;
his enemies advised his execution; the king hesitated, and postponed his
decision, finally deciding that John might live, but in perpetual
imprisonment. He was mildly and kindly treated, however, and four years
later, during a spasm of fraternal feeling in Erik, was released.

We shall not tell the remaining story of King Erik, of his wars, his
temporary madness, his violence and cruelty to some of the noblest of the
sons of Denmark, his ruthless persecution and final murder of the Stures,
descendants of one of the most famous families of Sweden and men who had
played a great part in its history. It was the story of his love episodes
with which we set out and these were not yet ended. Erik finally got a
wife and a queen, though not a queen or a princess for a wife. Love
instead of policy lay at the basis of his final courtship.

This is the story of the final and real love affair of this suitor of
princesses and queens. A soldier named Magnus, of peasant birth, who rose
to the rank of corporal in Erik's life-guard, had a daughter named
Katrina or Catherine, shortened to Karin, who as a child sat selling nuts
in the market-place at Stockholm. Here Erik one day saw her, then about
thirteen, and was so struck by her great beauty that he had her placed
among the maids-of-honor of his sister Elizabeth.

The pretty little Karin was quick to learn her duties, and in deportment
was modest and very loveable. Her beauty also grew with her age, until
she became looked upon as the fairest of the fair. Erik thought her such
and grew greatly attached to her, showing her much attention and winning
her regard by his handsome face and kindly manner. In fact she grew to
love him dearly and gave herself up entirely to him, a warm affection
existing between them.

Karin in time became everything to the king. He no longer sought for a
bride in foreign courts, no other women had attraction for him, and at
length, when the charming peasant girl had borne him a son, he determined
to find a way to make her his queen. Those were days when it was not safe
to meddle with the love affairs of a king. One unfortunate young man
named Maximilian, who had loved Karin and sought her hand in marriage,
one day intruded into the women's apartment of the palace, where he was
seized. Erik, burning with jealousy, had him condemned on a false
pretence, sewed up in a bag, and cast into the lake.

After that no one dared interfere with the love episode of E