For three years, there was a war with these Danes; and there was a famine in the country, too, and a plague, both upon human creatures and beasts.

But KING ALFRED, whose mighty heart never failed him, built large ships nevertheless, with which to pursue the pirates on the sea; and he encouraged his soldiers, by his brave example, to fight valiantly against them on the shore.

At last, he drove them all away; and then there was repose in England.
As great and good in peace, as he was great and good in war, KING ALFRED never rested from his labours to improve his people.

He loved to talk with clever men, and with travellers from foreign countries, and to write down what they told him, for his people to read.

He had studied Latin after learning to read English, and now another of his labours was, to translate Latin books into the English-Saxon tongue, that his people might be interested, and improved by their contents.