veiled way to convey well-deserved praise. Perhaps he was inspired to
tell of Judith, by the deeds of King Alfred's daughter, Æthelflaed,
known as the Lady of the Mercians, and sought to do honour to her as
well as to the great Hebrew lady.

Æthelflaed fortified Chester and other towns, and, along with King
Edward, built fortresses, "chiefly along the line of frontier exposed to
the Danes, as at Bridgenorth, Tamworth, Warwick, Hertford, Witham in
Essex, and other places." Of course it is uncertain whether our poet was
thinking of Æthelflaed. We should be able to say whether it were
impossible if we knew the date of "Judith," as, if the poem were
composed before Æthelflaed's time, she could not have entered into the
poet's mind.

The Church has paid a splendid tribute to Judith by applying to her who
is pre-eminently the strong or valiant woman (mulier fortis) full of
the strength that always wore the exquisite veil of humility, the words
spoken to this valiant woman of the Hebrews by her countrymen, as they
adored the Lord, who had given her the victory. See the lesson read on
the Feast of Our Lady's Seven Sorrows.




CHAPTER X

Byrthnoth, the leader of the East Angles against Anlaf the Dane. Refusal
to pay unjust tribute. Heroic fight.