n Margaret lived the three kingdoms were well-governed and happy;
but her successors were by no means as wise as she, and at the period we
are writing of the Danish stewards of King Hans and his son, Christian
II., oppressed and ill-treated the Swedes in every possible way, and
Sten Sture, regent though he was, had no power to protect them. From
time to time the Danish kings came over to Sweden to look after their
own interests, and on one of these visits King Hans saw little Gustavus
Vasa at the house of Sten Sture in Stockholm. He is said to have taken
notice of the boy, and to have exclaimed grimly that Gustavus would be a
great man if he lived; and the Regent, thinking that the less attention
the King paid to his unwilling subjects the safer their heads would be,
at once sent the boy back to his father.

[Illustration: Gustavus leaves school for good!]

For some years Gustavus lived at home and had a merry time, learning to
shoot by hitting a mark with his arrows before he was allowed any
breakfast, and roaming all over the woods in his little coat of scarlet
cloth. At thirteen he was sent for a time to school at Upsala, where he
learned music as well as other things, and even taught himself to make
musical instruments. One day, however, the Danish schoolmaster spoke
scornfully of the Swedes, and Gustavus, dashing the sword which he
carried through the book before him, vowed vengeance on all Danes, and
walked out of the school for good.

As far as we know, Gustavus probably remained with his father for the
next few years, and we next hear of him in 1514 at the Court of Sten
Sture the younger. Already he had obtained a reputation among his
friends both for boldness and caution, and though so young had learned
experience by carefully watching all that was going on around him. His
enemies, too, even the wicked Archbishop Trolle of Upsala, had begun to
fear him without knowing exactly why, and he had already made a name for
himself by his courage at the Swedish victory of Brankyrka, when the
standard was borne by Gustavus through the thickest of the fight. This
battle dashed to the ground the King's hopes of getting Sten Sture, the
Regent, into his power by fair means, so he tried treachery to persuade
the Swede to enter his ship. But the men of Stockholm saw through his
wiles and declined this proposal, and the King was driven to offer the
Swedes a meeting in a church, on condition that Gustavus Vasa and five
other d