these words, Gustavus, deeply affected, burst into tears and hurried out of the hall.[449] The assembly, smitten with consternation, remained for some time silent and motionless. At last the chancellor spoke: ‘Right honorable lords, this moment must determine the existence or the destruction of Sweden. There are only two courses open to you; you must either obey the king or choose another.’ But the members were so much agitated by the speech of Gustavus, and many of them exulted so much at his departure, that without troubling themselves about the vote proposed to them, they all rose, left their places in great haste, and went out. Thure Joensson, who in the presence of the king had kept in the background and had put forward his friend Brask, lifted up his head now that he had no longer to face the glance of the king. The bishops, the canons, and many of the lords who regarded the retirement of the king as a victory, pressed round the marshal and reconducted him to his house in triumph. Drums were beaten and trumpets blown; and the head of the nobility, full of the vainglory which feeds on the thinnest vapor, enraptured with the pompous display which concealed from his own eyes his real deficiencies, exclaimed with a childish vanity, ‘I defy any one to make me a pagan, a Lutheran, or a heretic.’ This man and his friends already looked upon Gustavus as having come to the end of his career, and believed themselves to be masters of the country. Imagination could hardly find adequate expression for so great a triumph! The king had returned to the castle attended by his court and accompanied by his best officers. The latter stationed themselves before the gates of the castle and prevented any one from entering. The king was as calm as in the most peaceful moments of his life; he was even merry and in good humor. He knew that time is a great teacher and gives lessons to the most passionate men. He delayed, he waited; he wished that minds which had been misled should come to themselves again. He admitted his trusty friend to his table, showed himself an agreeable companion, and did to perfection the honors of the table.[450] Thus he spent three days, days of pleasantness for the prince and his adherents—a fact certainly strange in the midst of a crisis so grave. Those who were about him were delighted to find themselves living in familiar intimacy with the prince. The latter even devised certain pastimes, Du loisir d’un héros nobles amusements.