[45] No mention is made of Peder Klognæs in the Reports made by Envold Kruse, who merely says the Scots took with them "two Bönder in Romsdalen as guides." Andrew Ramsay and his companions deponed at Copenhagen that "the peasants showed them the way when they landed at Romsdal in the Iisfiord." Moreover, Peder Klognæs was not amongst those whom Christian IV. rewarded. The traditions respecting Peder Klognæs bear an extraordinary resemblance to those which attach in Russia to a popular hero named Ivan Susanin, whose devotion to his sovereign, by misleading a detachment of Poles in 1611, forms the subject of the patriotic Russian opera called "Life for the Tsar." Kostomaroff, a modern Russian historian of high standing, has proved that the peasant in question never rendered any such service, as neither the Czar nor the Polish detachment had been in the locality indicated at the time to which the legend refers.
[47] It is, however, stated in Henderson's "Notes on Caithness Families" that he received letters of legitimation in 1588.
[48] Lord Maxwell had been banished the realm for the slaughter of the Laird of Johnstone; but returning into Scotland in 1612, he had sought and obtained the hospitality of his friend the Earl of Caithness, whose countess was Lord Maxwell's cousin. In the hope of obtaining a reward from the king and favour from the Court and Privy Council, this Earl of Caithness, with the aid of Captain George Sinclair, delivered Lord Maxwell to the Council, and he was hanged at Edinburgh in the year 1613.
In the account given of this treacherous transaction by Sir Robert Gordon, it is mentioned that Captain George Sinclair was at that time "preparing himself for Sweden," and that the earl had sent him into Caithness to seize Maxwell, "under pretence of taking up men for his voyage to Sweden." The historian adds, that while the Earl of Caithness never obtained his expected reward, Captain George Sinclair "came to his deserved end" in Norway; and his version of the affair is, that as Sinclair "would not be persuaded by Colonel Ramsay to stay for him until he could be ready also to go," "he went forward with Captain Hay into Sweden," and so ran "headlong to his own destruction."—("History of the Earldom of Sutherland.") His brother, John Sinclair, was killed in the same year (1612) at Thurso.
Sir Robert Gordon is, however, not quite reliable in his account of that transaction, for he says that George Sinclair, "hearing of the wars then likely to fall out, and which ensued shortly between the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, he gathered together 150 men in Caithness. Having made up this company, he joins with Colonel Ramsay and Captain Hay to go into Sweden." The Calmar War commenced in the spring of 1611, a year before the levies were made in Scotland; and we have seen that Sinclair had arranged with Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay and Captain Hay to raise one hundred men each (the strength of a company of infantry in those days), and that only three hundred men were landed by them in Romsdalen.
[VII.]
DESTRUCTION OF THE SCOTS IN GUDBRANDSDALEN.
In his first Report[49] to the Danish Chancellor, dated September 17, 1612, the Norwegian Stadtholder stated that when Lauritz Hage, Lensmand of Vaage in Gudbrandsdalen, heard of the arrival of the Scots in Romsdalen, "he at once roused the Bönder and peasantry in the two parishes of Lessje and Vaage, and went forth against the said Scots and foreign troops. And when he perceived they were too strong for him, he advanced for two or three days and kept before them along the road, without, however, engaging in any skirmish or fight. Meanwhile, he sent messengers to the peasantry in the two adjoining parishes, called Froen and Ringeböe, who quickly came to his assistance; and when they were in this manner gathered they were 405 men strong. Thus he advanced in front" (of the Scots) "along the road until he saw his advantage at a fjeld called Kringelen, situated in Vaage parish, which they were obliged to pass. Thus he hemmed them in between the rock on one side and a large river close by on the other side, in which advantageous position he quietly encamped in the woods, and there lay with his men until the foreign soldiers arrived there, without, however, supposing or knowing aught but that the Norwegian troops were still withdrawing along the road before them. The above-mentioned Lauritz Hage, having made his arrangements and perceived his advantage, attacked, together with another lensmand, Peter Rankleff of Ringeböe, and with all their men together they fired upon the foreign troops and shot them to death during an hour and a half. Those who were not shot jumped into the river to save themselves, but were there drowned; and those of them who got alive over the river were quickly killed by the Bönder on that side; all of which happened and occurred on the 26th of August last. From the Bönder who were themselves present at the battle, and who buried and counted the dead and the defeated, we learn that the foreign soldiers must no doubt have numbered at the least 550 men, although the Scots who remained alive, and of whom there are altogether 18, will not admit that they were more than 350 men strong at the utmost. On the day the battle took place 134 Scots were taken prisoners, who were straightway the next day killed and shot by the Bönder, with the exception of the above-mentioned 18, the Bönder saying to each other that His Majesty had enough to feed in those same 18. Some of these were, however, wounded, and some had bullets in their bodies, when they arrived here. Of the above-mentioned 18 soldiers we now send to you the three principal ones" (mentioning their names—Alexander Ramsay, James Moneypenny, and Henry Bruce). "As regards the remaining 15 persons, some of them have straightway taken service among good folk here in the country; some of them who will willingly serve your Royal Majesty in Jörgen Lunge's Regiment, I sent at once to Elfsborg."
