Whereupon he returned to Ethelney; and the time having arrived for a great effort, he sent word to his people to meet him at a place called Egbert’s Stone. Here, on the 12th of May, 878, King Alfred met his gathered forces, and losing no time, moved forward toward Guthrum’s camp. Alfred encamped for the night on an eminence from which he could watch the movements of his enemies. That night, as he was sleeping in his tent, he had a remarkable dream. St. Neot appeared to him, and told him to have no fear of the immense army of pagans whom he was about to encounter on the morrow, as God had taken him under his special protection, having accepted his penitence for all his faults; he might now go forward into the battle without fear, as God was about to give him the victory over all his enemies. The king related this dream to his army the next morning, and the men were inspired with new ardor and enthusiasm as Alfred led them to the camp where their enemies lay; for it was Alfred’s intention to surprise the Danes. The Saxons advanced to the attack; and the Danes, surprised and terror-stricken, soon began to yield. At last the flight among the pagans became general. They were pursued by Alfred’s victorious columns. The retreating army was in a short time reduced to a small force, which, with Guthrum at their head, reached a castle, where they took refuge. Guthrum, shut up in this castle, was now besieged by Alfred’s forces; and when many of his men were raving in the delirium of famine and thirst, or dying in dreadful agony, he could resist no longer, but surrendered to Alfred. Thus King Alfred was once more in possession of his kingdom. The treaty which Alfred now made with the Danes evinces his generous Christian forgiveness; and perhaps even the pagan Guthrum, in accepting the terms proposed, was influenced by emotions of gratitude and admiration for the example of Christian virtue which Alfred exhibited. As the Danes had now become so intermingled with the Saxons by their long residence in England and frequent intermarriages, Alfred determined to expel only the armed forces from his dominions, allowing those peaceably disposed to remain in quiet possession of such lands in other parts of the island as they already occupied. Instead, therefore, of treating Guthrum with harshness and severity as a captive enemy, he told him that he was willing to give him his liberty, and to regard him, on certain conditions, as a friend and an ally, and to allow him to reign as king over that part of England which his countrymen already possessed. The conditions were that Guthrum was to go away with his forces out of Alfred’s kingdom under solemn oaths never to return; that he was to give hostages for the faithful fulfilment of these stipulations; and that Guthrum should become a convert to Christianity, and publicly avow his adhesion to the Saxon faith by being baptized in the presence of the leaders of both armies in the most open and solemn manner.