GUSTAVUS' RESOLVES. 175 



in-law, together with very many of the most illustrious 

 men in Sweden lay as well as clerical perished igno- 

 miniously on the scaffold. He spoke of the imprisonment 

 of the knight's mother and sister, and of the large reward 

 offered for his own person, whether brought in alive or dead. 

 All this dreadful news was corroborated to the letter, by a 

 messenger who shortly afterwards arrived from the capital. 



Though almost broken-hearted at the cruel intelligence, 

 still, so far from being reduced to despair, the courage of 

 Gustavus, then some thirty years old, only rose the higher 

 with the occasion ; and instead of deserting his country in 

 her utmost need, as too many had already done, he nobly 

 resolved on either ridding it of its oppressor, or perishing 

 in the attempt. 



At the time of the " Blod-bad," there were numbers of 

 gallant men in Sweden, who, either from patriotic motives, 

 or fear of treachery, refused to bow the knee to Christian, 

 and who, in consequence, had been declared Fogel-fria 

 that is, in a state of outlawry the penalty attaching to which 

 was, that every one was permitted to put them to death, 

 wherever met with. Many of these unfortunates had sought 

 refuge in the interminable forests covering the face of the 

 country, where, with the hand of every man against them, 

 they wandered in misery and wretchedness leading a life, in 

 short, little other than that of the beasts of the field. 



Not a few of these unhappy men were believed to have 

 sought shelter in the wilds of Dalecarlia. This province was 

 then but little visited by strangers. Owing, indeed, to its 

 mountainous character, its boundless forests, and the nume- 

 rous and extensive lakes studding every part of it, there 

 was no great communication even between comparative 



