very apt to do at such times, in a very inconsiderate manner.  The herdsman’s farm produced very little food, and the inaccessibleness of its situation made it difficult to bring in supplies from without.  In fact, it was necessary, in one part of the approach to it, to use a boat, so that the place is generally called, in history, an island, though it was insulated mainly by swamps and morasses rather than by navigable waters.  There were, however, sluggish streams all around it, where Alfred’s men, when their stores were exhausted, went to fish, under the herdsman’s guidance, returning sometimes with a moderate fare, and sometimes with none.

The monks who describe this portion of Alfred’s life have recorded an incident as having occurred on the occasion of one of these fishing excursions, which, however, is certainly, in part, a fabrication, and may be wholly so.  It was in the winter.  The waters about the grounds were frozen up.  The provisions in the house were nearly exhausted, there being scarcely anything remaining.  The men went away with their fishing apparatus, and with their bows and arrows, in hopes of procuring some fish or fowl to replenish their stores.  Alfred was left alone, with only a single lady of his family, who is called in the account “Mother,” though it could not have been Alfred’s own mother, as she had been dead many years.  Alfred was sitting in the hut reading.  A beggar, who had by some means or other found his way in over the frozen morasses, came to the door, and asked for food.  Alfred, looking up from his book, asked the mother, whoever she was, to go and see what there was to give him.  She went to make examination, and presently returned, saying that there was nothing to give him.  There was only a single loaf of bread remaining, and that would not be half enough for their own wants that very night when the hunting party should return, if they should come back unsuccessful from their expedition.  Alfred hesitated a moment, and then ordered half the loaf to be given to the beggar.  He said, in justification of the act, that his trust was now in God, and that the power which once, with five loaves and two small fishes, fed abundantly three thousand men, could easily make half a loaf suffice for them.

The loaf was accordingly divided, the beggar was supplied, and, delighted with this unexpected relief, he went away.  Alfred turned his attention again to his reading.  After a time the book dropped from his hand.  He had fallen asleep.  He dreamed that a certain saint appeared to him, and made a revelation to him from heaven.  God, he said, had heard his prayers, was satisfied with his penitence, and pitied his sorrows; and that his act of charity in relieving the poor beggar, even at the risk of leaving himself and his friends in utter destitution, was extremely acceptable in the sight of Heaven.  The faith and trust which he thus manifested were about to be rewarded.  The time for a change had come.  He was to be restored to his kingdom, and raised to a new and higher state of prosperity and power than before.  As a token that this prediction was true, and would be all fulfilled, the hunting party would return that night with an ample and abundant supply.