e bridges and they could not
proceed. Norby meantime lay with a strong force in the town and castle
of Kalmar, and was making preparations to attack Vestgoete, who was still
carrying on the siege, as soon as spring should open. But just as he was
getting ready, he received word from the Danish Cabinet that Christiern
had been deposed in Denmark, and Fredrik, duke of Schleswig-Holstein,
summoned to the throne. At this news he set sail with all his force for
Denmark, leaving only sixty men to hold the castle and town of Kalmar.
Their orders were to form two garrisons of thirty each, one to guard the
castle and the other to guard the town; and if through assault or
failure of provisions they could not maintain the stronghold, they were
to slaughter all the Swedes in Kalmar, set fire to the town, and sail to
Gotland. As soon as the burghers of Kalmar learned of these
instructions, they sent a messenger to the Swedish camp to tell the
Swedes to enter the town by the north gate on the 27th of May, when the
burghers would take care that the gate should be opened for them. On the
day appointed Vestgoete advanced with all his cavalry, and drew them up
in battle-array along the west and south side of the town as if to storm
the southern gate. The garrison, all unsuspecting, flocked to that point
in order to receive the charge. But meantime the Swedish infantry had
massed themselves outside the northern gate, which at a concerted signal
was thrown open on its hinges, and the infantry pressed in. It was but
the work of a moment to put the little garrison to the sword. For a few
weeks more the castle refused to yield, and it was not till the 7th of
July that, reduced to the last extremity, it fell.[71]

Kalmar had not yet fallen when it became clear that the war of
independence was drawing to its close, and it was felt on every hand
that the country had been too long without a king. The powers which
Gustavus possessed as regent were too vague to meet the necessities of a
time of peace. While the army was in the field, he had authority, as
commander of the forces, to levy the taxes necessary to sustain his men;
but, so soon as the war was over, there would be no means for raising
the money needed to pay the nation's debts. He therefore, shortly before
the fall of Kalmar, summoned a general diet to be held at Strengnaes on
the 27th of May. Whether or not all the magnates of Sweden were summoned
to the diet is not known, but at any rate