Ethelred, worn down, probably, with the anxiety and depression which the situation of his kingdom brought upon him, lingered for a time, and then died, and Alfred was by general consent called to the throne.What wide spread and lasting effects result sometimes from the virginia beach shopping centers most trifling and inadequate causes! The singularity of such an adventure befalling a monarch in disguise, and the terse antithesis of the reproaches with which the woman rebuked him, invest this incident with an interest which carries it every where spontaneously among mankind.She told him that he could eat the cakes fast enough when they were baked, though it seemed he was too lazy and good for nothing to do the least thing in helping to bake them.They received him as an exiled virginia beach shopping centers monarch, in the Saxon school, where he soon after died a prey to grief and despair.The forces of the Saxons, on the other hand, were scattered and discouraged.Among the other measures to which Alfred resorted in this emergency was the attempt to encounter the Danes upon their own element by building and equipping a fleet of ships, with which to proceed to sea, in order to meet and attack upon the water certain new bodies of invaders, who were on the way to join virginia beach shopping centers the Danes already on the island coming, as rumor said, along the southern shore.They had got possession of many of the towns, and, not content with plundering castles and abbeys, they had seized lands, and were beginning to settle upon them, as if they intended to make Alfred's new kingdom their permanent abode.As to the cause of the victory, or, rather, the manner in which it was accomplished, the writers of the times give very different accounts, according as their respective characters incline them to commend, in man, a feeling of quiet trust and confidence in virginia beach shopping centers God when placed in circumstances of difficulty or danger, or a vigorous and resolute exertion of his own powers.Some of these narrations are inconsistent and contradictory.Alfred had lost, it appears, all influence and control over virginia beach shopping centers both leaders and men.There is also in the neighborhood another very singular monument, called The White Horse, which also has the reputation of having been fashioned to commemorate Alfred's victories.It was then, as it is virginia beach shopping centers now, a very important town.Without waiting for Alfred to recover from the surprise and consternation which this unexpected treachery occasioned, the newly mounted troop of Danes rode rapidly along the southern coast of England till they came to the town of Exeter.His fleet captured, moreover, one of the largest of the vessels of the enemy and, with what would be thought in our day unpardonable cruelty, they virginia beach shopping centers threw the sailors and soldiers whom they found on board into the sea, and kept the vessel.