o soon as they did come to their senses they poured a volley
from their arquebuses into the spot where they thought the enemy were
collected. But they were aiming in the dark, and not a finger of the
Swedes was hurt. The archbishop's steward then planned a strategic
movement on the rear, and endeavored to move his troops through a long
wooden passageway running from the palace to the cathedral; but the
Swedes, perceiving it, set fire to the passageway, and at the same time
shot blazing arrows up into the palace roof. The Danes retaliated by
setting fire to the buildings all about the palace; but the patriots in
each case extinguished the fire before it got fully under way. The
palace, however, was soon a mass of flames; and the archbishop's forces,
seeing all was lost, mounted their steeds, burst open the palace-gate,
and galloped in all haste over the fields to the south. The Swedes
pursued, but, finding the enemy's steeds too fleet for them, showered a
volley of arrows after the flying horsemen, and returned.[61]

Early in June Gustavus came from Vesteras, and opened negotiations with
the canons of Upsala, with a view to win them over to his side. As they
refused, however, to take action without consulting the archbishop, he
begged them to consult him at once, and he himself wrote a pacific
letter urging the archbishop to champion his country's cause. Trolle,
then in Stockholm, scorned the message and seized the messenger who
brought it. Then he placed himself at the head of a troop of three
thousand foot and five hundred horse, in glittering armor, and marched
to Upsala, declaring that his answer to the message he would convey in
person. Gustavus, expecting daily the return of his messenger, was taken
wholly unawares. The great body of his soldiers had gone back to their
farms, and he had but six hundred of them left. With these it would be
madness to withstand the archbishop's force. He therefore evacuated the
city, and hurried over the meadows to the west. As soon as he was out of
danger, he despatched officers to call back the farmers to his ranks,
and meantime drew up an ambuscade on the road between Stockholm and
Upsala, thinking to spring upon the archbishop as he returned. The plot
was discovered, and when the troops returned they took another path.
Gustavus, however, did not give up the chase. With his ranks once more
replenished, he pursued the enemy, and a battle followed so hot that
when the archbishop arri