{1007} The country, wasted by the Danes, harassed by the fruitless
expeditions of its own forces, was reduced to the utmost desolation, and
at last submitted to the infamy of purchasing a precarious peace from
the enemy, by the payment of thirty thousand pounds.
The English endeavored to employ this interval in making preparations
against the return of the Danes, which they had reason soon to expect. A
law was made, ordering the proprietors of eight hides of land to provide
each a horseman and a complete suit of armor, and those of three hundred
and ten hides to equip a ship for the defence of the coast. When this
navy was assembled, which must have consisted of near eight hundred
vessels,[*] all hopes of its success were disappointed by the factions,
animosities, and dissensions of the nobility. Edric had impelled his
brother Brightric to prefer an accusation of treason against Wolfnoth,
governor of Sussex, the father of the famous Earl Godwin; and that
nobleman, well acquainted with the malevolence as well as power of his
enemy, found no means of safety Dut in deserting with twenty ships to
the Danes.
[* There were two hundred and forty-three thousand
six hundred hides in England.
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