176 HE DEPARTS FOR DALECARLIA. 



neighbours, much less of course with other parts of the 

 kingdom. The people were manly and robust, for war and 

 the severity of the climate had hardened their frames ; 

 laborious and frugal in their way of living^as was indeed 

 needful, from the sterile nature of the soil; simple and 

 uncorrupted in their manner of life, for as yet it was seldom 

 that either foreigners or their customs had found their way 

 into these wilds; and to crown all, determined haters of 

 tyranny and oppression. 



At an after-period, Bishop Beldenack the same who took 

 so prominent a part in the " Blod-bad," but who now com- 

 manded an army on the part of Christian was opposed to 

 the Dalecarlians, then drawn up on the opposite side of a 

 river; and when calling to mind the numerous defeats the 

 Danish troops had experienced at their hands, he asked 

 a Swedish adherent, standing by his side : " How many of 

 those white-coated men could Dalecarlia send into the field ?" 

 " Twenty thousand at the least," replied the other ; " for 

 the old are just as stout and courageous as the young." 

 " But what do they live on ?" again inquired the prelate. 

 " On bread and water," was the rejoinder, " and if corn 

 fail them, on the bark of trees ground or pounded." " If 

 that be so," said Beldenack, " not the devil himself, much 

 less men, can ever reduce them to submission." 



Many of the disaffected, as just said, were supposed to 

 have taken refuge in Dalecarlia. For the purpose of as- 

 sembling these, as well as of prevailing, if possible, on the 

 inhabitants who were believed to be somewhat inimical to 

 Christian to assist in freeing the kingdom from the bloody 

 sway of the usurper, Gustavus determined on proceeding at 

 once into that province. With this resolve, he lost no time in 



