the cross, for we war not against things visible, but against the worlis of darkness and the power of Satan. Forward, then, in the name of Christ and spurring his horse over the side of Leigh hill, followed by nobles and thanes, freemen and churls, King Ethelwulf dashed illto the inidst of his enemies, and routed them with a great slaughter. Menfell like corn in harvest-time in both those mighty hosts. So the Saxons triumphed, and the Northnleil were for a time driven out of the land. ...