jury
consisted in the seizure of these guns. Norby closed his letter with an
offer to hold a personal conference with the king. The reply which Norby
had to this proposal was sharp and warm. "We shall permit no nonsense,"
wrote the king. If Norby wanted his daughter, let him return the guns.
"As to a personal meeting with you, we cannot spare the time." Norby's
pride apparently was not touched by this rebuke. He wrote again, simply
repeating what he had said before, and in reply obtained another letter
from the king. "We have already told you," wrote Gustavus, "that you may
have your daughter when we get our guns. We were promised them by the
treaty of Malmoe, which we desire in every particular to observe. And we
will hand over the property belonging to you in the wreck off Kalmar, if
you will forward to that town our ammunition together with a promise in
writing never from this day forth to wrong us or our men." This letter,
dated on the 4th of March, was the last communication that passed
between the pirate and the king. Norby had at length discovered that he
could not dupe the king, and Gustavus deemed it folly to continue parley
with one whose only object was to use up time.[123]

Unable to accomplish anything with Norby, it was more than ever
important that Gustavus should be on terms of amity with Fredrik. For
the moment it appeared that Fredrik would be fair. At all events, he had
made Gustavus a generous promise about the guns, and his Cabinet kept
Gustavus constantly informed about the acts of Norby. In February, when
the lakes were frozen, the monarch sent, as Fredrik had suggested, for
his ammunition, and intrusted to the same emissary a letter for the
Danish king. This letter was in reply to one from Fredrik, asking for
the surrender of a Danish refugee. Gustavus could not comply with his
request, for the refugee was gone; but he seized again the opportunity
to mention Sunnanvaeder. "We earnestly entreat you," were his words, "to
write your Cabinet in Norway no longer to protect this man or any of his
party." It was certainly time that something should be done by Fredrik,
for at the very moment while Gustavus was writing this appeal, the
Norwegian Cabinet were issuing a passport for the traitors through their
realm; and to a request from Gustavus for their surrender, the Cabinet
offered the absurd excuse that the fugitives themselves protested they
were innocent. "However," it was added, "the fugitives will