1
THE DRAGON AND THE RAVEN
Or The Days of King Alfred
By G. A. Henty
C O N T E N T S
PREFACE
I. THE FUGITIVES
II. THE BATTLE OF KESTEVEN
III. THE MASSACRE AT CROYLAND
IV. THE INVASION OF WESSEX
V. A DISCIPLINED BAND
VI. THE SAXON FORT
VII. THE DRAGON
VIII. THE CRUISE OF THE DRAGON
IX. A PRISONER
X. THE COMBAT
XI. THE ISLE OF ATHELNEY
XII. FOUR YEARS OF PEACE
XIII. THE SIEGE OF PARIS
XIV. THE REPULSE OF THE NORSEMEN
XV. FRIENDS IN TROUBLE
XVI. FREDA
XVII. A LONG CHASE
XVIII. FREDA DISCOVERED
XIX. UNITED
PREFACE
MY DEAR LADS,
Living in the present days of peace and tranquillity it is difficult to picture the life of our ancestors in the days of King Alfred, when the whole country was for years overrun by hordes of pagan barbarians, who slaughtered, plundered, and destroyed at will. You may gain, perhaps, a fair conception of the state of things if you imagine that at the time of the great mutiny the English population of India approached that of the natives, and that the mutiny was everywhere triumphant. The wholesale massacres and outrages which would in such a case have been inflicted upon the conquered whites could be no worse than those suffered by the Saxons at the hands of the Danes. From this terrible state of subjection and suffering the Saxons were rescued by the prudence, the patience, the valour and wisdom of King Alfred. In all subsequent ages England has produced no single man who united in himself so many great qualities as did this first of great Englishmen. He was learned, wise, br