wherefore if she pleased they might act a short _colloquium_, wherein he
would play the king. Hereupon he sat down on the bench before her, and
they both began chattering together, which vexed me sore, especially when
I saw that she made but small haste with her needle the while. But say,
dear reader, what was I to do? Wherefore I went my ways, and let them
chatter till near noon, when the young lord at last took leave. But he
promised to come again on Tuesday, when the king was here, and believed
that the whole island would flock together at Coserow. As soon as he was
gone, seeing that my _vena poetica_ (as may be easily guessed) was still
stopped up, I had the horses put to and drove all over the parish,
exhorting the people in every village to be at the Giant's Stone by
Coserow at nine o'clock on Tuesday, and that they were all to fall on
their knees as soon as they should see the king coming and that I knelt
down; _item_, to join at once in singing the Ambrosian hymn of praise,
which I should lead off as soon as the bells began to ring. This they all
promised to do; and after I had again exhorted them to it on Sunday in
church, and prayed to the Lord for his Majesty out of the fulness of my
heart, we scarce could await the blessed Tuesday for joyful impatience.




_The Fifteenth Chapter_


OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE HIGH AND MIGHTY KING GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND WHAT
BEFELL THEREAT

Meanwhile I finished my _carmen_ in _metrum elegiacum_, which my daughter
transcribed (seeing that her handwriting is fairer than mine) and