ne another the goods of the traders in the booths, possessed
themselves of the stock of wine in the cathedral and the council-house,
seated themselves round the vats, drank and sang. The Danes, reenforced
from the castle, rallied anew, and the victory would undoubtedly have
been changed into an overthrow had not Gustavus sent Lawrence Olaveson,
with the followers he had kept about him, again into the town, where,
after a renewal of the conflict, the foe was put to an utter rout. Many
cast away their arms, and threw themselves, between fire and sword, into
the waters. Gustavus caused all the stores of spirituous liquors to be
destroyed, and beat in the wine casks with his own hand.

The fight of Westeras, from its influence on public opinion, acquired
greater importance than of itself it would have possessed. Little was
gained by the conquest of the town, so long as the castle held out; and
how unserviceable a force of peasants was for a siege, Gustavus was
often subsequently to experience. Wherever the tidings of his victory
came, the people revolted, and he was already enabled to divide his
power, and to invest the castles of several provinces. Siege was
accordingly laid to Stegborg, Nykoping, and Orebro. A division of the
Vermelanders, with the peasants of Rekarne, in Sudermania, was employed
in beleaguering the castle of Westeras; of whose exploits, however,
nothing else is told than that they shot the councillor Canute Bennetson
(Sparre), to whom Slagheck transferred the command, so that he tumbled
in his wolfskin coat from the wall into the stream. Howbeit, another
detachment reduced Horningsholm in Sudermania; Christian's governors in
Vermeland and Dalsland were slain; the people of the former province,
under the command of their justiciary, prepared for an attack upon the
councillor Thure Jonson, the King's lieutenant in West-Gothland, and,
crossing Lake Vener, entered that district.

In Dalsland, fifteen hundred men took up arms; several thousand peasants
from Nerike marched across the Tiwed with the same object. Gustavus had
been obliged to grant a furlough to his Dalesmen about seed-time; and to
supply their place he caused the people of several districts of Upland
to be summoned to assemble in the forest of Rymningen, at
Oeresundsbro; from which point his two captains essayed an attack upon
the Archbishop of Upsala. It was St. Eric's Day (May 18th), and a great
confluence of people was present at the fair. An