ne who he
was, probably wishing first to learn how his host and others were
affected towards the king. While yet uncertain what course he should
pursue, one of the servants noticed that he wore a gold-embroidered
shirt, and told her master; and this, coupled with his language and
general appearance, led to his discovery. He thereupon appealed to his
old schoolfellow to shield him from his enemies, but in vain. The danger
was too great; and though full of sympathy for the young refugee, he
told him he must leave the place. Thus once more an outcast, Gustavus
hurriedly skirted the south shore of the lake, and after a narrow escape
by breaking through the ice, reached the house of another schoolmate,
who offered him protection and then went off to inform the Danish
officers. From this catastrophe Gustavus was rescued by a warning from
his betrayer's wife, and had fled ere the officers appeared. His next
asylum was some twenty miles farther north, where he found protection at
the hands of the parish priest. The king's officers were now upon the
scent. The whole province was alive to the fact that it was harboring
within its borders the regent's ward. The strictest vigilance was
therefore necessary in order to save his life. So the priest kept him
but a week, and then hurried him some thirty miles farther through the
woods to Raettvik, a hillside village at the eastern extremity of Lake
Siljan. There he tarried several days, talking with the peasantry, and
urging them to rebel against the tyranny of their Danish ruler. He was
now on ground to be ever afterwards famous in Swedish history. Here for
the first time his words were heard with some degree of favor. The proud
spirits of these mountain peasants had been already often roused by
evidences of foreign usurpation, and it needed little to induce them to
rebel. But their isolated position in a measure saved them from the
burdens of the Danish yoke, and they answered they could venture nothing
till they had held a conference with their neighbors. The disheartened
outlaw therefore set forth once more. He traversed the icy meadows that
lie along the eastern side of Lake Siljan, and after a journey of about
twenty-five miles reached the village of Mora, lying at the head of the
lake. It was on Christmas day that he addressed the people of this
village. Knowing this to be his last hope of success, he took his stand
on an elevated mound, and gazed over the white fields, dotted here