“And this was to no less a person than our clown. He had been bound hand and foot at the first, but having, by virtue of his profession, been enabled to walk on his back without any aid from his legs, he had shuffled or wriggled himself off, in the confusion, to a considerable distance without being observed, and when sufficiently away from the daggers of his enemies, managed to get clear of his bandages, and running off in the direction we had left, had the good luck to come up with our escort, which had halted at a kind of halfway-house below us and the nearest town, for the purpose of watering their horses and come-ing themselves; and being somewhat overtaken with the delectable comforts of the hostlery, had stayed much longer than their commission gave them licence to do. Here our clown found them, and they immediately gave chase and came up in the ‘nick of time’ described.
“As soon as the whole of our party could be collected together, we were put one behind each of the cavaliers, and picking up our scattered matters, and robbing the dead bodies of the fallen brigands of that which belonged to us, we all proceeded back to the small village of Orguillas, about half a league from where we had been stopped, and here we were all shown into the ‘venta’ of the village, which consisted of little more than a kitchen with four bare walls, where we laid down, like so many pigs, among the straw till the morning, when we were taken before the Alcade, who gravely heard our depositions, took them down, examined our cavaliers, and told us for our especial benefit that we must find our way back to Madrid as we could. So getting away from the village, and plenty of straw in, then we set off as quickly as bad horses, bad drivers, and bad roads would allow us, and reached the chief city of Spain in the most deplorable plight imaginable. So ended my acquaintance with Spanish Brigands.”
Gustavus Vasa.
There is nothing which delights me more, my young friends, than to tell you tales of the Great and Good; and among many, who are truly great and good in the pages of history, few stand more pleasingly prominent than Gustavus I., King of Sweden. He was one of those great men whom nature so seldom produces, and who appears to have been endowed by her with every quality becoming a sovereign. His handsome countenance and noble bearing prepossessed all persons in his favour; his artless eloquence was irresistible; his conceptions were bold, and his indomitable spirit brought them to a happy issue. He was intrepid and yet prudent, full of courtesy in a rude age, and as virtuous as the leader of a party can be.
When the tyrant, Christian II. of Denmark, sought to make himself master of the throne of Sweden, Gustavus resolved to save his country from the oppressor; but the execution of his plans was interrupted, as Christian seized his person and kept him prisoner at Copenhagen, as a hostage, with five other heroic Swedes. When at last, in 1519, he heard of the success of Christian, who had nearly completed the subjugation of Sweden, he resolved, although still immured in a loathsome dungeon, to deliver his country. Gustavus escaped to Lubeck, but soon found that the Danes were after him, which obliged him to assume the habit and manners of a peasant. In this disguise he travelled on foot among the plains and mountains as a fugitive, and frequently walked fifty miles in a day, from place to place, to elude his pursuers. When he became familiar with his disguise, and the rude language of the peasantry, he became very bold. He passed several times through the Danish army; when that army was looking out for him, by its scouts, in every direction, he passed through the midst of it in a waggon of hay, and proceeded to an old family castle at Sudermania. He dispatched letters to his friends in the hope of arousing them to the recovery of their liberties; but, meeting with little success among the great, he next tried the peasantry. He visited their villages by night, harangued them at their festive assemblies, but without effect—as they uniformly told him it was in vain for them to attempt to better their condition, for peasants they were and peasants they must remain.
Gustavus next determined to try the miners of Delacarlia. He penetrated the mountains of that remote province, and was obliged, for a scanty subsistence, to enter himself as a common labourer at a mine. Here he worked within the dark caverns of the earth; but the fineness of his linen soon led some of his fellow labourers to suspect that he was more than what he seemed.