The conduct of the Bönder towards their prisoners can certainly not in any way be justified; but so long as there is much that can be pleaded in extenuation, we should, on the other hand, be cautious in pronouncing an unqualified condemnation. According to tradition, they were excited to that deed by Peder Klognæs, who had seen so many cruelties committed by the Scots on the way, and who had himself suffered so much at their hands. It can be imagined that the real state of the case was possibly this: the Bönder, weary after a march of several days, and after the last day's work and fighting, came to Qvam with their prisoners, when they began, it may be supposed, to be weary of leading them further. It was the busy harvest time; they were possibly short of provisions. Perhaps some of them had a debauch, as previously at Sel, and excited by liquor as well as by the account of the cruelties of the Scots, they considered the latter worthy of death, and quickly set to work to slaughter them, notwithstanding that the principal men had opposed such a proceeding. (See _ante._) It may be that the prisoners themselves had given them fresh cause for exasperation during their conveyance or while they were being guarded; and such a supposition is all the more within the range of possibility, since it is otherwise very singular that the Bönder did not kill their prisoners immediately after the affair at Solhjem (since their exasperation was so great on the following day), but conducted them one mile and a half (Norwegian) on the way to Agershuus. Special circumstances, no longer known, may have occurred as contributory reasons for such conduct. Moreover, before pronouncing judgment on the inhabitants of Gudbrandsdal, we must remember that wars at that time, and the Calmar War as a whole, were conducted with much cruelty, and we must take into consideration the spirit of the age. Nor should we forget that more than two centuries lie between them and us. A far higher stage of culture has been attained of later years, and yet they have produced not a few examples of similar barbarity. We have only to remember what is related respecting the cruelty of the Duke of Cumberland in 1746 after the battle of Culloden in Scotland, General Moreno's murder of General Torrejos and his sixty comrades in misfortune on the plains before Malaga in 1832, General Minas's cruelty at Lacaroz in 1835, and the cruelties of the Carlists towards the English prisoners at Tolosa in 1837, etc. [Illustration: CENTRE PANE OF WINDOW PRESENTED BY A SCOTTISH PRISONER SAVED BY A NORWEGIAN BONDE. (_Now in the Anglican Church, Christiania_).--_Page 117._]