Bertila looked calmly at him with folded arms.
"Are you not afraid, old man?" resumed the hero of fourteen battles, evidently taken aback by the peasant's firm attitude.
"Did you ever see an honest Finn afraid?" said the old man, almost smiling.
The sergeant was not malicious. He suddenly felt much inclined to be generous; his fierce mien changed into the blustering, jovial air which became him so well.
"Do you know, boys," he said, with a look at his companions, "that the old ox has got both horns and hoofs? He might have become something in the world if he had been in good society. Yesterday, when they were fourteen to one—for you should know, boys, that all fourteen of the hands helped to lift me on the clodhopper's back, and then I gave everyone of them a remembrance of it—yes, as I say, yesterday I would have beaten the old fellow black and blue, had it not been for the presence of ladies at the table. But to-day we are fifteen against one, and so I propose that we let the old fellow go."
"He is as rich as Beelzebub," shouted some of the conscripts; "he shall treat us to a cask of ale."
Bertila produced a little purse, and threw some Carl IX. silver coins contemptuously among the crowd. This irritated the soldiers afresh; and again the storm threatened to burst forth, when suddenly cannon-shots were heard, and the whole crowd rushed down to the harbour. It was the Swedish man-of-war, "Maria Eleonora," saluting Korsholm.
CHAPTER V.
LADY REGINA ARRIVES AT KORSHOLM.
All who had life and sound limbs in Vasa had gone down to the shore, to see the uncommon sight of a man-of-war. Five or six hundred people lined the shore—rowed out in boats, climbed the masts of the vessels, or got on the roofs of the warehouses to get a better view.