They next changed the seat of war; and after ravaging the
Isle of Wight, they entered the Thames and Medway, and laid siege to
Rochester, where they defeated the Kentish men in a pitched battle.
After this victory, the whole province of Kent was made a scene of
slaughter, fire, and devastation. The extremity of these miseries forced
the English into counsels for common defence, both by sea and land;
but the weakness of the king, the divisions among the nobility, the
treachery of some, the cowardice of others, the want of concert in all,
frustrated every endeavor; their fleets and armies either came too late
to attack the enemy, or were repulsed with dishonor; and the people
were thus equally ruined by resistance or by submission. The English,
therefore, destitute both of prudence and unanimity in council,
of courage and conduct in the field, had recourse to the same weak
expedient which, by experience, they had already found so ineffectual:
they offered the Danes to buy peace, by paying them a large sum of
money, These ravagers rose continually in their demands; and now
required the payment of twenty-four thousand pounds, to which the
English were so mean and imprudent as to submit.
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