from England.  Their settlement was permanent.  The treaty of Wedmore confirmed them in their possessions.  Alfred by this treaty was acknowledged as undisputed master of England south of the Thames; of Wessex and Essex, including London, Hertford, and St. Albans; of the whole of Mercia west of Watling Street,—­the great road from London to Chester; but the Danes retained also one half of England, which shows how formidable they were, even in defeat.  The Danes and the Saxons, it would seem, commingled, and gradually became one nation.

The great Danish invasion of the ninth century was successful, since it gave half of England to the Pagans.  It is a sad thing to contemplate.  Civilization was doubtless retarded.  Whole districts were depopulated, and monasteries and churches were ruthlessly destroyed, with their libraries and works of art.  This could not have happened without a fearful demoralization among the Saxons themselves.  They had become prosperous, and their wealth was succeeded by vices, especially luxury and sloth.  Their wealth tempted the more needy of the adventurers from the North, who succeeded in their aggressions because they were stronger than the Saxons.  So slow was the progress of England in civilization.  As soon as it became centralized under a single monarch, it was subjected to fresh calamities.  It would seem that the history of those ages is simply the history of violence and spoliations.  There was the perpetual waste of human energies.  Barbarism seemed to be stronger than civilization.  Nor in this respect was the condition of England unique.  The same public misfortunes happened in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.  For five hundred years Europe was the scene of constant strife.  Not until the Normans settled in England were the waves of barbaric invasion arrested.

The Danish conquest made a profound impression on Alfred, and stimulated him to renewed efforts to preserve what still remained of Christian civilization.  His whole subsequent life was spent in actual war with the Northmen, or in preparations for war.  It was remarkable that he succeeded as well as he did, for after all he was the sovereign of scarcely half the territory that Egbert had won, and over which his grandfather and father had ruled.  He preserved Wessex; and in preserving Wessex he saved England, which would have been replunged in barbarism but for his perseverance, energy, and courage.  That Danish invasion was a chastisement not undeserved, for both the clergy and the laity had become corrupt, had been enervated by prosperity.  The clergy especially were lazy and ignorant; not one in a thousand could write a common letter of salutation.  They had fattened on the contributions of princes and of the credulous people; they saw the destruction of their richest and proudest abbeys, and their lands seized by Pagan barbarians, who settled down in them as lords of the soil, especially in Northumbria.  But Alfred at least arrested their further progress, and threw them on the defensive.  He knew that the recovery of the conquests which the Saxons had made was a work of exceeding difficulty.  It was necessary to make great preparations for future struggles, as peace with the Danes was only a truce.  They aimed at the complete conquest of the island, and they sought to rouse the hostility of the Welsh.