fortress, and they took all that was therein, treasure, women, and children, and they carried all to London, and they broke up or burned all the ships, or brought them to London or Rochester. And the wife of Hastings and his two sons were brought to the King, and the King gave them to him again, because the one was his own Godson, the other the Alderman Æthered’s. They had been before taken, ere Hastings came to Benfleet, and he had given hostages and oaths, and the King had also given him much money, and then also he had restored his wife and children. But as soon as he came to Benfleet, and the fortress was finished, he ravaged the very district of Alfred’s kingdom which was under his son’s Godfather Æthered, and again a second time he was gone out to plunder the same province, when his fortress was destroyed. The King, as was said before, had marched with his army towards Exeter, and when he came thither, the army which had besieged the town made for the ships. Whilst he was engaged with his enemies in the west, both the other ravaging armies joined at Shobury, in Essex, and they raised a fortress there: then they went up together along the Thames, and a reinforcement came to them from East Anglia and Northumberland, and they proceeded by the side of the Thames, until they crossed over to the Severn; and then they marched along the Severn. Then the Aldermen Æthered, and Æthelm, and Æthelnoth, and the King’s Thanes who were at home in their fortresses, gathered together an army from every town east of the Parret, and west of Selwood, also east and north of the Thames, and west of the Severn, and they raised moreover some part of the Welsh nation. When they were all assembled they came up with the army at Butdiging-tun (Bultington?) on the banks of the Severn, and there they besieged them on every side in a fortress. When they had been encamped on the two sides of the river for many weeks, the King being still detained by the fleet in the west, in Devonshire, the Danes were pressed by hunger, and they had eaten great part of their horses, and some perished through famine. Then they rushed out upon the men who were posted on the eastern side of the river, and fought with them, and the Christians gained the victory, but the King’s Thane Ordhelm was slain there, and many others of the King’s Thanes; and those (of the heathens) who escaped were saved by flight. When they came to their fortress and ships in Essex, the remnant again collected a large army from amongst the East Angles and Northumbrians before winter, and they secured their wives, and their ships, and their treasures, in East Anglia, and marched straight forward day and night until they came to a western town in Wirehall which is called Lega-ceaster (Chester).--And the King’s troops could not overtake them until they were within the fortifications; nevertheless they encamped around the place for about two days, and they took all the cattle that were in the neighbourhood,