i filling from this fubterraneous prifon the avenger of eppreffiorf,
and the deliverer of his country.
O f all the places moll remarkable in the life of Gullavus,
and moll curious as a memorial of that great man, is Oernetz, the
houfe belonging to Paterlon, in which Guflavus took refuge,
where his treacherous holl, after receiving; him with every apparent
demonllration of joy and affeftion, would have betrayed
him to the Danes, if his wile had not preferved him from her
hulband’s treachery. This very identical houfe now exills in its
original Hate, It is built of wood, painted red, and covered with
Ihingles.
We afcended a fpiral ftair-cale, with a gallery on the outfide of
the houfe, and entered the bed-chamber in which Gullavus was
concealed. The bed in which he llept is a barrack wainfcot
bedllead with a llraw matrafs, but has been ridiculoully hung
with curtains of blue purple cloth, ornamented with the three
crowns, the arms of Sweden, as if any pomp of clothing could
add to a piece of furniture, which derives its only merit from its
antiquity, and from the memory of Gullavus Vafa.
The inventory of this apartment is exceedingly curious, and
confills of the following particulars :
The figure of Gullavus Vafa in complete armour; his undergarments
of blue velvet, laced with gold, the fame which he wore
when he was alive; his bow and arrows, wallet and fnuff-box,
and his bible, printed at Upfala in 154-1. The figures of two
Dalecarlians
Daiecarlians in their ancient drefs, and armed with weapons CHAP.
. x .
common in the fixteenth century. Their clothes and ftockings ■ - - 1
are of white cloth; their hats, high crowned, and peaked at top,
with large flat rims, not unlike mother Shipton’s ; a leather
girdle round their waifts, to which are hung two knives in a
leathern cafe, the fame as are Hill carried by the Swedilh and
Norwegian peafants; an iron crow for drawing the firings of
their crofs-bows, and a kind of tinder-box; in their right hands,
a erofs-bow, and on the left fide a quiver of undreft leather filled
with arrows. One of thefe figures is that of Jacob Jacobfon,
the liable boy, who conveyed Gullavus to the curate’s houfe at
Swartzio, when he.efcaped from Oernetz; another, that of the
peafant who tendered him fome afiiftance when travelling in the
foreft; a third, is the guide, who, in condufting him through
the foreft, robbed and left him in the greateft diftrefs, but
afterwards amply compenfated for this aft of treachery by
joining him, when the Dalecarlian peafants revolted in his
favour, and by the bravery and fidelity of his fubfequent con-
duft.
On the ftair-cafe leading to this apartment is the privy, down
which Gullavus defcended when he efcaped from Oernetz. On
beholding this privy I ihuddered, as if the fate of Sweden now
depended on his efcape.
The fituation of Oernetz, on the borders of a large lake, and
in an undulating country, enriched with much wood, is fuffici-
* ently