A.D. 894.J ALFRED DEFEATS THE DANES. 229 in the sacred font, he permitted their father Hastein and the rest of the infidels to depart in peace, according to the agreement. How king Alfred routed the Danish king in battle. In the year of our Lord 894, king Alfred marched with a great army against the pagans, whom we have stated above to have landed at the mouth of the river Lige, and who had now divided their forces and were endeavouring to subjugate all the provinces of that region. On his arrival there, the king placed himself with his army between the two bands of the pagahs, that if haply they should leave the woods in quest of a more open country he might move against them. But the barbarians, overcome by famine, perceiving that they profited nothing, but rather grew weaker, set out to join their countrymen who had lately landed in Essex, that being thus strengthened they might be better able to endure the attacks of the Christians. Moving their camp by stealth they reached the town of Farnham, where they sought to cross the river, but the king's forces prevented them ; and being compelled to fight, the pagans were put to the rout, and in their flight were slain without mercy by the Christians, who inflicted immense slaughter and cruelly wounded their king, who was with difficulty placed on horseback and taken over the Thames by his followers, there being neither ford nor bridge, so that numbers of them were drowned. At last they found a very small island between the Thames and the Colne, which they occupied for some time as a town. The Christians, not having any vessels there, could not lay siege to the place, especially as victuals failed them, and they had fulfilled the period of their service. They therefore returned home, and king Alfred hastened thither with half of his army ; but before he had completed his march it was told him that the pagans who dwelt in Northumberland and East-Anglia, had laid siege to Exeter, while others of them did the like to a certain castle in Devon ; whereupon king Alfred turned about and led back his forces towards Exeter, leaving, however, a few to subdue the enemy he was threatening. Meanwhile, their king having recovered, the pagans joined their countrymen in Essex, where they found the most wicked traitor Hastein at Beamfleot, which, in violation of the treaty he had made with king Alfred, he had strength