Then the evil woman was excited, and spoke to the king with an angry mind.

'Turn thou these loaves, that they burn not, for I see daily that thou art a great eater!' He soon obeyed this evil woman because she would scold.

He then, the good king, with great anxiety and sighing, called to his Lord, imploring his pity." The following account is from a Latin life of St.Neot, which still exists in manuscript, and is of great antiquity: "Alfred, a fugitive, and exiled from his people, came by chance and entered the house of a poor herdsman, and there remained some days concealed, poor and unknown.
"It happened that, on the Sabbath day, the herdsman, as usual, led his cattle to their accustomed pastures, and the king remained alone in the cottage with the man's wife.

She, as necessity required, placed a few loaves, which some call _loudas_, on a pan, with fire underneath, to be baked for her husband's repast and her own, on his return.
"While she was necessarily busied, like peasants, on other offices, she went anxious to the fire, and found the bread burning on the other side.

She immediately assailed the king with reproaches.