But they were mistaken, for King Edward was a brave man and a wise king, although he was not so clever and good as his father, and he kept down the Danes while he was king. He had a sister who helped him in everything. Her husband was dead, and she had no son, so she lived with her brother, and gave him good advice, and took care of one part of the country while he was fighting the Danes in another. You may think how sorry the king was when she died, and how sorry the people were too, for she was very good and kind to everybody; but they were still more sorry when King Edward died soon after, for they were afraid the Danes would get the upper hand again. The next king was called Athelstane; he was Edward’s eldest son: he was very clever and very brave. He knew that it was good for England to have a great many ships, both to keep away the Danes and to fetch cloth and silk from other countries, for the English did not make any of these things then. So he made a law that every man who built a ship and went to sea three times should be a _Thane_, which means that he would be in the same rank and be shown the same respect as one of the landed gentry. Once I was reading a very old book, and I found something in it about this Athelstane that I will tell you. A king of the Danes and three other kings, who all lived in very cold poor countries, agreed that they would come to England, which was a much better country than their own, and take part of it for themselves; and they got a great many soldiers to come with them in their ships; and they watched till King Athelstane’s ships were gone out of sight, and then landed, and began to take a part of the country. But Athelstane soon heard of their coming, and called his soldiers together, and went to meet these kings at a place called Brunanburgh, and fought with them, and conquered them, and took some of them prisoners. One of the prisoners was called Egill, and he told the man who wrote the old book I mentioned to you, that King Athelstane behaved very kindly to all the people after the battle, and would not let even the enemies that were beaten be killed or vexed in any manner, and that he invited him and some of the other prisoners to supper at a large house which he had near the place where the battle was fought. When they went to supper, they found that the house was very long and very broad, but not high, for it had no rooms up stairs, and there was no fire anywhere but in the kitchen and the great hall. In the other rooms they had no carpets, but the floors were strewed over with rushes, and there were only wooden benches and high stools to sit upon.