king's officers were slain. But king Alfred coming speedily to their help, the pagans were compelled to leave the place, and retiring iu the night, they proceeded through the province of the Mercians, and did not stop till they reached the village of Quantebregge,* on the Severn. After they were retired, the king ordered their ships to be burnt with fire. How king Alfred appointed guardians of the kingdom. Tn the year of our Lord 897, Boniface sat in the Roman chair one year and sixteen days. In the same year king Alfred appointed guardians of the kingdom against the irruptions of the Danes, in Kent Ceolmund the chief of them, in the city of Rochester bishop Suithulf, in Essex earl Brithulf, in the city of London earl Ethelred, in Dorchester bishop Halard, in Sussex Eadulf, in Winchester bishop Bertulf, and many others in divers places, whom it were tedious to recapitulate. At this time, too, king Alfred caused to be constructed long ships called galleys, in which he set armed men with a command to guard the paths of the seas, that he might provide for the peace of his kingdom, and protect his subjects as well by a naval as a land armament. Of Hollofirstduke of Normandy, and his vision. In those days a certain Rollo, a Dane by nation, came into England with an immense body of warriors, and commenced ravaging the country. Now Dania, or Denmark, is an island of the sea, fertile and populous, whose kings in former days made it a law, that whenever the island was too full of people, the bolder men should be compelled to emigrate. The aforesaid Rollo is said to have been among those who were thus expelled. Being an energetic and powerful man, his father kept his eldest son to succeed himself, and sent away Rollo to seek an inheritance for himself by arms, as fortune should favour him. When he had, therefore, landed in England, as has been said, the natives straightway engaged in battle with him, but numbers of them being slain, the rest fled from the scene of contest. Rollo, therefore, was wintering in England for the refreshment of himself and his followers after the dangers of the sea. One night, as he was sleeping, he had a dream : he saw a swarm of bees on a * Supposed to be Quatford, neat Bridgenotth.