granted Cecilia a pension which the princess enjoyed till the day of the queen's death.

The court of Erik was very light, and many ladies far worse than his erred-against young sister were to be found there. Though Cecilia never forgave his conduct, she undertook the education of his daughter by Caritas, and they lived outwardly on very comfortable terms. At the splendid tourneys on which Erik wasted so much money, "Cecilia, the fairest of her sex," was selected as the lady of his thoughts. Later she joined with Duke John in his intrigues against their brother.

Cecilia's end was sad,-all her children turned out ill, save Charles, a Knight of Malta, who, disgusted at the bad life his mother led, determined to remove her from Antwerp. Spite of her screams, he dragged her by her once golden locks from the house; treating her with such violence as to dislocate one of her arms. Folks say that he died of remorse two years afterwards. Cecilia lived on, husbandless, childless, in poverty, and despised, to the age of eighty-seven; and though history notes her death as occurring in 1627, no one knows where the fairest daughter of King Gustavus died, or where she lies buried.

Wadstena Slott became the property of young Duke Magnus of Östergötland. Above the entrance stands the inscription "Magnus Princeps Ostrogothiæ," his shield, and motto, "Auxilium meum a Domino.". - Heaven knows he needed aid from above.-He was the best and gentlest of Gustavus's four sons.* In his last moments

The sons of Gustaf Wasa were splendid fellows-Duke Magnus measuring 6 ft. 4 in. English. Charles, the shortest of the four brothers, stood 6 ft. in his shoes.

VOL. I.

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the old king clung to his breast, exclaiming, "Thou alone of all my children art most dear to me, for thou hast never caused me one moment's sorrow." But Magnus fell a victim to the blandishments of Erik, and, yielding to his persuasions, signed the deathwarrant of his brother John-the hand of Mary Stuart held out as the price of fratricide. Stung by remorse, Magnus became a maniac, and many are the lays of his madness still sung by the people. He imagined that "a fair Elfin maid had given him her snow-white hand in the dance, and, singing to him a wonderful song, had led him to the Elf hill, from which he would never have returned, but happily the cock crew, the morning dawned, and her power was at an end." The song has it," Had not fortune been so fair, and the cock shaken his wings, then had I entered the Elfin hill with the heathen woman; but the linden sheds its flowers, and the leaves fall from the greenwood tree." Ofttimes he woke in the night shrieking, scared by a vision of his brother stretched on a pallet of straw. Again, as he assisted at his own nuptials with the Scottish queen, the scene changed and he beheld John's head fall beneath the executioner's axe. Men still point out the window from which the prince cast himself late one summer's eve, seduced by the songs of a mermaid who sat on the waves of the Wettern; his keepers found him unhurt on the banks. The syren, he said, received him in her arms, preserving him from death and injury. So Magnus knew no rest for forty years or more, until we find his coffin at Söderköping, accompanied by Duke Charles, on its way to Wadstena.

One more event took place within Wadstena's walls,the last meeting between Sweden's great meteor King

*

Charles XII. and his sister Ulrika. The monarch on his return from Bender galloped over the bridge, rode up the steps of the grand entrance, and dismounted then, after a long and stormy talk on politics, he parted from his sister-to fall by a traitor's hand in Norway. Louisa-Ulrika, mother of Gustaf III., directed by will this old castle should be converted into a kloster for noble maidens; but sovereigns are apt to put predecessors' wills into their pockets: the noble maidens never set foot within the palace, which in time became a ruin; now to rise again under a new dynasty, and be perhaps a pleasanter place than in the days when men added to their Litany the words, "From Skenninge right, and the castle of Wadstena, merciful Lord and God deliver us."

Louisa-Ulrika writes to her mother the Queen of Prussia, "I am occupied in founding a Chapter of Noble Maidens, and have already the funds to place eleven. To-day I sign the patent, and on Thursday I give them the cordon. The abbess will have 2000 crowns; each fröken a pension of 200, table, wood, and waxlights. They are to have a certain number of children to bring up, whom they will instruct in dancing, reading, writing, history, and geography, gratis. I send, dear mamma, the dolls I have had dressed in the costume of the order."

Again: "I nominated yesterday thirteen girls of Wadstena, and gave the cordon with great ceremony. Of course there was great opposition, but it was very necessary, so many young ladies either never marry at all, make mésalliances, or lead a reprehensible life: this the new-made chapter will obviate."

CHAPTER XXVI

Wadstena lace Legend of St. Brita - Rod won't whip her- Bishop Thynne Queen Margaret kisses the dirty monk The rich Bo Johnsson-The Abbess Anne and Duke John - Tombs of Philippa of Lancaster, and of Duke Magnus Portrait of St. Brita - Skenninge, county of the Douglas family- Ingrid the Wise-Wreta Kloster - Bloody heart of the Douglas.

WE lingered long, watching the Wettern from the casements, reading old tales of the castle's history; then turned down the long street, where, at each windowfilled with roses, cabbage and maiden-blush, Provins and double yellow-sit women, working at their pillows the lace,* both coarse and fine, for which Wadstena is now famous; for be it known that the Queen of Sweden, at her coronation, wore some on her petticoat, either upper or under. Wadstena holds up her head and is proud thereof. Womankind stops to purchase-"Good lace great economy, cheapest in the end:" that end seems to me like "the good time coming," far in the horizon of events: a "cheval à l'écurie" is lace, eating its head off, always being cleaned, got up, and mended-in the course of years doubling its first price; but we men are sad benighted creatures, so say no more about it;

* The art of lace-making is said to have been introduced by St. Brita among the nuns on her return from Italy; not improbable, as her own nightcap is trimmed with it-a sort of very coarse guipure.

let's on, to where, embowered in trees, stands the old abbey-church of Warfru (our Lady), a large towerless building of the first Pointed period-its patron, the Holy Brita, who holds so high a place in Sweden's history.

There dwelt in Upland a man of power and note, judge of the province, named Birger, ancestor of the Brahe family, whose eagle's wings he bore upon his scutcheon.*

One night, say the monkish chronicles, a glorious maiden, in rich attire, was seen in the heavens, bearing in her hand a scroll inscribed with these words: "Of Birger is born a daughter whose fame shall be sung through all the world!"-That selfsame night was born the lady Brita.t

Brita was most precocious; while but a child she rose at midnight to watch and pray, much to the anger of her aunt, the lady Ingrid, to whose care at her mother's death she was intrusted. The aunt considered there was a time for all things, and forbad it. The small

* His wife was Ingeborg, daughter of Sigrid the Fair, who married Bengt, brother of Birger Jarl; thus making Birger first-cousin to King Waldemar the Beautiful. Sigrid the Fair was of low extraction. On account of this the haughty Birger sent his newly-married brother a coat, half of which was made of the costliest velvet wrought with gold, and the other of the coarsest homespun. Having caused the homespun to be embroidered with pearls and gems, so that it became of much more worth than the velvet, Bengt returned it to Birger, to remind him that beauty and virtue are of greater value than noble birth. The Jarl grew angry, and threatened his brother with a visit. Bengt left his home the day Birger was expected; but his wife received their guest so well, and behaved so prudently, that he was not able to resist the grace of this "gem among fair women." Next day, when Bengt returned home, his brother went before him, assuring him that he fully approved his marriage-" Had my brother left this undone, I might have done it myself," he said.

† Our St. Bridget.