King Alfred of England | Page 8

storm. In fact, they sailed often in tempests and storms by choice, so as
to come upon their enemies the more unexpectedly.
[Illustration: SAXON MILITARY CHIEF]
They would build small vessels, or rather boats, of osiers, covering
them with skins, and in fleets of these frail floats they would sally forth
among the howling winds and foaming surges of the German Ocean.
On these expeditions, they all embarked as in a common cause, and felt
a common interest. The leaders shared in all the toils and exposures of
the men, and the men took part in the counsels and plans of the leaders.
Their intelligence and activity, and their resistless courage and ardor,
combined with their cool and calculating sagacity, made them
successful in every attempt. If they fought, they conquered; if they
pursued their enemies, they were sure to overtake them; if they
retreated, they were sure to make their escape. They were clothed in a
loose and flowing dress, and wore their hair long and hanging about
their shoulders; and they had the art, as their descendants have now, of
contriving and fabricating arms of such superior construction and
workmanship, as to give them, on this account alone, a great advantage
over all cotemporary nations. There were two other points in which
there was a remarkable similarity between this parent stock in its rude,
early form, and the extended social progeny which represents it at the
present day. One was the extreme strictness of their ideas of conjugal
fidelity, and the stern and rigid severity with which all violations of
female virtue were judged. The woman who violated her marriage
vows was compelled to hang herself. Her body was then burned in
public, and the accomplice of her crime was executed over the ashes.
The other point of resemblance between the ancient Anglo-Saxons and
their modern descendants was their indomitable pride. They could
never endure any thing like submission. Though sometimes

overpowered, they were never conquered. Though taken prisoners and
carried captive, the indomitable spirit which animated them could never
be really subdued. The Romans used sometimes to compel their
prisoners to fight as gladiators, to make spectacles for the amusement
of the people of the city. On one occasion, thirty Anglo-Saxons, who
had been taken captive and were reserved for this fate, strangled
themselves rather than submit to this indignity. The whole nation
manifested on all occasions a very unbending and unsubmissive will,
encountering every possible danger and braving every conceivable ill
rather than succumb or submit to any power except such as they had
themselves created for their own ends; and their descendants, whether
in England or America, evince much the same spirit still.
It was the landing of a few boat-loads of these determined and
ferocious barbarians on a small island near the mouth of the Thames,
which constitutes the great event of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in
England, which is so celebrated in English history as the epoch which
marks the real and true beginning of British greatness and power. It is
true that the history of England goes back beyond this period to narrate,
as we have done, the events connected with the contests of the Romans
and the aboriginal Britons, and the incursions and maraudings of the
Picts and Scots; but all these aborigines passed gradually--after the
arrival of the Anglo-Saxons--off the stage. The old stock was wholly
displaced. The present monarchy has sprung entirely from its
Anglo-Saxon original; so that all which precedes the arrival of this new
race is introductory and preliminary, like the history, in this country, of
the native American tribes before the coming of the English Pilgrims.
As, therefore, the landing of the Pilgrims on the Plymouth Rock marks
the true commencement of the history of the American Republic, so
that of the Anglo-Saxon adventurers on the island of Thanet represents
and marks the origin of the British monarchy. The event therefore,
stands as a great and conspicuous landmark, though now dim and
distant in the remote antiquity in which it occurred.
And yet the event, though so wide-reaching and grand in its bearings
and relations, and in the vast consequences which have flowed and
which still continue to flow from it, was apparently a minute and

unimportant circumstance at the time when it occurred. There were
only three vessels at the first arrival. Of their size and character the
accounts vary. Some of these accounts say they contained three
hundred men; others seem to state that the number which arrived at the
first landing was three thousand. This, however, would seem
impossible, as no three vessels built in those days could convey so
large a number. We must suppose, therefore, that that number is meant
to include those who came at several of the earlier expeditions, and