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Then they departed again from North Wales with their plunder, and they passed through Northumberland and East Anglia, and the King's army could not overtake them before they had reached the eastern part of Essex, and had come to an island in the sea which is called Mersey.—And the division which had besieged Exeter, on their return homewards invaded the South Saxons near Chichester, but the townsmen put them to flight, and slew many hundreds of them, and took some of their ships. The same year, before winter, the Danes who were quartered in Mersey towed their ships up the Thames, and thence up the Lea. This was about two years from the time that they came hither from beyond the sea.
896.
This year the aforesaid army built a fortress on the Lea, 20 miles above London. Then in the summer, many of the citizens with others went forth and attacked this fortress of the Danes, but they were driven back, and some four of the King's Thanes were slain there. During the following harvest, the King encamped in the neighbourhood of the city while the people reaped their corn, that the Danes might not annoy them. One day the King was riding by the river's side,
