peasants had returned to their homes.
He made a hasty retreat, but was overtaken by Trolle's horsemen at the
Ford of Laby. Here a young Finnish noble, who was next to him, in the
confusion rode down his horse in the midst of the stream; and he would
have been lost had not the rest of his followers turned upon the enemy
with such effect as to make them desist from the pursuit.

Gustavus now betook himself to the forest of Rymningen, raised the
peasantry of the adjoining districts, and sent out young men under his
best captains to surprise the Archbishop on his return. The remains of
cattle slaughtered on the road betrayed the ambush to the prelate, who
drew off in another direction. He was nevertheless overtaken and
attacked, escaping the spear of Lawrence Olaveson only by bending
downward on his horse, so that the weapon pierced his neighbor; and he
brought back to Stockholm hardly a sixth part of his army. Gustavus
followed close after with his collected force, and encamped under the
Brunkeberg. Four gibbets on this eminence, stocked with corpses of
Swedish inhabitants, attested the character of the government in the
capital.

Thus began, at the midsummer of 1521, the siege of Stockholm, which was
to last full two years, amid difficulties little thought of nowadays,
after the lapse of ages; and the admiration which men so willingly
render to the exertions in the cause of freedom have deprived events of
their original colors. The path of Gustavus was not in general one of
glittering feats, although his life is in itself one grand achievement.
What he accomplished was the effect of strong endurance and great
sagacity; and though he wanted not for intrepidity, it was of a kind
before which the mere warrior must vail his crest. All the remaining
movements of the war of liberation consist in sieges of the various
castles and fortresses of the country, undertaken as opportunity
offered, with levies of the peasantry, whose detachments relieved each
other, though sometimes neglecting this duty when pressed by the cares
or necessities of their own families. Hence the object of these
investments, which was to deprive the besieged of provisions, could only
be imperfectly attained, and there were many fortified mansions of which
the proprietors adhered to the Danish party, as that of Wik in Upland,
which remained blockaded throughout the whole year. These difficulties
were the most formidable where, as at Stockholm, access was op