Up to this period we have availed ourselves of extracts from the Diary
of Father Cuthbert; but the events of the following four years, as
recorded in that record, although full of interest for the antiquarian
or the lover of monastic lore, would possess scant interest for the
general reader, and have also little connection with the course of our
tale; therefore we will convey the information they contain, which
properly pertains to our subject, in few words, and those our own,
returning occasionally to the Diary.

The melancholy history of the times may be compressed, from the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other sources, in a few paragraphs.

Burning with revenge--for his own sister had fallen in the massacre on
St. Brice's night--Sweyn returned to England the following year
(1003). He landed in Devonshire, took Exeter by storm, and returned to
his ships laden with the spoil. Then he sailed eastward, landed again
and ravaged Dorset and Wiltshire. Here the ealdorman Elfric met him
with a large English army; but when he saw the foe he fell sick, or
feigned to be so; and then the old proverb came true, "When the
general fails, the army quails." So the English looked on with fear
and trembling, while Sweyn burnt Wilton and Salisbury, whence he
returned to the sea laden with wealth and stained with blood; yet was
not his revenge satisfied.

The following year East Anglia suffered as Wessex had suffered the
year before. Ulfketyl, the ealdorman, gave them much money, hoping to
buy peace from the merciless pagans. The result was as he might have
expected. They took the money, laughing at his simplicity, and three
weeks afterwards pillaged Thetford, and burnt it. Then Ulfketyl, who
was a brave man, got an East Anglian army together, and fought the