It VI. 868. England by a series of hostilities the most fatal, CHAP. and of ravages the most cruel. They embarked on the Humber, and sailing to Lincolnshire, landed at Humberstan in Lindesey.22 From this period, language cannot describe their devastations. can only repeat the words plunder, murder, rape, famine, and distress. It can only enumerate towns, villages, churches and monasteries, harvests and libraries, ransacked and burnt. But by the incessant repetition, the horrors are diminished; and we read, without emotion, the narration of deeds which rent the hearts of thousands with anguish, and inflicted wounds on human happiness and human improvement, which ages with difficulty healed. Instead, therefore, of general statements, which glide as unimpressively over the mind as the arrow upon ice, it may be preferable to select a few incidents, to imply those scenes of desolation, which, when stated in the aggregate, only confuse and overwhelm the sensibility of our perception. About AFTER destroying the monastery, and slaying all the monks of the then much admired abbey of Bardeney, they employed the summer in desolating the country around with sword and fire. 23 Michaelmas they passed the Witham, and entered the district of Kesteven 24 with the same dismal ministers of fate. The sovereign of the country made no effort of defence; but a patriotic few attempted to procure for themselves and the rest, that protection which their government did not impart. 22 Lindesey was the largest of the three parts into which the county of Lincoln was anciently divided. 23 Ingulf, 20. 24 Kesteven was another of the three districts into which Lincolnshire was anciently divided. BOOK 868. advance to THE brave earl Algar, in September, drew out all the youth of Hoiland25; his two seneschals, Wibert and Leofric, whose names the aged rustics that survived attached, with grateful memory, to Northmen their possessions, which they called Wiberton and Croyland. Lefrington, assembled from Deeping, Langtoft, and Boston, 300 valiant and well appointed men ; 200 more joined him from the Croyland monastery. They were composed chiefly of fugitives, and were led by Tolius, who had assumed the cowl; but who, previous to his entering the sacred profession, had been celebrated for his military character. Morcard, Lord of Brunne, added his family, who were undaunted and numerous. Osgot, the sheriff of Lincoln, a courageous and formidable veteran, collected 500 more from the inhabitants of the county. These generous patriots united in Kesteven, with the daring hope of checking, by their valour, the progress of the ferocious invaders. ON the feast of St. Maurice, they attacked the advanced bands of the Northmen with such auspicious bravery, that they slew three of their kings, and many of the soldiers. They chased the rest to the gates of their entrenchments, and, notwithstanding a fierce resistence, they assailed these, till the advance of night compelled the valiant earl to call off his noble army.26 WITH an unpropitious celerity, the other kings 25 Hoiland or Holland; the southern division of Lincolnshire, which extended from the Witham to the Nine. Like the Batavian Holland, it was so moist, that the surface shook if stamped upon, and the print of the feet remained on it. It was composed of two parts, the lower and the upper. The lower was full of impassable marshes; huge banks preserved it from the ocean. Camd. 459. 26 Ingulf, 20. Chron. St. Petri de Burgo, 16. The place where these three kings fell obtained the name of Trekyngham, or the three kings' home. It was before named Lacundon. Ing. 21. VI. 868. of the Northmen, who had spread themselves over CHAP. the country to plunder it, Godrun, Bacseg, Oskitul, Halfden, and Amond, together with Frenar, Ingwar, Ubbo, and the two Sidrocs, hastened, during the night, to re-unite their bands in the camp. An immense booty, and a numerous multitude of women and children, their spoil, accompanied them. THE news of their unfortunate arrival reached the English stations, and produced a lamentable effect; for a large part of the small army, affrighted by the vast disproportion of numbers which in the ensuing morn they must encounter, fled during the darkness of the night. This desertion might have inspired and justified a general flight; but the rest, as though they had felt that their post was the Thermopyla of England, with generous magnanimity and religious solemnity prepared themselves to perish for their country and their faith. THE brave Algar managed his diminished force with the wisest economy, and with soldierly judgment. He selected the valiant Tolius, and 500 intrepid followers, for the post of the greatest danger, and therefore placed them on his right Morcard, the lord of Brunne, and his companions in arms, he stationed with them. On the left of his array, Osgot, the illustrious sheriff, with his 500 soldiers, took his allotted post with Harding of Rehale, and the young and impetuous citizens of Stamford. Algar himself, with his seneschals, chose the centre, that they might be ready to aid either division as exigency required. THE Northmen, in the first dawn of light, buried their three kings in the spot thence called Trekyngham, and leaving two other of their royal leaders, with four jarls, to guard their camp and IV. BOOK captives, they moved forwards with four kings and eight jarls, burning with fury for the disgrace of their friends on the preceding day. 868. THE English, from their small number, contracted themselves into a wedge; against the impetus of the Northern darts, they presented an impenetrable arch of shields, and they repelled the violence of the horse by a dense arrangement of their spears. Lessoned by their intelligent commanders, they maintained their station immovable the whole day. EVENING advanced, and their unconquered valour had kept off enemies, whose numbers had menaced them with inevitable ruin. The North men had spent their darts in vain. Their horsemen were wearied with the ineffectual toil of the day; and their whole army, despairing of success, in feigned confusion withdrew. Elated at the sight of the retreating foe, the English, quitting their array, sprang forwards to complete their conquest. In vain their hoary leaders expostulated, in vain proclaimed ruin if they separated. Intoxicated with the prospect of unhoped success, they forgot that it was the skill of their commanders, which, more than their own bravery, had protected them. They forgot the fewness of their numbers, and the yet immense superiority of their foes. They saw flight, and they thought only of victory. Dispersed in their eager pursuit, they displayed to the Northern chiefs a certain means of conquest. Suddenly the Pagans rallied in every part, and rushing upon the scattered English, surrounded them on every side. It was then they saw what fatal rashness had involved in equal ruin their country and themselves. They had almost rescued VI. 868. England from destruction by their valour and CHAP. conduct; and now, by a moment's folly, all their advantages were lost. For a while, Algar, the undaunted earl, and the self-devoting Tolius, with the other chiefs, discreet even in the midst of approaching ruin, by gaining a little eminence, protracted their fate. But as the dispersed English could not be re-united, as the dissolved arrangement could not be re-composed, the valour and skill of the magnanimous leaders, however exalted and unexcelled, could only serve to multiply the victims of the day. The possibility of victory had vanished. The six chiefs beheld their followers falling fast around; death approached themselves. Mounting upon the bodies of their friends, they returned blow for blow, till, fainting under innumerable wounds, they expired upon the corses of their too impetuous companions.27 A FEW youths of Sutton and Gedeney threw their arms into the neighbouring wood, and escaping with difficulty in the following night, they communicated the fatal catastrophe to the monastery of Croyland, while its abbot and the society were performing matins. The dismal tidings threw terror into every breast; all forboded that the next stroke of calamity would fall on them. The abbot, retaining with him the aged monks and a few infants, sent away the youthful and the strong, with their relics, jewels, and charters, to hide themselves in the nearest marshes, till the demons of slaughter had passed by. With anxious haste they loaded a 27 This interesting narrative is in Ingulf, 20, 21. 28 Croyland was one of the islands lying in that tract of the Eastern waters, which, rising from the middle of the country, and spreading above 100 miles, precipitated themselves into the sea with many great rivers. Malm. Gest. Pont. 292. |