of pre-eminent liberality. And he was buried at Sherburne, in the cathedral church. A.D. 868. Alfred, brother of king Ethelred, a youth of admirable probity, married a wife of the royal family of Mercia, who was the daughter of Ethelred, count of the Gannì, who was surnamed jKucf)*!, which in Latin means Magnus. Her mother's name was Eadburga, of the noble race of the beforementioned kings. The name of the maiden whom Alfred espoused was Alswitha. The same year, the army of the Danes, which has been frequently mentioned, left Northumberland and came down to Nottingham, and wintered there. But Nottingham was called in the British language Tingnobant, and in Latin Domus Speluncarum (the house of caves). And when Burrhed, king of Mercia, heard of their arrival in those parts, he sent messengers to Ethelred, king of the West Saxons, and to his brother Alfred, to beg for aid in a suppliant manner, in order to enable him to defeat the army of the pagans, which was hateful both to God and man. And Alfred immediately collected an immense army, and joined the king of Mercia, and then the two kings marched with one mind towards Nottingham, purposing to fight a battle. But as the pagans, being protected by the fortifications of the citadel, declined a battle, and as the Christians were unable to batter down the walls, peace was made for a time between the Mercians and pagans, and both parties returned to their own territories. The same year, the oratory of Saint Andrew the Apostle was built, and dedicated at Cimesia, by Alwyn, bishop of Worcester. This year a comet was seen very clearly. A.D. 869. The before-mentioned army of the pagans passing back again towards Northumberland, went to the city of York, and wintered there. A.D. 870. An innumerable multitude of Danes landed in Scotland, under the leadership of Hinguar and Hubba, men of terrible obstinacy and unheard-of valour. They endeavoured to carry on a war of extermination throughout all the territory of England ; they murdered all the boys and old men whom they met, and gave up the holy matrons and virgins to the sport of the soldiery. And when this tyrannical ferocity had spread over all parts of the kingdom, Ebba, the holy abbess of the nunnery of Collingham, fearing lest she herself, to whom the pastoral charge of regulating the affairs of her house and