he elder sister.

Finally, after many efforts to change the king's mind, he asked Catharine
if she really desired to marry John. The princess blushed and was silent;
but her sister spoke for her and implored their brother not to prevent
her marriage with the man she loved.

At this appeal he gave way and the marriage was quickly solemnized, for
there was imminent peril of war between Sweden and Poland unless the
affair was consummated. A body of Polish troops escorted the newly wedded
couple into Livonia, lest the angry czar should seek to carry them off,
and John reached Sweden with his bride.

He was very ill received, by Erik's orders, and hastened to his own
duchy, whence he sent an invitation to the king to attend his wedding
banquet. The king came in another fashion.

Angry at John for disobeying his orders, and fearing him as a possible
aspirant for the throne, Erik cherished evil intentions against his
brother. Suspicious and superstitious by nature, he had read in the stars
the prediction that a light-haired man would deprive him of the throne,
and this man he believed to be his newly married brother. He also
fancied that John had secretly allied himself with Denmark and Poland,
and there was soon open enmity between the brothers.

The whole story of what followed is too long to be told here, but seeming
evidence against John was obtained by the torture of some of his friends
and he was attacked in his castle and taken prisoner after a two months'
defence. Erik ordered his incarceration in a dungeon, but his wife was
offered a residence with her ladies in one of the king's castles. If she
wished to accompany him to prison she could take only two of her maids
with her.

When Catharine heard this she fervently exclaimed:

"I would rather die than be separated from my husband," and fainted away.

When she recovered she was asked what she intended to do. Taking her
betrothal ring from her finger and holding it up, she said:

"Read what stands there."

They saw engraved on it, "_Nemo nisi mors"_ (none but death).

"I will stand by it," said Catharine. And she did.

The imprisoned dependents of John, all of whom had shared in his
resistance to the king, were nearly all condemned to death and executed,
more than a hundred bodies being exposed at once at the place of
execution. That John would suffer the same fate was highly probable. His
brothers, sisters, and other relatives implored Erik to let him live