tay any longer and they determined
to try and cut their way through the besiegers.

The gates were thrown open and Sigge rushed out at the head of his
company, with such force and fury that for a time it seemed as if they
would succeed. But they were weakened by semi-starvation and in the end
the swarming Russians killed them all but two, who alone made their
escape and carried the news of the disaster back to Sweden.

The regent was greatly distressed at the loss of the brave men whom he
had left so long without support. It was too late to save their lives but
he felt it his duty to avenge them. To do so he set sail with another
army, making his way up the river Neva, the stream on which the city of
St. Petersburg was afterwards built. No enemy was seen and the regent
landed on an island in the river, where he built a strong fort which he
named Landscrona, furnishing it plentifully with provisions.

The Russians, when they found what was being done, were infuriated. A
great multitude of them, thirty thousand in number, gathered on the Neva
and made a vigorous effort to burn the Swedish fleet, sending rafts down
the stream on which were great heaps of blazing wood. But the regent
caught these by iron chains which he stretched across the stream, holding
the fire-floats until they burned out.

This effort failing, the Russians made a fierce attack on the fortress,
with such savage violence that though many of them fell the others would
not give up the assault. But so strong and so well defended was the place
that they failed in this also, and in the end were obliged to retreat,
leaving great numbers of dead behind them. Then a young and brave knight
in the garrison, named Matts Kettilmundson, made a sortie against the
Russians and drove them back in panic flight, many more of them being
killed.

Shortly after this a party of Russian cavalry, one thousand strong,
appeared in the edge of a wood, not far from the fort, their armor
gleaming brightly in the sunlight. While the garrison were looking at
them from the walls, the brave knight Matts Kettilmundson asked
permission of the regent to ride out against them, saying that "he would
venture a brush with the bravest among them."

The regent having consented, the daring fellow put on his armor and had
his horse led through the gate. Leaping on it he rode out, and when he
had passed the moat, turned back to his friends who lined the wall.

"Strive to live happily," he s