[00:00.49]Alfred the Great acted his own spy, visiting Danish camps disguised as a minstrel.
[00:07.88]In those days wandering minstrels were welcome everywhere.
[00:11.96]They were not fighting men, and their harp was their passport.
[00:16.71]Alfred had learned many of their ballads in his youth, and could vary his programme with acrobatic tricks and simple conjuring.
[00:25.51]While Alfred's little army slowly began to gather at Athelney, the king himself set out to penetrate the camp of Guthrum, the commander of the Danish invaders.
[00:37.79]There had settled down for the winter at Chippenham: thither Alfred went.
[00:43.72]He noticed at once that discipline was slack: the Danes had the self-confidence of conquerors, and their security precautions were casual.
[00:53.73]They lived well, on the proceeds of raids on neighbouring regions.
[00:58.18]There they collected women as well as food and drink, and a life of ease had made them soft.
[01:05.20]Alfred stayed in the camp a week before he returned to Athelney.
[01:09.84]The force there assembled was trivial compared with the Danish horde.
[01:14.40]But Alfred had deduced that the Danes were no longer fit for prolonged battle:
[01:19.73]and that their commissariat had no organization, but depended on irregular raids.
[01:26.13]So, faced with the Danish advance, Alfred did not risk open battle but harried the enemy.
[01:33.63]He was constantly on the move, drawing the Danes after him.
[01:37.79]His patrols halted the raiding parties: hunger assailed the Danish army.
[01:43.55]Now Alfred began a long series of skirmishes -- and within a month the Danes had surrendered.
[01:50.69]The episode could reasonably serve as a unique epic of royal espionage!
