After repeated defeats Alfred finally drove back these savage hordes, who thought it a shame to earn by sweat what they could win by blood.

In these attacks Alfred led one half the army and his brother Ethelred led the other.  They met the Danes at Ashdown Ridge in Berkshire.  (See map facing p. 32.) While Ethelred stopped to pray for success, Alfred, under the banner of the “White Horse,”—­the common standard of the English at that time,—­began the attack and won the day.

Tradition declares that after the victory he ordered his army to commemorate their triumph by carving that colossal figure of a horse on the side of a neighboring chalk hill, which still remains so conspicuous an object in the landscape.  It was shortly after this that Alfred became “King of the West Saxons”; but the war, far from being ended, had in fact but just begun.

55.  The Danes compel Alfred to retreat.

The Danes, reenforced by other invaders, overcame Alfred’s forces and compelled him to retreat.  He fled to the wilds of Somersetshite, and was glad to take up his abode for a time, so the story runs, in a peasant’s hut.  Subsequently he succeeded in rallying part of his people, and built a stronghold on a piece of rising ground, in the midst of an almost impassable morass.  There he remained during the winter.

56.  Alfred’s Great Victory; Treaty of Wedmore, 878.

In the spring Alfred marched forth and again attacked the Danes.  They were intrenched in a camp at Edington, Wiltshire.  He surrounded them, and starved them into complete submission.  They had to confess that Alfred’s muscular Christians were more than a match for the most stalwart heathen.  The Danish leader swore to maintain a peace, called the Peace or Treaty of Wedmore. (See maps facing p. 32 and p. 38.) More than this, the discomfited warrior sealed the oath with his baptism,—­an admission that Alfred had not only beaten him but converted him as well.

By the Treaty of Wedmore, 878, the Danes bound themselves to remain north and east of a line drawn from London to Chester, following the old Roman road called Watling Street.  All south of this line, including a district around London, was recognized as the dominions of Alfred, whose chief city, or capital, was Winchester. (See map facing p. 32.)

By this treaty the Danes got much the larger part of England (called the Danelaw), but they acknowledged Alfred as their Overlord.  He thus became, in name at least, what his predecessor, Egbert (S49), had claimed to be,—­supreme ruler of the whole country, though the highest title he ever assumed was “King of the Saxons or English.”

57.  Alfred’s Laws; his Translations.

Alfred proved himself to be more than mere ruler, for he was also a lawgiver and teacher as well.  Through his efforts a written code was compiled, prefaced by the Ten Commandments and ending with the Golden Rule.  Referring to this introduction, Alfred said, “He who keeps this shall not need any other law book.”