Hero Tales of the Far NorthRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
History
Hero Tales of the Far North
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Scandinavia -- History
Governor Printzensköld had seen something brewing, but he was a
fearless man, and despised the “peasant mob.” However, he sent to
Sweden for a troop of horsemen, the better to patrol the island
and watch the people. Early in December, 1658, just a year after
Jens Kofoed, the trooper, had set out for his home on furlough, the
governor went to Rönne, the chief city in the island, to start off
a ship for the reënforcements. The conspirators sought to waylay
him at Hasle, where he stopped to give warning that all who had not
paid the heavy war-tax would be sold out forthwith; but they were
too late. Master Poul and Jens Kofoed rode after him, expecting
to meet a band of their fellows on the way, but missed them. The
parson stayed behind then to lay the fuse to the mine, while Kofoed
kept on to town. By the time he got there he had been joined by
four others, Aage Svendsön, Klavs Nielsen, Jens Laurssön, and Niels
Gummelöse. The last two were town officers. As soon as the report
went around Rönne that they had come, Burgomaster Klaus Kam went to
them openly.
The governor had ridden to the house of the other burgomaster, Per
Larssön, who was not in the plot. His horse was tied outside and he
just sitting down to supper when Jens Kofoed and his band crowded
into the room, and took him prisoner. They would have killed him
there, but his host pleaded for his life. However, when they took
him out in the street, Printzensköld thought he saw a chance to
escape in the crowd and the darkness, and sprang for his horse. But
his great size made him an easy mark. He was shot through the head
as he ran. The man who shot him had loaded his pistol with a silver
button torn from his vest. That was sure death to any goblin on
whom neither lead nor steel would bite, and it killed the governor
all right. The place is marked to this day in the pavement of the
main street as the spot where fell the only tyrant who ever ruled
the island against the people’s will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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