107
was no ford, and thence down the Colne to a certain island (Mersey or Bricklesey). The King's troops[1] remained encamped round about them as long as they had provisions, for their time of service was limited, and their meat proportioned thereto. And the King being on his march thither with the shire that served under him, the other troops departed home, and the Danes remained in the same place, because their King had been wounded in the battle, and they could not remove him. Then the Danes who were settled in Northumberland and East Anglia gathered together about an hundred ships, with which they sailed round by the south: and some forty ships besides which sailed round by the north, and besieged a fortress on the northern coast of Devonshire. And those who had sailed by the south besieged Exeter. When the King heard this, he turned westward with all his forces, excepting a detachment of troops who were to watch the enemy in the east. These troops went forward until they came to London, and then, with the citizens and the aids which joined them from the west, they marched eastward to Benfleet: Hastings had
- ↑ It seems that Alfred had left part of his troops to watch the Danes in Essex, and had gone himself in another direction.
