He directed his steps towards Ornaes, a seat of mining operations, and applied for work to a wealthy miner, who consented to employ him. Gustavus associated with the servants of the house as one of their own rank; but a female servant, who very much admired the handsome workman and had a keen, observant eye, detected beneath his woollen garment a shirt collar of silk embroidered with gold. In great astonishment she hastened to inform her master. The latter, who had been at the University of Upsala at the same time as Gustavus, now recognized him; and fearing lest he should get into a scrape with the Danes, required him to leave his house. At Ornaes, not far off, lived another old fellow-student of Gustavus, Arendt Perssons. The young fugitive resolved to go to him. He reached his dwelling, a house of singular construction, which was situated near a lake, and with its surroundings formed a charming place of residence.[[397]] The master of the house gave Gustavus a most friendly reception, and assured him that he would be safe with him. He introduced him to his wife, and then conducted him to a large room on the second-floor forming an almost perfect square, which was to be his own. But no sooner had Gustavus retired to it than the perfidious Arendt betook himself to the bailiff Bengt Brunsson and denounced his guest. The bailiff, with twenty men on foot, set out to seize the fugitive. But if Arendt was a traitor, his wife had a generous heart. After the departure of her husband she was in great distress, for she had guessed, from the expression of his countenance, the purpose for which he had left the house. Pained by the thought of the death which was impending over her guest, she rose, gave orders to make ready a horse and a sledge, and directed two of her men to take Gustavus away without a moment’s delay. The fugitive heard a knocking at his door; he opened it and saw before him two Dalecarlians armed from head to foot, with sugar-loaf hats, according to the fashion of the day. ‘Let us start instantly,’ they said. Tradition has placed on the table of that room, beside the armor and the gloves of Gustavus, a Bible—the book which liberates and makes free indeed.
The hero hastily mounted the sledge and departed. Shortly after, Arendt arrived with the bailiff and his band. The traitor, it is said, never forgave his wife for having saved an innocent man.
Gustavus, still a wanderer, arrived at Swardsjoe, at the house of the pastor Jon; and a notary named Sven Elfson, who lived near, received him into his house. But the gentlemanly bearing of the young man always betrayed him. Suspicious looks were fastened on him, and his pursuers were approaching. The wife of Sven Elfson, alarmed at the imminent danger in which the young noble was placed, and wishing to mystify her household, seized the shovel used for placing bread in the oven and struck Gustavus with it, crying out and calling him a wicked rascal and a lazy boy, and so drove him away. Sven, no less loyal than his wife, immediately undertook to conduct him to some friends with whom he believed he would be safe. But they already heard the footsteps of the bailiff’s horses, who was in pursuit with his twenty troopers. A wagon loaded with straw was standing near, and Gustavus hid himself in it. The horsemen came; as they passed they made thrusts with their halberts into the straw and continued their journey. Gustavus was wounded, but he uttered no cry. Sven Elfson came to him; the young fugitive crept out of the wagon stained with blood, but with unfailing intrepidity he mounted a horse and set out. The blood which trickled drop by drop on the snow must inevitably betray him. In order to save him, Sven wounded his horse in the foot, and when any one observed the spots on the road and inquired the cause of them, the Swede boldly pointed to the foot of his beast. At last they reached Marnaes. Two peasants, Ner and Mats Olafsen, friends of Sven, concealed Gustavus under a large fir-tree recently felled in the forest, which covered the ground with its broad, green boughs. In this place he lay for three days and three nights; and in the evenings, when all was quiet, one of the two brothers used to bring him food by stealth.[[398]]
Pursuit Of Gustavus.
During these sorrowful days, in which he was pursued like a wild beast, Gustavus did not forget the task which he had proposed to himself. His eye was on fire when he thought of the tyranny of Christian; but alas! his resolution and his courage were useless. The people were indisposed to follow him. ‘The king,’ they said, ‘strikes only at the nobility and the clergy.’ The dwellers in these wild valleys were accustomed to go in crowds to church during the Christmas festival. Gustavus joined in the devotions of the people in the churches of Raettwiks and Mora. Then, gathering the peasants together as they came out of church,[[399]] he endeavored to rekindle in them the love of their country. ‘My good friends,’ said he, ‘you know what you have yourselves suffered under the government of the foreigner. He has shed the blood of our noblest men; my father has fallen under his blows; and the country is now crushed under the feet of our enemies. Let us put an end to this slavery. With God’s help, I will be your captain, and we will die to save the kingdom.’ But the inhabitants of these remote valleys knew nothing of the state of things nor of the man who spoke to them. Some of them testified compassion for him, but the greater number begged him to go away. Gustavus, disappointed in his hopes, traversed about the close of 1520 the desert places which separate Eastern from Western Dalecarlia, frequently walking over the ice which cracked under his feet, and exposing himself more than once to the risk of drowning in the course of this mournful and solitary flight. He wandered about in these wild regions dejected and distressed; and his bitterest grief was to see his countrymen wanting to themselves and enduring without regret the most intolerable yoke.[[400]]
Soon after he had left Mora, two Swedish gentlemen, Lars Olafsson and Jon Michelsson, arrived there, and they gave to the inhabitants, then assembled for the new year, a thrilling account of the massacre at Stockholm, which set the poor people sobbing. ‘Christian,’ continued Olafsson, ‘is going to impose on the people ruinous taxes, he marches with a gibbet on his right hand and the wheel on his left, and all Swedish peasants are obliged to deliver up their arms to him. He leaves them nothing but a staff.’ At these words the people murmured aloud. They now appreciated the worth of the young man whom they had so ungraciously received, and men were sent out with instructions to search for Gustavus in the villages, the woods, and the lofty rocks. They found him at Saeln, in the parish of Lima, at the foot of the mountains which separate Sweden and Norway, just preparing to cross them.
Gustavus Captain Of The Communes.
Without delay Gustavus returned to Mora. The most respectable peasants of these valleys assembled there; and they proclaimed the young noble captain of all the communes of the kingdom of Sweden. Sixteen stout-hearted men offered their services to him as guides, and some hundreds of young men placed themselves under his command. When the Danes heard of it they shrugged their shoulders, and spoke of him and his followers as a mere band of brigands prowling about in the woods. But in this movement history discerns the beginning of a most glorious reign. On a Sunday Gustavus arrived at the Kupferberg with several hundred men; and when the people came out from divine service he spoke to them with warm feeling, and gained over to the cause of independence these simple and energetic men, who tried in their turn to gain others. ‘God keep Gustavus, as one drop of the chivalrous blood of our ancient heroes,’ said the men of these valleys to those of Helsingenland. ‘Let us all muster around him.’[[401]]
The movement was now becoming important. The bishop of Skara, Dietrich Slaghoelk, whom Christian had named governor of Stockholm, and who had instigated the king to the massacre of November 8, 1520, took the alarm and had a consultation with the magistrates. The town was immediately fortified and a body of six thousand horse and foot soldiers was sent against Gustavus, in the direction of Dalecarlia. His lieutenant, Peter Svensson, a wealthy miner, crossed the Dale with a troop of men whose only weapons were hatchets, pikes, bows and slings, but whose dash was like a thunderbolt. These high-spirited sons of Sweden fell upon the Danish camp and broke it up.[[402]]
Gustavus, who was at this time in Helsingenland, immediately set out on his march into Westmannia. Everywhere as he advanced, the peasants joined him; and by the 15th of April he had under him twenty thousand men. He marched on Westeraas, the chief town of the province, and took possession of it on St. John’s Day, 1521. He next formed the siege of Stockholm. As the town was open to the Danes by sea, the siege lasted for two years. On April 20, 1523, Christian took flight, leaving the place open to his enemies. A Diet of the kingdom of Sweden was immediately convoked at Strengnaes, for the 7th of June of the same year.