expiated by his subsequent sufferings, and he atoned for them so
nobly, too, by the wisdom, the prudence, the faithful and devoted
patriotism of his later career, that mankind have been disposed to
pass by the faults of his early years without attempting to scrutinize
them too closely. The noblest human spirits are always, in some
periods of their existence, or in some aspects of their characters,
strangely weakened by infirmities and frailties, and deformed by sin.
This is human nature. We like to imagine that we find exceptions,
and to see specimens of moral perfection in our friends or in the
historical characters whose general course of action we admire; but
there are no exceptions. To err and to sin, at some times and in some
ways, is the common, universal, and inevitable lot of humanity.

At the time when Halfden and his followers seized Wareham Castle and
Exeter, Alfred had been several years upon the throne, during which
time these derelictions from duty took place, so far as they existed
at all. But now, alarmed at the imminence of the impending danger,
which threatened not only the welfare of his people, but his own
kingdom and even his life--for one Saxon monarch had been driven from
his dominions, as we have seen, and had died a miserable exile at
Rome--Alfred aroused himself in earnest to the work of regaining
his lost influence among his people, and recovering their alienated
affections.

He accordingly, as his first step, convened a great assembly of the
leading chieftains and noblemen of the realm, and made addresses to
them, in which he urged upon them the imminence of the danger which
threatened their common country, and pressed them to unite vigorously
and energetically with him to contend against their common foe. They
must make great sacrifices, he said, both of their comfort and ease,