and before her imagination rose all the stories she
had heard about this land of witchcraft. During
her ten months' stay among the Swedes she had in
some measure learned to understand their language;
she did not immediately comprehend the other's
meaning, but a single word was sufficient to fasten
her attention.
"The king?" repeated she, in broken Swedish.
" Who are you, and what have you to tell me about
the great Gustaf Adolf ? "
" Waste not a moment, your grace! " continued
Meri, without listening to Regina's question. "They
are already at the gates, and Lady Martha, with her
six soldiers, will not be able to protect you against
two hundred. Quick! If you cannot come out
through the door, tie together sheets and shawls
and let yourself down from the window; I will re-
ceive you."
Regina began to understand that some danger
threatened her ; but far from being terrified by it,
she heard it with a secret pleasure. Was she not
a martyr to her faith, transported to this wild land
for her zeal in trying to convert the mightiest ene-
my of her church ? Perhaps the moment was at
hand when the saints would grant her a martyr-
crown, deiirly bought by life itself. Why should she
shun an honor which she had so recently craved ?
Was it not the tempter himself, who, in the
pale woman's form, tried to lure her from an im-
perishable glory? And Regina answered :" ^i
dixit diaholus : da te jyTceciiyitem ex hoc loco, nam
scriptum est : angelis suis niandavit de te., ut te
THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH. 191
tueantur ne tillo modo Icedaris.'''' * At these words
the moon appeared round tlie corner of tlie vva 1
and tlirevv its melanclioly li<>ht on the beautiful
girl's face. Her cheeks glowed, her eyes burned
with an ecstatic brilliance. Meri looked at her full
of wonder and dread • . and aiiain it flashed
CD
through her mind that something must be wrong
with a being of such a singular appearance, and
who spoke so strangely. An indescribable fear
seized her, and she fled, without knowing why, away
throuo-h the moonlio-ht, back to the town.
In the meantime Regina in her chamber had
heard the murmur from the castle vard. The drunk-
en horde had been checked by a well- barred gate,
and stood clamorous on the outside, threatening
not to leave a stone of the castle standing, unless
the witch was immediately given up to them. But
Lady Martha, although just awakened from her
sound sleep, was not one to be easily scared. She
had been in more than one siege in her younger
days,- and understood, like a, wise commander, that
a fortress does not fall at biff words. " One who
gains time, gains all," thought Lady Martha, and she
therefore began to negotiate for capitulation, with
the request to know what the besiegers especially
wanted, and wliv thev wanted it. Li the meantime,
half a dozen rusty muskets were hunted up, with
which the castle's invalids were armed ; the six
keepers were provided with clubs and pikes ; the
servant girls themselves were ordered to seize the
flails with which more than one of Fleming's caval-
ry received their death-blow during the Club War.
Thus prepared. Lady Martha thouglu she could with
* " And Satan saith unto him •. ' Cast thyself down ; for it is written,
He shall give His angels cliarge concerning tliee, ttiat tliey may preserve
thee, 60 tliat no liarni may befall iliee.' " Compare Matthew iv, 6, where
the Lutheran text differs from the Catliolic.
192 TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF.
safety break off negotiations ; she therefore ad-
vanced in person to the inside of the gate, and
began a scolding lesson which had in it strong
words and but little music.
" You crazy scamps ! " shrieked the brave dame,
with more force than elegance, " may the devil take
you, as many as you are, drunken ale-bibbers! Pack
yourselves off this instant, or, as sure as my name
is Martha Ulfsparre, you shall have a taste of ' Mas-
ter Hans' on vour backs ! vou villains, sots, shame-
less knaves, night loafers ! "
" Master Hans" was a good-sized stick of braid-
ed rattan which seldom left Lady Martha's hand,
and for whose impressive maxims all the inmates
of the castle entertained a deep respect. But wheth-
er the noisy crowd did not understand " Master
Hans' " excellent qualities, or whether, in the up-
roar. Lady Martha's words were only heard by those
standing nearest, the mob continued to press on
with loud cries, and the strong gate shook upon its
hinges.
" Out with the witch ! " shrieked the wildest, and
some of them began to throw brands against the
gate, in the hope of setting it on fire.
Lady Martha had on the ramparts two clumsy
cannon from the time of Gustaf I, called "the
hawk "and "the dove." Their innocent employ-
ment had long been to respond to the salute of ves-
sels arriving in the harbor, and on solemn occa-
sions, such as christening days and royal nuptials,
to interpret in loud tones the official sentiments of
pleasure. It is true, these guns were mounted on
some old disused ramparts outside of the present
fortifications of the castle — the high fence with its
iron spikes — and the cannons were consequently
more easily accessible to the enemy than to the
THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH. 193
besieged. But Lady Martha calculated very cor-
rectly that a cannonade from the ramparts would
overawe the enemy, and serve as a signal of dis-
tress to summon assistance from the man-of-war
and the town. She therefore ord'ered two of her
soldiers to steal out under cover of the night, load
" the hawk " and " the dove," and directly after tlie
shot was fired — with powder only — return quickly
to the castle.
The elfectof this was instantaneous. The hue
and cry ceased directly ; and Lady Martha did not
let the opportunity slip from her hands.
" Do you hear, you pack of thieves ?" screamed
she, mounted on a ladder so that her white night-
cap was seen in the moonlight a few feet above the
gate ; "if you don't this minute take yourselves
off from His Royal Majesty's castle, 1 will let my
cannon shoot you into fragments, like so many cab-
bage stalks; you noisy, drunken swine ! I sup-
pose you know that angry dogs get torn skins, and
the chicken who sticks his neck in the jaws of the
fox will have to look around to see where his head
is. I shall have you cut to pieces, you ruffians ! "
continued Lady Martha, more and more excited ;
" 1 will make mince-meat of you and throw you
to the . ."
Unfortunately, the brave commander was not
allowed to finish her heroic harangue. One of the
crowd had found a rotten turnip on the ground,
and flung it so skilfully at the white night-cap shin-
ing in the moonlight, that Lady Martha, struck
right in the brow, was obliged to retire, and for the
first time in her life had to leave a sentence unfin-
ished. An irrepressible laugh now rose among the
crowd, and with it Lady Martha's supremacy was
hopelessly impaired. The enemy stormed more
N 9
194 TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF.
and more arrogantly against the gate, the hinges
bent, the boards gave away, finally half the gate
fell in with a terrible crash, and the whole crowd
of the besiegers rushed into the court-yard.
Now one could have wao-ered three ao-ainst one
that Lady Martha would be obliged to capitulate.
But no ; she withdrew quickly, with all her force,
to the interior of the castle, barring the entrance,
and placed her musketeers at the windows, threat-
ening to shoot down the first person who attempted
to enter. Such resolute couraq-e, on anv other
occasion, would not have failed of its eft'ect; but
the infuriated rabble neither heard nor saw. One
of the men in front, who had found a crowbar, began
to batter the door.
Then arose confusion and outcries at the rear
of the crowd. Those in the middle turned round
and discerned through the open gateway, as far as
one could see in the uncertain moonlight, the whole
space outside filled with head upon head and mus-
ket upon musket. It was as if an army had sprung
up from the earth to annihilate the disturbers of
the peace. Could it be all the bloodless shades of
the long deceased champions of Korsholm had
risen from their graves to avenge the violence that
had been committed aiirainst their old fortress?
In order to explain the unexpected sight which
was now presented to the view of the belligerents,
we must remember that a great part of the country
people from the adjacent regions had flocked to the
town to witness the departure of the recruits. It
ought also to be mentioned that the Storkyro peas-
ant king had remained over night in Wasa, prob-
ably in the secret expectation of hearing some
news about Bertel from the crew of the " Maria
Eleonora." The burning of the ale-house and the
THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH. 195
march of the noisy crowd toward Korsliolm had set
all Wasa in commotion, and when Meri arrived in
breathless haste, implornii^ her father to save the
imprisoned lady, she found open ears everywhere.
The East Bothnian is soon ready for battle; and
when the peasants learned the wrong which had
been done Bertila, their foremost man, the old ani-
mosity against the soldiers awakened within them.
They forgot that many of their own sons and
brothers had just donned the recruit's jacket;
they could not possibly neglect so welcome an
opportunity to give the soldiers a thrashing, both
in the name of humanity and in defense of the
king's castle. They therefore marched, with Ber-
tila at the head, about a hundred strong, to the
rescue of the castle; and what in the moonlight
might have been taken for pikes and muskets, was
scarcely anything but hastily-snatched poles and
rails — the usual weapons in the fights of that re-
gion.
As soon as the soldiers saw that they were at-
tacked from the outside, they tried to hide their
consternation by loud shouts and threats. Uncer-
tain of the enemy's strength, some of them began
to thirds; of a possible retreat over the spiked fence;
others believed that they had to deal with a whole
army of spectres, called up through the strange
witch's incantations, which seemed, even to the
most courageous, uncomfortable and unpleasant.
They were soon roused from their delusion, how-
ever, by the well-known sounds of M ilax Swedish
and Lillkyro Finnish, which could with very good
reason be thought to come from human lips, and
not from sfhosts. At the moment when the forces
of the outer enemy clogged up the gateway, a
silence arose, as if by agreement on each side,
196 TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF.
durins: which could be distinguished a voice from
the castle window and another from the rampart,
both speaking at once:
"Didn't I tell you so?" shrieked Lady Martha
bravely, from the window: "didn't I tell you,
tipplers, vagabonds, that you ought to think seven
times before you stuck your noses between the
wedge and the tree, and if the tail has once got
into the fox trap, there is no otlier resource left
than to bite it off. A big mouth needs a broad
back, and now hold yourselves in readiness to pay
the fiddler!"
And with this, Lady Martha drew back; very
likely from fear of a new volley of rotten turnips.
The other voice from the rampart was that of
an old man, who in powerful tones cried to the sol-
diers:
" If you will lay down your arms and give up
your leaders, then the rest may go in peace. If
not, there shall be a dance, the like of which Kors-
holm has never seen, and we will see to it that the
bows are well-rosined."
"May all the devils take you, peasant lubber! "
replied a voice from the court-yard, by which
could be plainly recognized the jolly sergeant,
Bengt Kristerson. "If I had you between my
fingers, I would — blitz-donner-kreutz-Pappenheitn!
— teach you to propose to brave soldiers a cowardly
suri'cnder! Go ahead, boys; let us clear the gate-
way and drive the gang back to their porridge
kettle!"
Fortunately, none of the soldiers were provided
with fire-arms, and very few with swords, as the
recruits had not yet obtained weapons. Most of
them had, besides their extinguished brands and
some fragments of broken wagons, only sticks
THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH. 197
snatched from a wood-pile in the yard. Thus
equipped, the crowd bore down upon the entrance.
Ax the first assault, the soldiers were received
with such enerofetic blows of the rails, that many
drew back with bloody heads. But soon the crowd
at the grate became so dense that no arm could be
lifted, no blow dealt, and a frantic struggle took
place between those in front, while those from
both sides closed around them and finally pressed
them so tio-htlv that no one could move hand or foot,
and they expected every minute to be squeezed to
death. Here were seen vigorous arms trying in
vain to overthrow an enemy; there, broad shoul-
ders exerting themselves to make their way through
the crushing mass. Finally the pressure from within
became so strong that the foremost ranks of the
peasants were thrust aside or thrown down, and
about half of the soldiers cleared a way toward the
open plain outside the ramparts, while the other
half, again penned up, were obliged to remain in
the court-yard.
Then began a regular battle. They fought
with poles and sticks, with whips and fists. Here
rained down many a blow which might better have
been bestowed on Isolani's Croats; here was per-
formed many a daring exploit which would have
been better suited to the battle-fields of Germany.
The soldiers, although superior in numbers, were
divided by the gate into two detached corps, and
soon had the worst of it. Part of them, numbering
the youngest of the recruits, took to flight, and
scattered themselves toward the town; others were
overpowered and badly beaten; others again — the
old experienced soldiers — retired to the ramparts,
where, secure from attack in the rear, they defended
themselves with desperate courage.
198 TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF.
Victory now seemed to incline decidedly toward
the side of the peasants, when the strife received
a new impetus. The forces at the gate, who, on
account of the struggle outside the ramparts, had
forgotten the enemy within, were surprised by the
enclosed soldiers, who rushed out to help their
comrades. These now found breathing space, and
in their turn attacked the peasants with increased
fury; the aiFray became more and more involved,
the victory more and more uncertain; both parties
had defeats to reveno-e, and the rao-e of both in-
creased as the strength on both sides became more
equal.
And over this scene of tumult and confusion,
of lamentation, cries of victory, threats, and wild
conflict, the clear and silvery Au2:ust moon beamed
like a heavenly eve upon the self-inflicted anguish
and misery of earth. All the inlets of the bay
shone in the moonlight; in the tree tops and on the
moist grass there glittered millions of dewdrops,
like pearls on midsummer's green robe. All nature
breathed an indescribable calm; a gentle breeze
from the great shining sea in the west passed
softly over the coast; in the distance was heard the
monotonous roll of the surf upon the beach, and
the stars looked down, silent and twinkling, into
the dark waters.
When the yard was found empty, Lady Martha
and her soldiers ventured out to behold from a
nearer standpoint the strife on the ramparts. The
stout-hearted old lady undoubtedly felt inclined
to take part in the contest in her wa^', for she was
heard to cry to the peasants in a loud voice:
" That's right, boys! drum ahead! let the stick
fly! many have danced after worse fiddles!" And
to the soldiers she screamed: "Good luck to you,
THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH. ]90
my children; help yourselves to a little supper;
Korsholin offers the best the house has. Be at
ease; your witch is in good keeping; Korsholm
has bolts and bars for you too, miscreants! "
But as if a ca[.ricious fate wished to convict
the old lady of untruth and put all her prudence
to shame, a tall, dark female form appeared at that
moment on the top of the rampart, and outlined
itself ao-ainst the moonlit skv.
Lady Martha felt the words die on her lips
when, lu dismay, she recognized her well-guarded
prisoner. How Regina had got out through locked
doors and closed windows was to the good dame
such an inexplicable enigma that she was for an
instant ii;fected by the superstitious belief in the
strange girl's alliance with the powers of darkness.
She gave up all idea of catching the fugitive, and
expected nothing less than to see large black wings
grow out of her shoulders, and to see her, like an
immense raven, soar aloft toward the starry firma-
ment.
The reader, on the other hand, can easily find a
natural explanation. The din of the conflict and
the sound of the two cannon shots had reached
Regina's lonely chamber. Every moment she
expected to be seized by executioners and dragged
to a certain death; and so glorious did the lot of
dying for her faith seem to her, that her impa-
tience was increased to the highest degree when
the noise down below continued, but still, after an
hour's interval, no human feet were heard to ap-
proach her door. Finally the thought ran through
her fanatical soul, that the prince of darkness
envied her so grand a fate, and that the strife going
on below was instio-ated bv him in order to pre-
pare for her, instead of a glorious death, a languish-
200 TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF.
ing life in captivity, without profit or joy. She
remembered the singer's advice, to lower herself
down through the open window by means of sheets
and shawls; quickly she formed her resolution,
and before many minutes stood in view of all the
combatants on the rampart.
As they became aware of the tall form up there
in the moonlight, they were seized with the same
superstitious dread which had just paralyzed Lady
Martha's quick tongue. The contest gradually
subsided, and continued only at the most remote
points; friend and foe were affected by a common
horror, and near the rampart there was a silence so
deep that one could hear in the distance the sea's
low murmur against the pebbly beach.
And Lady Regina spoke with a voice so loud
and clear that if her Swedish had not been so im-
perfect she could have been very well understood
by all within hearing.
" Yo children of Belial!" said she, in tones
which, though slightly trembling at first, soon be-
came firm and calm, "ye people of the heretic
faith, why do ye delay to take my life? Here I
stand without weapons, without any human protec-
tion, with the high heaven above me and the earth
and sea at my feet, and say to you: Your Luther
was a false prophet; there is no salvation except
in the true universal Catliolic Church. Therefore, be
converted to the Holy Vii'gin and all the saints;
acknowledge the Pope to be Christ's vicegerent, as
he truly is, that you may avert from your heads the
sword of St. George, which is already raised to
destroy you. But me you can kill in order to seal
the veracity of my faith; here I stand; why do
you hesitate? I am ready to fall for my faith! "
It was Lady Regina's good fortune that her
THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH. 201
speech was not understood by those to whom it
was addressed, for so strong* was the power of
Lutheranism, in this fervid time when nations and
individuals sacrificed life and welfare for their reli-
gion, tliat even the humblest and most ignorant
were filled with burning zeal and a blind hate to
the Pope and his followers, of which all our crab-
bed but pithy old psalm-books yet to-day bear
plain witness. Had this mass of people, both
peasants and soldiers, heard Regina extol the Pope
and declare Luther a false prophet, they would
inevitably have torn her to pieces in their rage. As
it was, the young girl's words were an unmeaning
sound in their ears; they saw her firm bearing, and
the respect which courage and misfortune united
always inspire did not fail to have its effect upon
the enrasfed throng' a few moments before so
furious, now irresolute, and at a loss what to think
or do.
Lady Regina again expected, in vain, to be
drag-o-ed to death. She descended from the ram-
part and mingled in the shyly yielding crowd; all
could see that she was utterly unprotected, and yet
not a hand moved to seize her.
"It is not a being of flesh and blood, it is a
sliadow," said an old Wora peasant, hesitatingly.
" It seems to me that I" see the moon shine right
ttirouo;h her."
" We may test' that," exclaimed a shaggy fellow
from Ilmola, laying his coarse hand rather roughly
on Regina's shoulder.
It was a critical moment; the young girl turned
around and looked her assailant in the face with
such dark, deep, shining eyes, that the latter,
seized with a strange emotion, immediately drew
his hand back, and stole away abashed. A large
202 TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF.
number of those standing nearest followed him.
None could explain the power of those dark eyes
in the moonlight, but all felt their mysterious in-
fluence. Ill a few moments the space around
Recrina was vacant, the strife had ceased, and a
patrolling force, which at last arrived, put an end
to the disturbance by arresting the most refrac-
tory of the combatants.
But not long did the rivalry engendered by the
Club War continue between the peasants and the
soldiers — between the industrious^:>/o?<(//i, Finland's
pride, and the conquering sword, which at this
time was drawn to subdue the Roman emperor
himself.
Of Regina we will only say that she allowed
herself, with a sigh over the martyr-crown she had
missed, to be taken ])ack to the dark and solitary
prison-chamber under Lady Martha's charge. But
Bertila returned with his daughter to Storkyro:
the older person with thoughts of a coming great-
ness, the younger with the memory of a past joy.
And it should be observed that all this occurred
durino- two davs of the summer of 1632 — before
King Gustaf Adolf's death, which was described at
the end of the first story.
Days and months go by, and human destinies
change form, and the swift word is obliged to check
its flight and remain awhile mute in expectation
of the evenings which are to come. For the Sur-
geon's tales, like a child's joy or sorrow, lasted but
a sinarle eveninsr — short enoug-h for those who
sympathetically listened to them, and perhaps
THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH. 203
sufficiently long for the others. But never was the
thread of the story clipped in the middle of its
course, without younor and old thinking to them-
selves: there is still more comino*. And the Sur-
geon had to promise this. He had much yet to
relate about the half-spun skein of two family his-
tories; and next time it will probably be spun
longer — if not to the end, at least to the knot,
which means that the skein has reached its right
length.
PART III. —FIRE AND WATER.
INTERLUDE.
SIX weeks elapsed before the Surgeon again
saw gathered around him his story-loving
listeners, large and small. It had happened that
in this interval an accident had befallen the old
man. Nearly everybody in this world, and espe-
cially old bachelors, have some hobby. Biick had
now got it thoroughly into his head that he ought
to have a certain comfort in his old days. He had
in the garret a pretty large sack of feathers, and
he was accustomed to increase it every spring and
autumn by bird shooting. To what use these
feathers were to be put, he informed no one; when
asked about it, he usually answered:
"I will do like Possen at the Wiborg explosion:
if Finland should need, I will go up in a tower
and shake my feathers in the air; then there will
be as many soldiers as the sack has feathers."
" You talk like a goose, brother Andreas," re-
plied Captain Svanholm, the postmaster. "In our
day, soldiers must be made of sterner stuff. The
devil take me, but I think you consider us warriors
only chickens."
" Yes," added the Surgeon, when the captain
was about to continue, " I know what you mean to
say: precisely like Fieandt at Karstula."
However, the fact was, that one fine April day
the Surgeon had gone to the bay on a shooting ex-
(204)
FIRE AND WATER. 205
pedition, with decoy-ducks. He was accompanied
by an old one-eyed corporal named Ritsi, a name
meaning Fritz. He had in his youth been a
journeyman, and wandered around Germany with
a pack on his back; but he brought nothing home
in it except his name.
There was still ice in portions of the bay, with
frequent openings of clear water. The old men
strolled along the edge of the ice, discharging
their guns every little while, but without much