and
there with little hamlets, and to the snow-clad hills beyond. The
surroundings added even to the zeal with which his own needs made him
speak. He portrayed in burning terms the wrongs and insults that had
been heaped upon the Swedish people. He alluded to his own affliction
and to the general scene of carnage that had taken place in Stockholm.
He pictured the evils in store for the proud highlanders before him, and
appealed to them in the name of Almighty God to join him in a war for
liberty. But all this eloquence was wasted. His appeal struck no
responsive chord. The people flatly refused to give him their
assistance. He had, therefore, but one course left. With no further hope
of keeping his whereabouts unknown, he hastened with all speed from the
town, and fled over the ice-bound hills of the west, to seek a last
asylum in the wilds of Norway.[54]

Black indeed were the clouds now gathering over the head of Sweden. Even
the liberty-loving province of Dalarne had refused to strike a blow for
freedom. Soon, it seemed, the whole of Sweden would be groaning under
the burden of a foreign despotism. Yet such an issue was by the design
of Providence to be averted. But a few days after the flight of Gustavus
out of Mora news arrived that Christiern was preparing a journey through
the land, and had ordered a gallows to be raised in every province.
Rumor was rife, too, with new taxes soon to be imposed. Nor was it long
before a messenger arrived who confirmed the words of Gustavus as to the
cruelties in Stockholm, and added further that there were many magnates
throughout the realm who not only had not bowed the knee to Christiern,
but had declared that rather than do so they would die with sword in
hand. Then the blood of the villagers of Mora boiled within them.
Post-haste, and trembling lest it were now too late, they put men on the
track of the young fugitive with orders to push on by day and night and
not rest till they had found Gustavus and brought him back. They found
him on the very frontier of Norway, and announced to him that their
people were ready to join his banner and with him pour out their blood
for freedom. With a joyous heart he turned about and hurried back to
Mora. The whole province was now awake. Raettvik had already had a
conflict with a body of Danish horsemen; and when the outcast hero
appeared once more at Mora, he found a vast throng of peasants flocking
from every side to join his ranks. By c