The generosity and the nobleness of mind which Alfred manifested in
his treatment of Guthrum made a great impression upon mankind at the
time, and have done a great deal to elevate the character of our hero
in every subsequent age. All admire such generosity in others, however
slow they may be to practice it themselves. It seems a very easy
virtue when we look upon an exhibition of it like this, where we
feel no special resentments ourselves against the person thus nobly
forgiven. We find it, however, a very hard virtue to practice, when a
case occurs requiring the exercise of it toward a person who has done
_us_ an injury. Let those who think that in Alfred's situation they
should have acted as he did, look around upon the circle of their
acquaintance, and see whether it is easy for them to pursue a similar
course toward their personal enemies--those who have thwarted and
circumvented them in their plans, or slandered them, or treated them
with insult and injury. By observing how hard it is to change our
own resentments to feelings of forgiveness and good will, we can the
better appreciate Alfred's treatment of Guthrum.

Alfred was famed during all his life for the kindness of his heart,
and a thousand stories were told in his day of his interpositions
to right the wronged, to relieve the distressed, to comfort the
afflicted, and to befriend the unhappy. On one occasion, as it is
said, when he was hunting in a wood, he heard the piteous cries of a
child, which seemed to come from the air above his head. It was found,
after much looking and listening, that the sounds proceeded from an
eagle's nest upon the top of a lofty tree. On climbing to the nest,
they found the child within, screaming with pain and terror. The eagle
had carried it there in its talons for a prey. Alfred brought down
the boy, and, after making fruitless inquiries to find its father and
mother, adopted him for his own son, gave him a good education, and