THE INFLUX OF THE DANES: FACTS SHOWING CONCLUSIVELY THEIR INFLUENCE ON
THE BRITON OF TO-DAY.


And now, having led the eager student up to the year 827 A.D., let us
take him forward from the foundation of the English monarchy to the days
of William the Conqueror, 1066.

Egbert, one of the kings of Wessex, reigned practically over Roman
Britain when the country was invaded by the Northmen (Swedes,
Norwegians, and Danes), who treated the Anglo-Saxon as the Anglo-Saxon
had formerly treated the poor Briton.

These Northmen were rather coarse people, and even put the Anglo-Saxons
to the blush sometimes. They exercised vigorously, and thus their
appetites were sharp enough to cut a hair. They at first came in the
capacity of pirates,--sliding stealthily into isolated coast settlements
on Saturday evening and eating up the Sunday victuals, capturing the
girls of the Bible-class and sailing away. But later they came as
conquerors, and boarded with the peasantry permanently.

Egbert formed an alliance with his old enemies, the Welsh, and gained a
great victory over the Northmen; but when he died and left Ethelwolf,
his son, in charge of the throne, he made a great mistake. Ethelwolf was
a poor king, "being given more to religious exercises than reigning,"
says the historian. He would often exhibit his piety in order to draw
attention away from His Royal Incompetency. He was not the first or last
to smother the call to duty under the cry of Hallelujah. Like the little