se, some three weeks later the monarch wrote again, still
with a show of friendship, but insisting on the immediate presence of
the erstwhile favorite in Stockholm. So imperative an order Mehlen dared
not disobey. Proceeding at once to Stockholm, he appeared before the
king, and soon discovered that his worst suspicions were not far from
true. The assurances of his monarch's favor had been a blind to decoy
the officer away from Kalmar. On the 12th of March Gustavus removed him
from the post, and appointed another officer, Nils Eriksson, in his
stead. Anticipating that the change might cause some friction, the
monarch sent off a whole batch of letters in explanation of his act. One
of these letters, though a trifle lengthy, is perhaps worth quoting. It
is addressed to the fief of Kalmar, and runs in this wise: "Dear
friends, we thank you warmly for the devotion and allegiance which you,
as true and loyal subjects, have exhibited toward us as well as toward
the kingdom of your fathers. You will remember that last summer, when we
despatched our fleet to Gotland to besiege Norby in the castle and town
of Visby, and when he found that he could expect no aid from Christiern,
he sent his ambassadors to take oath of allegiance to Fredrik, King of
Denmark. His purpose, which we clearly saw, was simply to cause
dissension between the kingdoms, thus giving Christiern opportunity to
come forward and seize the reins once more. It appearing to us and to
our Cabinet unwise to permit a new war at that time to spring up between
the kingdoms, we proceeded with delegates from our Cabinet to a congress
of the realms at Malmoe. There we made a permanent alliance with each
other and the Hanseatic Towns against King Christiern. We agreed,
moreover, that our respective claims to Gotland should be left to
arbitration. When, now, Norby saw that the dissension which he had
longed for was not likely to ensue, he disregarded every oath that he
had made to Fredrik, and continued in his old allegiance to King
Christiern. He also feigned a willingness to come to terms with us, if
we would protect his interests in this kingdom. This he offered, as we
have now found out, in hope of causing discord between us and the
Hanseatic Towns. He has, too, spread a rumor among the Danes and Germans
that we had entered into an alliance with him against them. Of any such
alliance we assure you we are ignorant. Now, as to Mehlen, we are told
he does not wholly please y