and he will help us!"

The King was in Vadstene. He had called together the representatives
of the kingdom there. He dwelt in the cloister itself, even there
where little Agda, if the King did not grant her pardon, must suffer
what the angry Abbess dared to advise: penance and a painful death
awaited her.

Through forests and by untrodden paths, in storm and snow, Oluf and
Agda came to Vadstene. They were seen: some showed fear, others
insulted and threatened them. The guard of the cloister made the sign
of the cross on seeing the two sinners, who dared to ask admission to
the King.

"I will receive and hear all," was his royal message, and the two
lovers fell trembling at his feet.

And the King looked mildly on them; and as he long had had the
intention to humiliate the proud Bishop of Lindkjoeping, the moment was
not unfavourable to them; the King listened to the relation of their
lives and sufferings, and gave them his word, that the excommunication
should be annulled. He then placed their hands one in the other, and
said that the priest should also do the same soon; and he promised
them his royal protection and favour.

And old Michael, the merchant, who feared the King's anger, with which
he was threatened, became so mild and gentle, that he, as the King
commanded, not only opened his house and his arms to Oluf and Agda,
but displayed all his riches on the wedding-day of the young couple.
The marriage ceremony took place in the cloister church, whither the
King himself led the bride, and where, by his command, all the nuns
were obliged to be present, in order to give still more ecclesiastical
pomp to the festival. And many a heart there silently recalled the old
song about the cloister robbery and looked at Oluf Tyste:

"Krist gif en sadan Angel
Kom, tog bad mig och dig!"[C]

[Footnote C: Christ grant that such an angel were to come, and take
both me and thee!]

The sun now shines through the open cloister-gate. Let truth shine
into our hearts; let us likewise acknowledge the cloister's share of
God's influence. Every cell was not quite a prison, where the
imprisoned bird flew in despair against the window-pane; here
sometimes was sunshine from God in the heart and mind, from hence also
went out comfort and blessings. If the dead could rise from their
graves they would bear witness thereof: if we saw them in the
moonlight lift the tombstone and step forth towards the cloister, they
would say: "