females to satisfy their lust ; and so, with his servants raving with the rabidness of wild beasts, he came at length to Oxford, and taking the city almost without effort, he received the fealty and took hostages of the inhabitants. Passing on to Winchester he took it, and extorted security from the inhabitants by obliging them to take an oath. Then directing his course with great glory to the city of London, he sought by every means, whether of violence or craft, to take it, but at his first arrival a number of bis followers were drowned in the river Thames, because in their rash impetuosity they would search for neither bridge nor ford. King Ethelred, who was then in the city, manfully defended the walls with the citizens, and took from Sweyn all hope of gaining the place. The latter, therefore, retired in haste, first to Walling ford, and thence to Bath, mad with canine rage, and destroy ing whatever came in his way. In the latter place he tarried awhile to refresh his army ; and there Almar, earl of Devon, and all the nobles in the western part of the kingdom, and the king's servants who dreaded his tyranny, came to him, and made peace with him, and gave hostages. Having therefore reduced the whole kingdom to his will, and finding no one to resist him, he gave orders that he should be styled king of. England, there being no one to dispute his right, or bold enough to claim the title to himself. King Ethelred crossed over into Normandy. Meanwhile, Ethelred king of England lay in dull inactivity in the city of London, full of fears and suspicions, and not daring to entrust himself to any. His conscience moreover smote him for the murder of his brother, the holy king Edward ; and fearing lest he should quickly feel the vengeance of Heaven, he did not dare to assemble an army nor to lead them against the enemy, lest the nobles of the realm who had been unjustly treated by him, should desert him in the battle, and give him up to the vengeance of his foes. Tormented by these distressing apprehensions, the wretched king secretly withdrew from the city of London, and arriving at Southampton, crossed over to the Isle of Wight, whence he despatched his queen Emma with his two sons Alfred and Eadward, and their guardians Halchun bishop of Durham, and Elfsey abbat of Medmesham, into Normandy to duke