one who should first learn to read it. Alfred’s brothers, although much older, did not aspire to this honor, and Alfred made such diligent use of his time, that with the help of his teachers he was soon able to read the poems fluently, and so claimed and received the prize. About two years after, the father of Alfred died, and Judith became the wife of Ethelbald, the eldest brother of Alfred, who succeeded to the throne. He died soon after, however, and Judith returned to France, where she married a Flemish noble, whom her father afterwards made Count of Flanders. We cannot stop to trace the life of Judith any farther, but we must mention that Alfred the Great afterwards gave his daughter Elfrida in marriage to the second count of Flanders, who was the eldest son of Judith. Through this marriage the English sovereigns trace their descent from Alfred the Great. There is a strange story connected with the youth of Alfred, which is best given in the quaint language of one of the biographers of this good and brave king. “As he advanced through the years of infancy and youth, his form appeared more comely than those of his brothers, and in look, speech, and manners he was more graceful than they. He was already the darling of the people, who felt that in wisdom and other qualities he surpassed all the royal race. Alfred, then, being a youth of this fair promise, while training himself diligently in all such learning as he had the means of acquiring, and especially in his own mother tongue and the poems and songs which formed the chief part of Anglo-Saxon literature, was not unmindful of the culture of his body, and was a zealous practiser of hunting in all its branches, and hunted with great perseverance and success. But before all things he was wishful to strengthen his mind in the keeping of God’s commandments; and finding that worldly desires and proud and rebellious thoughts which the devil, who is ever jealous of the good, is apt to breed in the minds of the young, were likely to have the mastery of him, he used often to rise at cock-crow in the early mornings, and repairing to some church or holy place, there cast himself before God in prayer, that he might do nothing contrary to His holy will. But finding himself still hard tempted, he began at such times to pray, as he lay prostrate before the altar, that God in his great mercy would strengthen his mind and will by some sickness, such as would be of use to him in the subduing of his nature, but would not show itself outwardly, or render him powerless or contemptible in worldly duties, or less able to benefit his people. For King Alfred from his earliest years held in great dread leprosy and blindness, and every disease which would make a man useless or contemptible in the conduct of affairs. And when he had often, and with much fervor, prayed to this effect, it pleased God to afflict him with a very painful disease, which lay upon him with little respite until he was in his twentieth year.