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09 - King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbott · King Alfred of England

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight of King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbot.
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  Speaker 1: This is LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or a volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Ryan Cherrick. King Alfred of
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  Speaker 1: England by Jacob Abbot, Chapter eight, The Seclusion. Notwithstanding the
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  Speaker 1: tide of disaster and calamity which seemed to be gradually
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  Speaker 1: overwhelming Alfred's kingdom, he was not reduced to absolute despair,
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  Speaker 1: but continued for a long time the almost hopeless struggle.
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  Speaker 1: There is a certain desperation to which men are often
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  Speaker 1: aroused in the last extremity, which surpasses courage, and is
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  Speaker 1: even sometimes a very effectual substitute for strength. And Alfred
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  Speaker 1: might perhaps have succeeded, after all, in saving his affairs
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  Speaker 1: from utter ruin, had not a new circumstance intervened which
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  Speaker 1: seemed at once to extinguish all remaining hope and to
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  Speaker 1: seal his doom. This circumstance was the arrival of a
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  Speaker 1: new band of Danes, who were, it seems, more numerous,
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  Speaker 1: more ferocious, and more insatiable than any who had come
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  Speaker 1: before them. The other kingdoms of the Saxons had been
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  Speaker 1: already pretty effectually plundered. Alfred's Kingdom of Wessex was now
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  Speaker 1: therefore the most inviting field, and after various excursions of
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  Speaker 1: conquest and plunder in other parts of the island, they
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  Speaker 1: came like an inundation over Alfred's frontiers, and all hope
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  Speaker 1: of resisting them seems to have been immediately abandoned. The
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  Speaker 1: Saxon armies were broken up, Alfred had lost, it appears,
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  Speaker 1: all influence and control over both leaders and men. The
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  Speaker 1: chieftains and nobles fled, some left the country altogether. Others
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  Speaker 1: hid themselves in the best retreats and fastnesses that they
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  Speaker 1: could find. Alfred himself was obliged to follow the general example.
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  Speaker 1: A few attendants, either more faithful than the rest, or
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  Speaker 1: else more distrustful of their own resources and inclined accordingly
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  Speaker 1: to seek their own personal safety by adhering closely to
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  Speaker 1: their sovereign, followed him. These, however, one after another gradually
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  Speaker 1: forsook him, and finally the fallen and deserted monarch was
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  Speaker 1: left alone. In fact, it was a relief to him
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  Speaker 1: at last to be left alone, for they who remained
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  Speaker 1: around him became in the end a burden instead of
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  Speaker 1: affording in protection. They were too few to fight and
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  Speaker 1: too many to be easily concealed. Alfred withdrew himself from them,
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  Speaker 1: thinking that under the circumstances in which he was now placed,
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  Speaker 1: he was justified in seeking his own personal safety alone.
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  Speaker 1: He had a wife, whom he married when he was
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  Speaker 1: about twenty years old, but she was not with him now,
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  Speaker 1: though she afterward joined him, she was in some other
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  Speaker 1: place of retreat. She could, in fact be much more
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  Speaker 1: easily concealed than her husband. For the Danes, though they
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  Speaker 1: would undoubtedly have valued her very highly as a captive,
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  Speaker 1: would not search for her with the eager and persevering
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  Speaker 1: vigilance with which it was to be expected they would
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  Speaker 1: hunt for their most formidable, but now discomfited and fugitive foe. Alfred, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: after disentangling himself from all but one or two trustworthy
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  Speaker 1: and faithful friends, wandered on towards the west, through forests
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  Speaker 1: and solitudes and wilds, to get as far away as
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  Speaker 1: possible from the enemies who were upon his track. He
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  Speaker 1: arrived at last on the remote western frontiers of the kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: at a place whose name has been immortalized by its
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  Speaker 1: having been for some time the place of his retreat.
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  Speaker 1: It was called Athlone. Athlone was, however, scarcely deserving of
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  Speaker 1: a name, for it was nothing but a small spot
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  Speaker 1: of dry land in the midst of a morass, which,
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  Speaker 1: as grass would grow upon it. In the openings among
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  Speaker 1: the trees, a simple cowherd had taken possession of and
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  Speaker 1: built his hut there. The solid land which the cowherd
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  Speaker 1: called his farm was only about two acres in extent.
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  Speaker 1: All around it was a black morass of great extent,
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  Speaker 1: wooded with alders, among which the green sedges grew, and
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  Speaker 1: sluggish streams meandered, and mossy tracts of verdure spread treacherously
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  Speaker 1: over deep bogs and sloths. In the driest season of
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  Speaker 1: the summer, the goats and the sheep penetrated into these recesses.
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  Speaker 1: But excepting in the devious and tortuous path by which
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  Speaker 1: the cowherd found his way to his island, it was
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  Speaker 1: almost impassable. For man Alfred, however, attracted now by the
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  Speaker 1: impediments and obstacles which would have repelled a wanderer under
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  Speaker 1: any other circumstances, went on with the greater alacrity, the
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  Speaker 1: more intricate and entangled the thickets of the morass were found.
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  Speaker 1: Since these difficulties promised to appeede or deter pursuit, he
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  Speaker 1: found his way into the cowherd's hut. He asked for shelter.
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  Speaker 1: People who live in solitudes are always hospitable. The cowherd
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  Speaker 1: took the wayward fugitive in and gave him food and shelter.
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  Speaker 1: Alfred remained his guest for a considerable time. The story
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  Speaker 1: is that after a few days, the cowherd asked him
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  Speaker 1: who he was and how he came to be wandering
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  Speaker 1: about in that distressed and destitute condition. Alfred told him
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  Speaker 1: that he was one of the king's feigns, a fane,
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  Speaker 1: was a sort of chieftain in the Saxon state. He
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  Speaker 1: accounted for his condition by saying that Alfred's army had
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  Speaker 1: been beaten by the Danes, and that he, with the
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  Speaker 1: other generals, had been forced to fly. He begged the
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  Speaker 1: cowherd to conceal him and to keep the secret of
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  Speaker 1: his character until time should change, so that he could
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  Speaker 1: take the field again. The story of Alfred's seclusion on
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  Speaker 1: the island as it might almost be called of Ethelney,
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  Speaker 1: is told very differently by the different narrators of it.
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  Speaker 1: Some of these narrations are inconsistent and contradictory. They all combine, however,
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  Speaker 1: though they differ in respect to many other incidents and details.
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  Speaker 1: In relating the far famed story of Alfred's leaving the
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  Speaker 1: cakes to burn. It seems that though the cowherd himself
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  Speaker 1: was allowed to regard Alfred as a man of rank
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  Speaker 1: in disguise, even though he did not know that it
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  Speaker 1: was the king, his wife was not admitted, even in
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  Speaker 1: this partial way, into the secret. She was made to
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  Speaker 1: consider the stranger as some common strolling countrymen, and the
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  Speaker 1: better to sustain this idea, he was taken into the
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  Speaker 1: cowherd service and employed in various ways from time to
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  Speaker 1: time in labours about the house and farm. Alfred's thoughts, however,
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  Speaker 1: were little interested in these occupations. His mind dwelt incessantly
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  Speaker 1: upon his misfortunes and the calamities which had befallen his kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: He was harassed by continual suspense and anxiety, not being
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  Speaker 1: able to gain any clear or certain intelligence about the
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  Speaker 1: condition and movements of either his friends or foes. He
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  Speaker 1: was revolving continually vague and half formed plans for resuming
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  Speaker 1: the command of his army, and attempting to regain his kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: and wearying himself with fruitless attempts to devise means to
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  Speaker 1: accomplish these ends. Whenever he engaged voluntarily in any occupation,
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  Speaker 1: it would always be something in harmony with these trains
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  Speaker 1: of thought, and these plans. He would repair and put
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  Speaker 1: in order. Implements of hunting, or anything else which might
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  Speaker 1: be deemed to have some relation to war. He would
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  Speaker 1: make bows and arrows in the chimney corner, lost all
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  Speaker 1: the time in melancholy reveries, or in wild and visionary
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  Speaker 1: schemes of future exploits. One evening, while he was thus
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  Speaker 1: at work, the cowherd's wife left for a few moments
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  Speaker 1: some cakes under his charge, which she was baking upon
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  Speaker 1: the great Stone hearth in preparation for their common supper. Alfred,
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  Speaker 1: as might have been expected, let the cakes burn. The woman,
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  Speaker 1: when he came back and found them smoking, was very angry.
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  Speaker 1: She told him that he could eat the cakes fast
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  Speaker 1: enough when they were baked, though it seemed he was
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  Speaker 1: too lazy and good for nothing to do the least
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  Speaker 1: thing in helping to bake them. But widespread and lasting
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  Speaker 1: effects result, sometimes from the most trifling and inadequate causes.
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  Speaker 1: The singularity of such an adventure befalling a monarch in disguise,
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  Speaker 1: and the terse antithesis of the reproaches with which the
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  Speaker 1: woman rebuked him invest this incident with an interest which
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  Speaker 1: carries it everywhere spontaneously among mankind. Millions within the last
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  Speaker 1: thousand years have heard the name of Alfred, who have
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  Speaker 1: known no more of him than this story, and millions
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  Speaker 1: more who never would have heard of him but for
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  Speaker 1: this story, have been led by it to study the
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  Speaker 1: whole history of his life, so that the unconscious cowherd's wife,
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  Speaker 1: in scolding the disguised monarch for forgetting her cakes, was
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  Speaker 1: perhaps doing more than he ever did himself, for the
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  Speaker 1: wide extension of his future fame. Alfred was for a
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  Speaker 1: time extremely depressed and disheartened by the sense of his
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  Speaker 1: misfortunes and calamities. But the Monkish writers who described his
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  Speaker 1: character and his life say that the influence of his
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  Speaker 1: sufferings was extremely salutary in softening his disposition and improving
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  Speaker 1: his character. He had been proud and haughty and domineering
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  Speaker 1: before he became humble, docile, and considerate. Now, faults of
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  Speaker 1: character that are superficial resulting from the force of circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: and peculiarities of temptation, innate depravity of heart, are easily
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  Speaker 1: and readily burned off in the fire of affliction, while
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  Speaker 1: the same severe ordeal seems only to indurate the most
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  Speaker 1: hopelessly those propensities which lie deeply seated in an inherent
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  Speaker 1: and radical perversity. Alfred, though restless and wretched in his
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  Speaker 1: apparently hopeless seclusion, bore his privations with great degree of
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  Speaker 1: patience and fortitude, planning all the time the best means
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  Speaker 1: of reorganizing his scattered forces and of rescuing his country
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  Speaker 1: from the ruin into which it had fallen. Some of
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  Speaker 1: his former friends, roaming as he himself had done as
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  Speaker 1: fugitives around the country, happened at length they come into
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  Speaker 1: the neighborhood of his retreat. He heard of them and
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  Speaker 1: cautiously made himself known. They were rejoiced to find their
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  Speaker 1: old commander once more, and as there was no force
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  Speaker 1: of the Danes in that neighborhood at the time, they
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  Speaker 1: lingered timidly and fearlessly at first in the vicinity, until
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  Speaker 1: at length, growing more bold, as they found themselves unmolested
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  Speaker 1: in their retreat, they began to make it their gathering
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  Speaker 1: place and the headquarters. Alfred threw off his disguise and
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  Speaker 1: assumed his true character. Tidings of his having been thus discovered,
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  Speaker 1: spread confidentially among the most tried and faithful of his
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  Speaker 1: Saxon followers, who had themselves been seeking safety in other
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  Speaker 1: places of refuge. They began, at first cautiously and by stealth,
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  Speaker 1: but afterward more openly, to repair to the spot. Alfred's family, too,
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  Speaker 1: from which he had now been for many months entirely separated,
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  Speaker 1: contrived to rejoin him. The herdsmen, who proved to be
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  Speaker 1: a man of intelligence and character superior to his station,
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  Speaker 1: entered heartily into all these movements. He kept the secret faithfully.
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  Speaker 1: He did all his power to provide for the wants
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  Speaker 1: and to promote the comfort of his warlike guests, And
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  Speaker 1: by his fidelity and devotion, laid Alfred under obligations of
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  Speaker 1: gratitude to him, which the king, when he was afterward
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  Speaker 1: restored to the throne, did not forget to repay, notwithstanding However,
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  Speaker 1: all the efforts which the herdsmen made to obtain supplies
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  Speaker 1: the company now assembled at Ethelny where sometimes reduced to
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  Speaker 1: great straits. There were not only the wants of Alfred
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  Speaker 1: and his immediate family and attendance to be provided for,
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  Speaker 1: but many persons were continually coming and going, arriving often
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  Speaker 1: at unexpected times, and acting as roving and disorganized bodies
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  Speaker 1: of soldiers are very apt to do in such times
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  Speaker 1: in a very inconsiderate manner. The herdsman's farm produced very
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  Speaker 1: little food, and the inaccessibilities of the situation made it
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  Speaker 1: difficult to bring in supplies from without. In fact, it
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  Speaker 1: was necessary in one part of the approach to it
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  Speaker 1: to use a boat, so that the place is generally
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  Speaker 1: called in history an island, though it was insulated mainly
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  Speaker 1: by swamps and morasses rather than by navigable waters. There were, however,
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  Speaker 1: sluggish streams all around it, where Alfred's men, when their
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  Speaker 1: stores were exhausted, went to fish under the herdsman's guidance,
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  Speaker 1: returning sometimes with a moderate affair and sometimes with none.
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  Speaker 1: The monks who described this portion of Alfred's life have
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  Speaker 1: recorded an incident as having occurred on the occasion of
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  Speaker 1: one of these fishing excursions, which, however, is certainly in
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  Speaker 1: part of fabrication, and may be wholly so. It was
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  Speaker 1: in the winter, the waters about the grounds were frozen up,
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  Speaker 1: the provisions in the house were nearly exhausted, there being
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  Speaker 1: scarcely anything remaining. The men went away with their fishing
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  Speaker 1: apparatuses and with their bows and arrows, in hopes of
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  Speaker 1: procuring some fish or fowl to replenish their stores. Alfred
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  Speaker 1: was left alone with only a single lady of his family,
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  Speaker 1: who was called in the account mother, though it could
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  Speaker 1: not have been Alfred's own mother, as she had been
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  Speaker 1: dead many years. Alfred was sitting in the hut reading
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  Speaker 1: a beggar, who had by some means or other found
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  Speaker 1: his way in over the frozen morasses, came to the
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  Speaker 1: door and asked for food. Alfred, looking up from his book,
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  Speaker 1: asked the mother, whoever she was, to go and see
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  Speaker 1: what there was to give him. She went to make
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  Speaker 1: an examination, and presently returned, saying that there was nothing
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  Speaker 1: to give him. There was only a single loaf of
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  Speaker 1: bread remaining, and that would not be half enough for
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  Speaker 1: their road wants. That very night, when the hunting party
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  Speaker 1: should return. If they should come back unsuccessful from their expedition,
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  Speaker 1: Alfred hesitated a moment, and then ordered half the loaf
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  Speaker 1: to be given to the beggar. He said, in justification
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  Speaker 1: of the act, that this trust was now in God,
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  Speaker 1: and that the power which once, with five loaves and
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  Speaker 1: two small fishes fed abundantly three thousand men, could easily
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  Speaker 1: make half a loaf so fies for them. The loaf
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  Speaker 1: was accordingly divided. The beggar was supplied, and delighted with
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  Speaker 1: this unexpected relief, he went away. Alfred turned his attention
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  Speaker 1: again to the reading. After a time, the book dropped
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  Speaker 1: from his hand. He had fallen asleep. He dreamed that
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  Speaker 1: a certain saint appeared to him and made a revelation
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  Speaker 1: to him from heaven. God said he heard his prayers,
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  Speaker 1: was satisfied with his penitence and pitied his sorrows, and
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  Speaker 1: that his act of charity in relieving the poor beggar,
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  Speaker 1: even at the risk of leaving himself and his friends
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  Speaker 1: in utter destitution, was extremely acceptable in the sight of Heaven.
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  Speaker 1: The faith and trust which he thus manifested were about
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  Speaker 1: to be rewarded. The time for a change had come.
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  Speaker 1: He was to be restored to his kingdom and raised
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  Speaker 1: to a new and higher state of prosperity and power
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  Speaker 1: than before. As a token that this prediction was true
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  Speaker 1: and would be all fulfilled, the hunting party would return
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  Speaker 1: that night with an ample and abundant supply. Alfred awoke
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  Speaker 1: from his sleep with his mind filled with new hopes
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  Speaker 1: and anticipations. The hunting party returned loaded with supplies and
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  Speaker 1: in a state of the greatest exhilaration of their success.
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  Speaker 1: They had fish and game enough to have supplied a
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  Speaker 1: little army. The incident of relieving the beggar the dream,
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  Speaker 1: and their unwonted success confirming it, inspired them all with
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  Speaker 1: confidence and hope. They began to form plans for commencing
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  Speaker 1: offensive operations. They would build fortifications to strengthen their position
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  Speaker 1: on the island. They would collect a force. They would
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  Speaker 1: make sallies to attack the smaller parties of the Danes.
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  Speaker 1: They would send agents and emissaries about the kingdom to
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  Speaker 1: arouse and encourage and assemble such Saxon forces as were
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  Speaker 1: yet to be found. In a word, they would commence
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  Speaker 1: a series of measures for recovering the country from the
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  Speaker 1: possession of its pestilent enemy, and for restoring the rightful
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  Speaker 1: sovereign to the throne. The development of these projects and plans,
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  Speaker 1: and the measures for carrying them into effect, were very
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  Speaker 1: much hastened by an event which suddenly occurred in the
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood of Ethelny, the account of which, however, must be
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  Speaker 1: postponed to the next chapter. End of Chapter eight, recording
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  Speaker 1: by Ryan Scherrick