This victory was chiefly ascribed to the valor of Turketul, the English chancellor; for, in those turbulent ages, no one was so much occupied in civil employments as wholly to lay aside the military character.[*] [* The office of chancellor, among the Anglo- Saxons, resembled more that of a secretary of state than that of our present chancellor See Spelman in voce Cancellarius.] There is a circumstance, not unworthy of notice, which historians relate, with regard to the transactions of this war.

Anlaf, on the approach of the English army, thought that he could not venture too much to insure a fortunate event, and employing the artifice formerly practised by Alfred against the Danes, he entered the enemy's camp, in the habit of a minstrel.

The stratagem was, for the present, attended with like success.

He gave such satisfaction to the soldiers, who flocked about him, that they introduced him to the king's tent; and Anlaf, having played before that prince and his nobles during their repast, was dismissed with a handsome reward.

His prudence kept him from refusing the present; Dut his pride determined him, on his departure, to bury it while he fancied that he was unespied by all the world.