of the lake,
where the priest received him in a friendly manner. But he was being
sought by the Danes in that district and the priest did not dare to hide
him in his own house, but committed him to the care of a peasant named
Tomte Mattes. As the search was becoming active he was concealed in a
vaulted cellar, reached by a trap-door in the floor.

He had not been long there when the Danish scouts, who were searching the
whole district, reached the peasant's house, where they found his wife in
the midst of her brewing of Christmas ale. As they entered, the shrewd
woman turned a great tub over the trap-door, so that they did not
perceive it, and thus for the third time the future king of Sweden owed
his liberty and life to a woman's wit.

Shortly after that, at one of the Christmas festivals, as the men of Mora
were leaving the church, Gustavus called them to him where he stood on a
low mound beside the churchyard and addressed them in earnest tones,
while they gazed with deep sympathy on the manly form of the young noble
of whose sufferings and those of his family they were well aware.

He spoke of the risk to his life that he ran in venturing to speak to
them at all, but said that his unhappy country was dearer to him than
life. He pointed out the persecution which Sweden had formerly endured
from Danish kings, and of how they had robbed the country of its wealth.

"The same times and the same misfortunes have now returned," he said.
"Our land swims, so to say, in our own blood. Many hundred Swedish men
have been made to suffer a disgraceful and unmerited death. Our bishops
and senators have been cruelly murdered. I myself have lost father and
brother-in-law," he continued, his eyes streaming with tears, "and the
blood of all these martyrs cries for redress and retribution on the
tyrant."

The men of Dalarna, he said, had long been noted for their courage when
their land was in danger. They were renowned for this in history, and all
Sweden looked upon them as the firmest defenders of its liberties.

"I will willingly join with you for our land's deliverance," he
concluded, "and spare neither my blood nor my sword, for these are all
the tyrant has left me to use in your cause."

Many of the Dalmen heard him with cries of vengeance, but the most of
them stood in doubt. They did not know Gustavus personally and had heard
that Christian was cruel only to the great, but was kind and generous to
the peasantry. They cou