as three to one to the freemen."

"But the serfs are cowardly and spiritless," Edmund said;
"they are not of a fighting race, and fell almost without
resistance before our ancestors when they landed here."

"Their race is no doubt inferior to our own, Edmund,"
his father said, "seeing that they are neither so tall nor so
strong as we Saxons, but of old they were not deficient in
bravery, for they fought as stoutly against the Romans as did
our own hardy ancestors. After having been for hundreds of
years subject to the Roman yoke, and having no occasion to
use arms, they lost their manly virtues, and when the Romans
left them were an easy prey for the first comer. Our
fathers could not foresee that the time would come when
they too in turn would be invaded. Had they done so,
methinks they would not have set up so broad a line of
separation between themselves and the Britons, but would have
admitted the latter to the rights of citizenship, in which case
intermarriage would have taken place freely, and the whole
people would have become amalgamated. The Britons, accustomed
to our free institutions, and taking part in the wars
between the various Saxon kingdoms, would have recovered
their warlike virtues, and it would be as one people that we
should resist the Danes. As it is, the serfs, who form by far
the largest part of the population, are apathetic and cowardly;
they view the struggle with indifference, for what signifies
to them whether Dane or Saxon conquer; they have no
interest in the struggle, nothing to lose or to gain,
it is but a change of masters."