The story is, that after a few days the cow-herd asked him who he was,
and how he came to be wandering about in that distressed and destitute
condition. Alfred told him that he was one of the king's _thanes_. A
thane was a sort of chieftain in the Saxon state. He accounted for his
condition by saying that Alfred's army had been beaten by the Danes,
and that he, with the other generals, had been forced to fly. He
begged the cow-herd to conceal him, and to keep the secret of his
character until times should change, so that he could take the field
again.

The story of Alfred's seclusion on the _island_, as it might almost
be called, of Ethelney, is told very differently by the different
narrators of it. Some of these narrations are inconsistent and
contradictory. They all combine, however, though they differ in
respect to many other incidents and details, in relating the far-famed
story of Alfred's leaving the cakes to burn. It seems that, though
the cow-herd himself was allowed to regard Alfred as a man of rank in
disguise--though even _he_ did not know that it was the king--his wife
was not admitted, even in this partial way, into the secret. She was
made to consider the stranger as some common strolling countryman,
and the better to sustain this idea, he was taken into the cow-herd's
service, and employed in various ways, from time to time, in labors
about the house and farm. Alfred's thoughts, however, were little
interested in these occupations. His mind dwelt incessantly upon his
misfortunes and the calamities which had befallen his kingdom. He was
harassed by continual suspense and anxiety, not being able to gain any
clear or certain intelligence about the condition and movements of
either his friends or foes. He was revolving continually vague and
half-formed plans for resuming the command of his army and attempting