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 in the secret chamber. [To the ] I pray that in it you will bear Count Sture's body to Sweden.

It shall be as you command. [To one of the others.] Haste with these tidings to Jens Bielke. He holds the road with the rest of the troop. We others must in and

[Moves about for a time in uneasy silence.] If Count Sture had not taken such hurried leave of the world, within a month he had hung on a gallows, or had lain for all his days in a dungeon. Had he been better served with such a lot?

Or else he had bought his life by betraying my child into the hands of my foes. Is it I, then, that have slain him? Does not even the wolf defend her cubs? Who dare condemn me for striking my claws into him that would have reft me of my flesh and blood?—It had to be. No mother but would have done even as I.

But 'tis no time for idle musings now. I must to work.

I will write to all my friends throughout the land. They must rise as one man to support