, where Prince Magnus, King Birger's son, was in command, held
out much longer. The king and queen, with Brunke, their confederate, were
in Gothland, which province alone they held, and from which they sent a
number of ships to Stegeborg with provisions and troops. These had no
sooner appeared in the river Skares, however, than they were attacked and
taken, leaving Prince Magnus as bad off as ever. When this news was
brought to the king and queen they exclaimed in despair:

"Where shall we turn now, since God has sent us such a misfortune?"

Brunke, the cruel chancellor, volunteered to lead an expedition himself,
saying that he would no more spare the dukes' people than they had spared
the king's. Gathering some vessels, he had them strongly planked all
around, and loading these with provisions and the remainder of the king's
forces, he set out for Stegeborg.

On entering the Skares the people attacked him with stones and other
missiles, but he and his men protected themselves behind the planks.
Seeing this, fire-rafts were sent off from the shore against the ships,
and despite all that could be done to keep them off they drifted upon the
vessels, setting three of them on fire, from which the flames spread to
the others.

Brunke and his men leaped overboard, hoping to escape by swimming, but
they were all taken and Brunke and three of his chiefs sent to Stockholm,
where they were soon afterwards beheaded. Stegeborg was now in a
desperate state and was soon forced to surrender, on the condition that
the life of Prince Magnus should be spared. This condition was not kept,
notwithstanding the fact that he was innocent of his father's crime. The
indignant people were not willing to leave any scion of their wicked king
alive and the poor boy's head was cut off.

Thus the unholy treachery of King Birger met with retribution. Sir Matts
Kettilmundson, the brave knight who had shown such courage in Russia, was
made Administrator of the kingdom and soon defeated a Danish army which
had been sent to King Birger's aid. Then Birger and his wicked queen were
obliged to flee to Sweden, where grief soon brought him to his death-bed.
Queen Martha lived long, but it was a life made bitter by memory of her
crimes and Heaven's retribution.

[Illustration: From stereograph, copyright by Underwood and Underwood,
N.Y. MORNING GREETINGS OF NEIGHBORS, SWEDEN.]

_QUEEN MARGARET AND THE CALMAR UNION._

We have next to tell how the