nto Sir Tord's hands.

On receiving the letters, Charles laid them before the senate at
Stockholm, but the traitors were men of such power and note, and there
was so much envy and jealousy of Charles among the lords, that he dared
not attempt to punish the plotters as they deserved, but was obliged to
pardon them. As for Ture and his men, they managed to escape from the
place where they had been left for safe keeping, and made their way to
Denmark.

[Illustration: From stereograph, copyright by Underwood and Underwood,
N.Y. GRIPSHOLM CASTLE, MARI.]

Meanwhile Sir Tord Bonde was kept busy, for King Christian of Denmark
several times invaded the land. On each occasion he was met by the
valiant defender of West Gothland and driven out with loss. On his final
retreat he built a fortress in Smaland, which he called Danaborg, or
Danes' castle, leaving in it a Danish garrison; but it was quickly
attacked by Sir Tord with his men-at-arms and a force of armed peasantry
and the castle taken by storm, the Danes suffering so severe a defeat
that the place was afterwards known as Danasorg, or Danes' sorrow.

Sir Tord, to complete his chain of defences, had built several fortresses
in Norway, then claimed by King Christian as part of his dominions. He
had with him in this work about four hundred men, so small a force that
Kolbjoern Gast, one of Christian's generals, proceeded against him with an
army three thousand strong, proposing to drive the daring invader out of
the kingdom.

Weak as he felt himself, Sir Tord determined to try conclusions with the
Danes and Norsemen, proposing to use strategy to atone for his weakness.
One hundred of his men were placed in ambush in a clump of woodland, and
with the remaining three hundred the Swedish leader marched boldly on the
enemy, who were entrenched behind a line of wagons. Finding that he could
not break through their defences, Sir Tord and his men turned in a
pretended flight and were hotly pursued by the enemy, who abandoned their
lines to follow the flying Swedes. Suddenly Sir Tord turned and led his
men in a fierce attack upon the disordered pursuers, falling upon them
with such bold fury that he had two horses killed under him. At the same
time the hundred men broke from their ambush, sounding their war-horns
loudly, and fell on the flank of the foe, though they were so badly armed
that they had no iron points on their lances.

Confused and frightened by the double attack and