An abridgment of the History of England Author:Oliver Goldsmith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: declaring he was come from Rome with offers of eternal salvation. The king immediately ordered them to be furnished with all necessaries, and even visited them, ... more »though without declaring himself as yet in their favour. Augustine, however, encou- rnged by this favourable reception, and now seeing a prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel. 27. The king openly espoused the christian religion, while his example wrought so successfully on his subjects, that numbers of them came voluntarily to be baptized, their missioner loudly declaring against any coercive means towards their conversion. In this manner, the other kingdoms, one after the other, embraced the faith; and England was soon as famous fov its superstition, as it had once been for its averseness to christianity. CHAPTER HI.—The Invasion Of The Danes. 1. Peace and unanimity had been scarcely established in England, when a mighty swarm of those nations called Danes, who had possessed the countries bordering on the Baltic, began to level their fury against England. A small body 'of them first landed on the coasts, with a view to learn the state of the country ; and having committed some small depredations, fled to their ships for safety. 2. About seven years after this first attempt, they made a descent upon the kingdom of Northumberland,where they pillaged a monastery; but their fleet being shattered by a storm, they were defeated by the inhabitants, and put to the sword. It was not till about five years after the accession of Egbert, that their invasions became truly formidable. From that time they continued with unceasing ferocity, until the whole kingdom was reduced to a state of the most distressful bondage. 3. Though often repulsed, they always obtained their end, of spoiling t...« less