peril of his life. He
therefore; renounced for the time being his desire to see his family,
and proceeded stealthily to approach the capital by land. His way lay
first across the dreary moors and swamps of Smaland. Here he went from
house to house, inciting the peasantry to rebel. Among others he sought
out some of his father's tenants, in the hope that they at least would
hear him. But he found them all sunk in lethargy, cowering under the
sword of Christiern. His voice was truly the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. The golden hope of lifting his country out of her misery
seemed shattered at a blow. Instead of being received with open arms as
a deliverer, he was jeered at in every town, and finally so bitter grew
the public sentiment against him that he was forced to flee. Hardly
daring to show his face lest he should be shot down by the soldiers of
the king, he betook himself to a farm owned by his father on the south
shore of the Maelar. Here he remained in secrecy through the summer,
hoping for better times,--an unwilling witness of the subjugation of his
land,--till finally he was driven from his refuge by an act of
Christiern so revolting in its villany that it made the whole of Europe
shudder.[46]

Christiern, on the 27th of May, was riding at anchor in the harbor of
the capital. Among his men was Hemming Gad, over the spirit of whose
dream had come a vast change since his capture some eighteen months
before. Just when this change began, or how it was effected, is unknown.
But already, in March of 1520, the report had spread through Sweden that
Gad had turned traitor to his native land, and we find him writing to
the people of Stockholm to tell them that he and they had done
Christiern wrong, and begging them to reconcile themselves to Christiern
as he had done. Gad was a statesman,--a word synonymous in those days
with charlatan,--and he did not hesitate to leave his falling comrades
in order to join the opposite party on the road to power. Doubtless
Christiern took care that he lost nothing by his change of colors, and
doubtless it was with a view to aid himself that he brought Gad back to
Sweden.[47]

No sooner did Christiern arrive off Stockholm than Krumpen came with
Archbishop Trolle from Upsala, to receive him. They held a council of
war on board the fleet, and resolved to lay siege once more to
Stockholm. The capital was by this time well supplied with food; but the
summer had only just begun, and