The various ceremonies connected with the baptism were protracted
through several days. They were commenced at a place called Aulre,
near Ethelney, where there was a religious establishment and priests
to perform the necessary rites. The new convert was clothed in white
garments--the symbol of purity, then customarily worn by candidates
for baptism--and was covered with a mystic veil. They gave Guthrum
a new name--a Christian, that is, a Saxon name. Converted pagans
received always a new name, in those days, when baptized; and our
common phrase, _the Christian name_, has arisen from the circumstance.
Guthrum's Christian name was Ethelstan. Alfred was his godfather.
After the baptism the whole party proceeded to a town a few miles
distant, which Alfred had decided to make a royal residence, and there
other ceremonies connected with the new convert's admission to the
Church were performed, the whole ending with a series of great public
festivities and rejoicings.

A very full and formal treaty of peace and amity was now concluded
between the two sovereigns; for Guthrum was styled in the treaty a
_king_, and was to hold, in the dominions assigned him to the eastward
of Alfred's realm, an independent jurisdiction. He agreed, however, by
this treaty, to confine himself, from that time forward, to the limits
thus assigned. If the reader wishes to see what part of England it was
which Guthrum was thus to hold, he can easily identify it by finding
upon the map the following counties, which now occupy the same
territory, viz., Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, and part of
Herefordshire. The population of all this region consisted already, in
a great measure, of Danes. It was the part most easily accessible from
the German Ocean, by means of the Thames and the Medway, and it had,
accordingly, become the chief seat of the Northmen's power.