ONE OF THE SADDLE TOWERS AND PLAN OF VISBY
| V. Site of Visborg Castle. | Churches.— | 1. | S.Göran. | 6. | (S.Jacob.) | 11. | S.Katarina. |
| K.H. Kejsar Hus. | 2. | S.Nicolaus. | 7. | S.Lars. | 12. | (S.Per.) | |
| T. Tjärhof. | 3. | S.Gertrude. | 8. | S.Drotten. | 13. | S.Hans. | |
| M.H. Mynt Hus. | 4. | S.Clemens. | 9. | S.Maria. | 14. | Helgeands Kyrkan. | |
| J. Jungfrutornet. | 5. | S.Olof. | 10. | (Russian.) | |||
| K.T. Krut Torn. |
Of the Churches whose names are in brackets there are now no remains. The spotted area represents made ground, the two long spaces whose outlines are dotted are the sites of the two islands by which the original harbour was protected. The railway appears in the lower left-hand corner.
[Face page 158
But all these excellent arrangements for the defence of the capital did not meet with the approval of the dwellers in the country round. It would have been much more remarkable if they had. Those whom they do not protect can seldom see the point of fortifications. There is still extant a strong protest which the villagers of Norfolk made against the circumvallation of Norwich, England, in 1253. In 1288 the Gothland farmers formed a posse to lay low the walls of which they disapproved. This attack was unsuccessful, the peasants were beaten off, and an appeal was made to the king.
The island had long been Swedish, or rather for a regular payment it was protected by the Swedish King. Long, long before, in the ninth century it seems, the burghers had sent one Avajr Strabajn, or Longshanks, on a mission to Upsala to make a treaty with the king. But it is related that the monarch was sitting at meat in the lofty halls when the Gothic messenger arrived and, not being in the least pleased to see him, he kept Longshanks waiting on the threshold. At length the king unbent so far as to ask for news of the island, and was told that a mare had just had three foals. "And what," inquired the sovereign, "does the third one while the other two are sucking?" "Just as I am doing," the ambassador replied, "he stands by and looks on."
Tickled by this neat rebuke to his own execrable manners, the king invited Longshanks to sit with him at table, and eventually a treaty was agreed to. The wealthy islanders supplied money and ships to the king, and the well-armed monarch promised to hold out a sword in protection of the commerce of Gothland.
On this occasion the King of Sweden was entirely of the same opinion as the peasants about the walls, but (looking at the matter rather from his own point of view than from theirs), he decided that the offence would best be expiated, not by their destruction, but by a doubled yearly subsidy, with a slight fine in addition for the presumption of building walls without the permission of the sovereign lord.