But the mass of the West Saxons were not disposed to give in so easily.

The long border warfare with Devon and Cornwall had probably kept up their organisation in a better state than that of the anarchic North.

The men of Somerset and Wilts, with those Hampshire men who had not fled to the Continent, gathered at a sacred stone on the borders of Selwood Forest, and there AElfred met them with his little band.

They attacked the host, which they put to flight, and then besieged it in its fortified camp.

To escape the siege, Guthrum consented to leave Wessex, and to accept Christianity.