ed to fact. Gustavus feared
that Fredrik was in league with Norby, and rumor had it that Norby was
preparing for another war. Late in 1525, the pirate wrote the Swedish
officer in Kalmar that he had come to terms with Fredrik, and that all
the injury which he had done to Sweden had been forgiven. To this the
officer replied: "I fail to see how Fredrik can have promised that you
may keep our ammunition." Norby at all events did keep it, and early in
1526 Gustavus wrote: "We hear that Norby has let fall calumnies against
us. We place no confidence whatever in him, especially as he is growing
stronger every day.... From his own letters we discover he has no
thought of giving up our ammunition." To Fredrik himself the monarch
wrote: "From Norby's letters we learn he has no intention of obeying
your commands." In the same strain Gustavus addressed the Danish
Cabinet, and expressed the hope that Norby was not acting under their
behest. If the Cabinet's assertion can be trusted, he was not; for
several of the Cabinet wrote Gustavus to keep an eye on Norby, as he was
raising a large force in Bleking despite their orders to him to desist.
There being little hope that Fredrik would force the pirate to obey,
Gustavus ventured to arrange the matter for himself. It so happened at
this moment that one of Norby's vessels, laden with arms and ammunition,
stranded on the coast not far from Kalmar. The monarch's officers
hurried to the spot, and seized what ammunition they could find. This
stroke, however, was in some degree offset by a reprisal which Norby
managed to secure upon the coast of Bleking. Matters now appeared so
serious that the king addressed himself to Norby. "We find," he said,
"that a part of the ammunition taken from the wreck off Kalmar is our
own. All the rest of it you may have, provided we are given the guns and
ammunition promised us by Fredrik.... As soon as these are handed over,
your daughter and the other prisoners shall be freed." This proposition
would have satisfied any man but Norby. To him it seemed unfair. The
fleet of Christiern was looked for early in the spring, and Norby
thought by waiting to obtain more favorable terms. He wrote back,
therefore, that, though Fredrik may have told Gustavus he should have
his guns, he could not have them, for in the treaty recently drawn up
between himself and Fredrik, it had been stipulated that all injury done
by him to Sweden should be forgotten, and a part of this in