He summoned them to arms, and urged them to contribute the means necessary to pay the expense of a vigorous prosecution of the war.

These harangues, and the ardor and determination which Alfred manifested himself at the time of making them, were successful.

The nation aroused itself to new exertions, and for a time there was a prospect that the country would be saved.
[Illustration: THE FIRST BRITISH FLEET.] Among the other measures to which Alfred resorted in this emergency was the attempt to encounter the Danes upon their own element by building and equipping a fleet of ships, with which to proceed to sea, in order to meet and attack upon the water certain new bodies of invaders, who were on the way to join the Danes already on the island--coming, as rumor said, along the southern shore.

In attempting to build up a naval power, the greatest difficulty, always, is to provide seamen.

It is much easier to build ships than to train sailors.