But while we desire to make the most of these items, it must be admitted that they constitute an inadequate furniture for eleven weeks of Alfred’s time in the most intense crisis of his life. At any other point in Alfred’s career, the silence of so many weeks might not provoke remark, but at this moment it makes a sensible void. If, however, we rightly apprehend the situation of the fugitive king, his hopes and his fears, his aims and his resources, we may (in the light of the great result) indulge a sober imagination without fear of considerable error. Among the pieces of genuine tradition which seem to greet the explorer in Asser’s _Life_, there is perhaps none on which we may more confidently lean than a certain fragment in the paragraph beginning ‘Interea tamen rex[42].’ The drift of this context is that with all his wars and frequent interruptions, Alfred ruled his kingdom, and ‘practised every branch of the craft of venery; directed his goldsmiths and all his artificers; did moreover instruct the falconers and hawk-catchers and dog-trainers; and by his own novel engineering constructed buildings beyond all former wont, statelier and more costly; had Saxon books read to him, and commanded others to learn Saxon poems by heart, &c.’ In this passage I seem to recognize a true historic note; and I think that in this picture of the range of his powers, and the roll of his accomplishments, his vast activity and versatility, we have some genuine reminiscences of the personality of Alfred. In the emphasis here laid on hunting, we may recognize the king who, some years later, sent a present of wolfhounds to the archbishop of Rheims, and such dogs, too, that their quality and breed was accentuated by the receiver in his grateful acknowledgement[43]. And when to this we add that he could make and sing a song, could tell a good tale, could make choice of men and win their confidence, we need little aid from imagination to perceive how this mysterious visitor might captivate the British hearts of all Somerset like one man, and perhaps set them wondering whether it could be their own ideal king Arthur come back to them again. During nearly three months of that eventful year his aim was to cultivate closer relations with the people of that outlying territory, desiring that they might become attached to him with sentiments of loyalty and friendship. To devote himself to this undertaking was at once his duty, his interest, and his delight. For such an achievement as this he had advantages both natural and acquired. Apart from war, there is nothing like hunting for making comrades, if a man have a genial soul and be himself a mighty hunter. Alfred _was_ a mighty hunter and a genial soul, and close at hand there was one of the finest hunting-grounds in the world.