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there, and drove many of the inhabitants over sea, and they rode forth against most of those who remained, until all had submitted to them excepting King Alfred, and he with a small party hardly escaped into the woods and the hill fastnesses. The same winter the brother of Inwær and Healfden came with 23 ships to Devonshire in Wessex, and he was slain there, and 840 men with him; and the sacred standard, which they called the raven, was taken. And at Easter King Alfred, with his small band, raised a fortress at Æthelinga-igge (Athelney) and thence he made sallies upon the army, together with the men of Somerset who were nearest to him.—Then in the seventh week after Easter he rode to Ecgbyrhtes-stan (Brixton) east of Selwood, and there all the men of Somerset and Wiltshire and Hampshire, all who were on this side the sea, met him, and were rejoiced to see him. And after one night he went from that village to Iglea (Leigh), and thence again after another night to Æthan-dun (Edindon), and there he fought with the whole army, and he put the Danes to flight, and pursued them as far as their fortress, and he remained there a fortnight. And then the army gave him hostages, with solemn oaths that they would depart from his kingdom, and they
