o accomplish his
long-cherished purpose.

He left his couch at once, and sent his spies to shadow the king.

The king landed at Lyo with only a few attendants.

One night the king was sleeping in the woods of Lyo in a rude,
unguarded tent. His son was by his side.

They were awaked from slumber by an assault from unknown foes, and a
sense of suffocation.

What had happened? The king could not move his arms; his head
seemed enveloped in cloth. He could not see; his voice was stifled.
He _felt_ himself carried away.

Black Henry had entered the tent with his confidants, and had put
the King of the North and his son into two bags, and tied them up,
and was now hurrying away with them to the river.

Black Henry laid his two captives in the bottom of a boat like two
logs, and hoisted sail; and Valdemar, whose kingdom was now only a
bag, was blown away towards the German coast.

He was thrown into prison, and there lived in darkness and neglect.
The Pope ordered his release, but it was not heeded. The Danes tried
to rescue him, but were defeated.

He was at last set free on the agreement that he should pay a large
ransom. He returned to his kingdom, but found his territory reduced
to its old narrow limits. His glory was gone. His empire had been
the North; it had also been a bag; and at last it was a coffin. Poor
old man! His last years were peaceful, and in them he served Denmark
well.

CHAPTER XVI.

NORWAY.

STOCKHOLM.--STORY OF THE HERO KING.--UPSALA.--NORWAY.--CHRISTIANIA.--
KING OLAF.--DRONTHEIM.--THE FISHERMAN OF FAROE.

The narrative of travel and history was continued by Mr. Beal.

* * * * *

"Strange is the evolution of cities.

"We are about to glance at Stockholm. Let us go back in imagination
six hundred years.

"There are some rocky islands in the Baltic, at the foot of the
northern peninsula. Sea birds wheel above them in the steel-gray air;
they build their nests there. Storms sweep over these lonely islands;
sunlight bursts upon them, and now and then a Viking's ship finds a
haven among them, and scares away the birds.

"Years pass. Fishermen build huts on the islands. Hunters come there.
There come also the sea kings. A mixed, strange people.

"They build a village on the holms, or islets. They defend themselves
with stockades, and they found on stocks, or beams, their strong
houses. The grow