Without delay Gustavus returned to Mora. The most respectable peasants of these valleys assembled there; and they proclaimed the young noble captain of all the communes of the kingdom of Sweden. Sixteen stout-hearted men offered their services to him as guides, and some hundreds of young men placed themselves under his command. When the Danes heard of it they shrugged their shoulders, and spoke of him and his followers as a mere band of brigands prowling about in the woods. But in this movement history discerns the beginning of a most glorious reign. On a Sunday Gustavus arrived at the Kupferberg with several hundred men; and when the people came out from divine service he spoke to them with warm feeling, and gained over to the cause of independence these simple and energetic men, who tried in their turn to gain others. ‘God keep Gustavus, as one drop of the chivalrous blood of our ancient heroes,’ said the men of these valleys to those of Helsingenland. ‘Let us all muster around him.’[401] The movement was now becoming important. The bishop of Skara, Dietrich Slaghoelk, whom Christian had named governor of Stockholm, and who had instigated the king to the massacre of November 8, 1520, took the alarm and had a consultation with the magistrates. The town was immediately fortified and a body of six thousand horse and foot soldiers was sent against Gustavus, in the direction of Dalecarlia. His lieutenant, Peter Svensson, a wealthy miner, crossed the Dale with a troop of men whose only weapons were hatchets, pikes, bows and slings, but whose dash was like a thunderbolt. These high-spirited sons of Sweden fell upon the Danish camp and broke it up.[402] Gustavus, who was at this time in Helsingenland, immediately set out on his march into Westmannia. Everywhere as he advanced, the peasants joined him; and by the 15th of April he had under him twenty thousand men. He marched on Westeraas, the chief town of the province, and took possession of it on St. John’s Day, 1521. He next formed the siege of Stockholm. As the town was open to the Danes by sea, the siege lasted for two years. On April 20, 1523, Christian took flight, leaving the place open to his enemies. A Diet of the kingdom of Sweden was immediately convoked at Strengnaes, for the 7th of June of the same year. Gustavus, who during his sojourn in Germany had admired Luther, and had appreciated the principles which he proclaimed, was friendly to the Reformation, not, as the Jesuit Maimbourg has said, in the hope of acquiring the Church property, but because some rays of the truth had entered his own soul.[403] He was soon to have an opportunity of enlarging his acquaintance with it.