All turned away from them terrified.  The owner of the house, the friend of Oluf’s youth, pointed to the open door and bade them depart instantly.  Oluf only requested a car and horse wherewith to convey away his exhausted Agda; but they threw sticks and stones after them, and Oluf was obliged to bear his poor bride in his arms far into the forest.

Heavy and bitter was their wandering.  At last, however, they found a home:  it was in Guldkroken, in West Gothland.  An honest old couple gave them shelter and a place by the hearth:  they stayed there till Christmas, and on that holy eve there was to be a real Christmas festival.  The guests were invited, the furmenty set forth; and now came the clergyman of the parish to say prayers; but whilst he spoke he recognised Oluf and Agda, and the prayer became a curse upon the two.  Anxiety and terror came over all; they drove the excommunicated pair out of the house, out into the biting frost, where the wolves went in flocks, and the bear was no stranger.  And Oluf felled wood in the forest, and kindled a fire to frighten away the noxious animals and keep life in Agda—­he thought that she must die.  But just then she was stronger of the two.

“Our Lord is almighty and gracious; He will not leave us!” said she.  “He has one here on the earth, one who can save us, one, who has proved like us, what it is to wander amongst enemies and wild animals.  It is the King—­Gustavus Vasa!  He has languished like us!—­gone astray in Dalecarlia in the deep snow! he has suffered, tried, knows it—­he can and he will help us!”

The King was in Vadstene.  He had called together the representatives of the kingdom there.  He dwelt in the cloister itself, even there where little Agda, if the King did not grant her pardon, must suffer what the angry Abbess dared to advise:  penance and a painful death awaited her.

Through forests and by untrodden paths, in storm and snow, Oluf and Agda came to Vadstene.  They were seen:  some showed fear, others insulted and threatened them.  The guard of the cloister made the sign of the cross on seeing the two sinners, who dared to ask admission to the King.

“I will receive and hear all,” was his royal message, and the two lovers fell trembling at his feet.

And the King looked mildly on them; and as he long had had the intention to humiliate the proud Bishop of Lindkjoeping, the moment was not unfavourable to them; the King listened to the relation of their lives and sufferings, and gave them his word, that the excommunication should be annulled.  He then placed their hands one in the other, and said that the priest should also do the same soon; and he promised them his royal protection and favour.

And old Michael, the merchant, who feared the King’s anger, with which he was threatened, became so mild and gentle, that he, as the King commanded, not only opened his house and his arms to Oluf and Agda, but displayed all his riches on the wedding-day of the young couple.  The marriage ceremony took place in the cloister church, whither the King himself led the bride, and where, by his command, all the nuns were obliged to be present, in order to give still more ecclesiastical pomp to the festival.  And many a heart there silently recalled the old song about the cloister robbery and looked at Oluf Tyste: