ved at Stockholm, he entered the town with only
an eighth part of the glittering troop with which he had started
out.[62]

The patriot army now proceeded to the capital, and pitched their camp on
the hill north of the town. There they found four gallows from which
were hanging the bodies of four Swedes, murdered to glut the rapacity of
their Danish masters. One day, while encamped on this spot, the Danes
came out against them, and dividing their forces into two bodies stormed
the Swedish redoubt simultaneously on both sides. The charge was fierce,
and lasted half a day, when the Swedes were driven from their
stronghold with heavy loss, and forced to take up a new position about
twelve miles farther north. There they remained three weeks, battling
daily with the enemy with varying success. At last the commandant of
Stockholm had recourse to strategy. Advancing with a powerful army till
near the vicinity of the Swedish camp, he halted and placed his force in
ambuscade. He then pushed forward with some forty horse and a few weak
infantry to the enemy's earthworks, as if to storm them. After a slight
skirmish, in which some eight or ten of the horse were captured, the
Danish leader shouted that all was lost, and took to flight. The
patriots, all unsuspecting, dashed after them, and followed blindly into
the very midst of the Danish army, into the jaws of death. Thus ended
the first attempt of Gustavus Vasa to capture Stockholm.[63]

Better fared it with him in other parts. One of the most valiant
officers of Gustavus was Arvid Vestgoete. This man was despatched, about
the middle of May, to the provinces south of Stockholm, to enlist the
peasantry in the Swedish cause. Collecting his forces along the way, he
advanced from one town to another, plundering the estates of all who
would not join him, and before the end of June reached Stegeborg, a
strongly fortified castle on the Baltic coast. This he proceeded to
besiege. In July, Norby, the most famous naval officer of Christiern,
came to the rescue of the beleaguered castle with sixteen men-of-war.
Landing his forces on the shore, he drew them up in battle-array, three
hundred strong. The Swedes, however, rushed furiously upon them, and
drove them to the sea. A few days later, after provisioning the castle,
Norby sailed away to Denmark.[64]

[Illustration]

All through this spring and summer Gustavus was busy passing from camp
to camp, giving orders as to the disposition o