e began to fear the result.

He therefore sent his chancellor, Bishop Kol, to ask for a personal
interview with the leaders of the opposite force, with solemn promises of
safety. Yielding to the bishop's persuasions, the chiefs accompanied him
across the river that separated the two armies. Then Birger did a
dastardly act. No sooner had the chiefs come within his power than he had
them seized and beheaded on the spot as rebels.

Thus fell a number of the leading men of Sweden, and, the leaders fallen,
Birger attacked and easily dispersed their army, sparing the Swedes, but
cutting to pieces all the Germans that could be overtaken. Thus he added
greatly to the power of his family, but by an act of treachery and
perjury for which Archbishop Lars laid upon him a heavy penance. As for
Bishop Kol, who had been made the innocent agent in this shameful deed,
he never read mass again, and finally resigned his office and left his
country, journeying as a pilgrim to the Holy Land in expiation for his
involuntary crime. He never found peace and rest until he found them in
the grave.

Birger Jarl by these means rose to be the mightiest man in the north. His
son was king of Norway, his daughter was queen of Sweden, and his
daughter-in-law was a princess of Denmark, for when Valdemar became
twenty years of age he sought and won for his bride the beautiful Danish
Princess Sophia. The marriage was one of great pomp, a great hall being
built for the occasion, where the courtiers appeared in new-fashioned
dresses of rich stuffs, and there were plenty of banquets, games, dances,
and even tilts and tournaments, all conducted according to the noblest
custom of the times.

Birger himself had a queen for his wife, having married the dowager Queen
Mechthild of Denmark, and to increase his importance he assumed the title
of duke, never before borne in Sweden. But many of the peasants called
him king, since he governed the kingdom and was married to a queen. But
meanwhile poor Bishop Kol was dying of grief for the deed of shame into
which this proud lord had led him.

Shall we here tell an interesting and romantic story about one of
Birger's brothers? He was a judge in East Gothland, his name being Bengt,
and had fallen deeply in love with a damsel named Sigrid, whose family
was not rich nor great, though she herself was so beautiful that she was
widely known as Sigrid the Fair.

Duke Birger was not pleased with the idea of such a match, t