off booty. The Danes immediately raided our people by surprise, as they believed it were our deeds, they crossed the River Eider and drove the supposed perpetrators away from the stronghold, took everything with them and withdrew to their own camp. As they recognized the real situation and feared an appropriate revenge, they first dismissed messengers to those they inflicted such a defeat, then to the emperor, they declared their deception and offered for conciliation a suitable satisfaction. They left the manner of this satisfaction to the desire of the emperor as long as peace was maintained, which the emperor granted them according to their wish and petition." The war on the border continued into at least 829. Later that year a rumor was current that the Danes were preparing to invade and Louis gathered an army to meet this threat, but the rumor turned out to be false. It may well have been Harald who spread this rumor. However Harald disappears from the Frankish sources by the late 820. He had certainly failed to regain his throne but probably kept on living among the Franks. Death His brother Hemming seems to have died in 837 defending Walcheren from unidentified Viking raiders. The Annales Fuldenses report "The Norsemen came to the island of Walcheren to collect tribute and on 17 June they killed Eggihard, the count of this place, and Hemingr, the son of Halfdan, with many others, and laid waste Dorestad and went back after they received tribute from the Frisians. The emperor[Louis] gave up his journey to Rome and stayed the winter at Aachen. The Annales Bertiniani mention the attack but not Hemming. "The Norsemen at this time fell on Frisia with their usual surprise attack. Coming upon our unprepared people on an island called Walcheren, they slaughtered many of them and plundered even more. They stayed on the island for a while, levying as much tribute as they wanted. Then they fell on Dorestad with the same fury and exacted tribute in the same way. When the Emperor heard about these attacks, he postponed his planned journey to Rome and wasted no time in hurrying to the fort of Nijmegen close by Dorestad. When the Norsemen heard of his arrival there, they withdrew immediately. Now the Emperor summoned a general assembly and held an inquiry in public with those magnates to whom he had delegated the task