Gustavus, still a wanderer, arrived at Swardsjoe, at the house of the pastor Jon; and a notary named Sven Elfson, who lived near, received him into his house. But the gentlemanly bearing of the young man always betrayed him. Suspicious looks were fastened on him, and his pursuers were approaching. The wife of Sven Elfson, alarmed at the imminent danger in which the young noble was placed, and wishing to mystify her household, seized the shovel used for placing bread in the oven and struck Gustavus with it, crying out and calling him a wicked rascal and a lazy boy, and so drove him away. Sven, no less loyal than his wife, immediately undertook to conduct him to some friends with whom he believed he would be safe. But they already heard the footsteps of the bailiff’s horses, who was in pursuit with his twenty troopers. A wagon loaded with straw was standing near, and Gustavus hid himself in it. The horsemen came; as they passed they made thrusts with their halberts into the straw and continued their journey. Gustavus was wounded, but he uttered no cry. Sven Elfson came to him; the young fugitive crept out of the wagon stained with blood, but with unfailing intrepidity he mounted a horse and set out. The blood which trickled drop by drop on the snow must inevitably betray him. In order to save him, Sven wounded his horse in the foot, and when any one observed the spots on the road and inquired the cause of them, the Swede boldly pointed to the foot of his beast. At last they reached Marnaes. Two peasants, Ner and Mats Olafsen, friends of Sven, concealed Gustavus under a large fir-tree recently felled in the forest, which covered the ground with its broad, green boughs. In this place he lay for three days and three nights; and in the evenings, when all was quiet, one of the two brothers used to bring him food by stealth.[398] [Sidenote: Pursuit Of Gustavus.]