Soon after he had left Mora, two Swedish gentlemen, Lars Olafsson and Jon Michelsson, arrived there, and they gave to the inhabitants, then assembled for the new year, a thrilling account of the massacre at Stockholm, which set the poor people sobbing. ‘Christian,’ continued Olafsson, ‘is going to impose on the people ruinous taxes, he marches with a gibbet on his right hand and the wheel on his left, and all Swedish peasants are obliged to deliver up their arms to him. He leaves them nothing but a staff.’ At these words the people murmured aloud. They now appreciated the worth of the young man whom they had so ungraciously received, and men were sent out with instructions to search for Gustavus in the villages, the woods, and the lofty rocks. They found him at Saeln, in the parish of Lima, at the foot of the mountains which separate Sweden and Norway, just preparing to cross them.
[Sidenote: Gustavus Captain Of The Communes.]
Without delay Gustavus returned to Mora. The most respectable peasants of these valleys assembled there; and they proclaimed the young noble captain of all the communes of the kingdom of Sweden. Sixteen stout-hearted men offered their services to him as guides, and some hundreds of young men placed themselves under his command. When the Danes heard of it they shrugged their shoulders, and spoke of him and his followers as a mere band of brigands prowling about in the woods. But in this movement history discerns the beginning of a most glorious reign. On a Sunday Gustavus arrived at the Kupferberg with several hundred men; and when the people came out from divine service he spoke to them with warm feeling, and gained over to the cause of independence these simple and energetic men, who tried in their turn to gain others. ‘God keep Gustavus, as one drop of the chivalrous blood of our ancient heroes,’ said the men of these valleys to those of Helsingenland. ‘Let us all muster around him.’[401]
The movement was now becoming important. The bishop of Skara, Dietrich Slaghoelk, whom Christian had named governor of Stockholm, and who had instigated the king to the massacre of November 8, 1520, took the alarm and had a consultation with the magistrates. The town was immediately fortified and a body of six thousand horse and foot soldiers was sent against Gustavus, in the direction of Dalecarlia. His lieutenant, Peter Svensson, a wealthy miner, crossed the Dale with a troop of men whose only weapons were hatchets, pikes, bows and slings, but whose dash was like a thunderbolt. These high-spirited sons of Sweden fell upon the Danish camp and broke it up.[402]