From this point they spread over the country and destroyed everything with fire and sword.

A general panic seized the inhabitants.

The better class, with the bishops, priests, and monks, made for the sea-coasts and thence crossed to France, taking with them all their portable goods, with the relics, precious stones, and ornaments of the churches and monasteries.
Another party of Danes in twenty-three ships had landed in Devonshire.
Here the ealdorman Adda had constructed a castle similar to that which Edmund had built.

It was fortified by nature on three sides and had a strong rampart of earth on another.

The Danes tried to starve out the defenders of the fort; but the Saxons held out for a long time, although sorely pressed by want of water.