202 ROGER OF AVENDO VER. [A.D. 871. repeatedly by his attendants to go forth to the battle, he constantly affirmed that he would not leave until the priest had ended mass; which act of faith in the Christian king profited him greatly that day. There was in the field of battle a rather small tree, around which the hostile armies contended with wild uproar ; when, after a long and spirited contest, by the judgment of heaven, the pagans, not being able to withstand the onset of the Christians, ignominiously took to flight, with the loss of the greatest part of their forces. In this place the two pagan kings, Bascai and Halden, were slain with many thousands more, and went down to hell, there to endure the torments of everlasting fires. In the other part of the field, where Alfred, the king's brother, fought against the chiefs and nobles, there fell Sidrac the elder and Sidrac the younger, Osbern, Frane, and Harold, with innumerable others, and the entire army of the pagans being put to flight on the ensuing night and the next day, was broken and routed over the whole plain of Essesdune. A fortnight afterwards king Ethelred and his brother Alfred came together again to fight against the pagans with united forces at Basing, where, after a long and fierce contest, the pagans gained the victory. Also, after the lapse of two months, king Ethelred and his brother Alfred fought a long while with the odious infidels at Mereton, where they defeated the pagans and put them to flight; but the latter returned again against the Christians and went off victorious. 'In this battle Hamund, bishop of Sherburn, was crowned with martyrdom, and was succeeded in the bishopric by Ethelheg, a man of erudition in ecclesiastical matters. Coronation and genealogy of king Alfred. In the same year Ethelred, king of the West-Saxons, ended his days on the 23rd of April, and was buried in regal fashion at Winbourne. His brother Alfred, who had been before crowned and anointed king by pope Leo at Rome, took the helm of government of the whole of that kingdom. The ancients have traced the genealogy of this king us far as unto Christ. King Alfred was the son of Athelwulf, the great king of the AVest-Saxons, who was the son of Egbert, who was the son of Alcmund, who was the son of Eafa, who was the son of Eoppa, who was the son of Ingild, who was