vus advanced his camps
nearer to the town. His southern camp he moved to Soedermalm, from which
he built a pontoon bridge to connect it with the west camp now on an
island some three or four hundred yards from Stockholm. Another bridge
he threw across the channel east of the city, and built upon it a turret
which he armed with heavy guns. The city was thus hemmed in on every
side, and a contemporary writes, "We cannot find in any of the old
chronicles that Stockholm ever was so hard besieged before." Unless
relief came it was merely a question of time when the garrison would
have to yield. Once, in November, Norby came sailing into the harbor
with five ships-of-war; but the Swedish fleet, consisting of fifteen
vessels, drove him off, and, were it not for the half-heartedness of the
German mercenaries, would very likely have destroyed his fleet.[69]

The high spirit of the garrison had fallen. Wasted in numbers, with
hunger and dissension spreading fast among them, and with scarce enough
ammunition to resist an assault upon their walls, they waited
impatiently for the army of Christiern, and marvelled that it did not
come. All servants, old men, monks, burghers, and prostitutes they sent
away, that there might be fewer mouths to feed. Each day, too, their
numbers were diminished through the desertion of able-bodied men who
escaped through the gates or over the walls and made their way by one
means or another to the Swedish camp. There being no longer possibility
of driving off the enemy by force, they felt that their only hope was
fraud. They therefore one day sent a Swedish magnate to the enemy, with
instructions to pretend that he had fled, and after finding out how
matters stood, set fire to the camp and either return to the garrison,
or, that being impossible, make his way to Denmark and induce the
monarch to send immediate relief. This piece of stratagem, however,
proved abortive; for two refugees from the garrison came forward and
denounced the magnate as a spy.[70]

When winter came, Gustavus sent a large part of his army, chiefly the
cavalry, to take up winter-quarters in Upsala. Others were sent to other
towns. Some, too, were sent, in February, 1523, to the Norwegian
frontier to gain the allegiance of the people. Towards the close of
winter Gustavus ordered his German troops to the south of Sweden on a
similar errand, but within six weeks they came back and reported that
the spring freshets had carried away th