at a
tax payable in silver should be levied to defray the expenses of the
war, though apparently nothing was fixed by the diet as to the amount to
be raised or as to the mode of levy. With this meagre record our
information regarding this celebrated diet ends; but the new Cabinet,
before it parted, drew up a long-winded account of the cruelties of
Christiern, which it sent abroad among the people for a lasting memorial
of their tyrant king.[72]

No sooner had the diet closed its doors than the monarch sped with all
the haste he could command to Stockholm. That city had been for several
days in the last stages of despair. The garrison was miserably wasted in
numbers, and its food was gone. Longer to look for aid from Denmark was
to hope against all hope. Indeed, the wretched soldiers now thought only
of the terms on which they should capitulate. During a month or more
they had parleyed with their besiegers, but the terms which they had
offered had thus far been refused. As soon as Gustavus reached the spot,
negotiations were once more opened. The new monarch, fresh from the
honors of Strengnaes, seems to have shown them mercy. Apparently he
granted their requests; for on the 20th of June the castle yielded, and
the garrison, supplied with food and ships, set sail for Denmark. Three
days later, June 23, the monarch entered the capital in triumph, amid
the hosannas of his people. With this glorious issue the Swedish war of
independence closed.[73]

[Illustration]

In contemplating this struggle as a whole, the reader will doubtless be
impressed by the extraordinary ease with which the victory was won. In
less than two years and a half after the first blow was struck, the
Danish tyrants had been driven from every stronghold, and the patriots
had placed their leader on the throne. Indeed, eighteen months had
scarcely passed when the issue was practically decided. The remaining
year consisted mainly in the reduction of Sweden's strongholds, and was
marked by little bloodshed. It furnished small opportunity either for
brilliant strategy or for acts of startling courage. The enforced
absence of the Danish monarch prevented his army from entering the
field, and the patriots had neither arms nor ammunition with which to
storm the forts. Both parties, therefore, waited; and the last year was
little more than a test to determine the endurance of the contending
armies. While, however, this period wants many of the features that m