By three different routes the Swedes invaded Norway. Charles himself entered Höland in March, 1716. At the Riser farm the Swedish advance guard was attacked by two hundred Norwegian dragoons under the brave Colonel Ulrich Christian Kruse, and, during the fight, the colonel himself killed fifteen men and wounded Charles's brother-in-law, the prince of Hesse. After a desperate fight, and the fall of the brave Captain Michelet, Colonel Kruse, who was so severely wounded that he could not hold his sword, surrendered to King Charles with twenty men; sixty lay dead or wounded, and the remainder had escaped. The Swedes had one hundred and seventy killed and wounded. Charles highly praised his brave opponent, had his own surgeon attend to his wounds, gave him a sword, and asked him if his brother, King Frederick, had many such officers. Kruse answered: "Of them he has many, and I am far from being among the ablest." Charles thereupon occupied Christiania and commenced to besiege the fortress of Akershus, but could not accomplish much for lack of heavy artillery. While he lay in camp there he sent out expeditions in different directions. The Swedish colonel, Axel Löwen, was sent out with six hundred dragoons to destroy Kongsberg silver works. He was to proceed by way of Ringerike, because the road from Drammen was blocked by the Norwegians; and, on the evening of March 28, 1716, he arrived with his force at the Norderhov parsonage, Ringerike. The parson, the learned Jonas Ramus, was confined to his bed by sickness, but his wife, the intrepid Anna Kolbjörnsdatter, received the soldiers well in order to avoid plundering. Having learned, by paying close attention to her guests, that it was their intention early the next morning to surprise a number of Norwegian dragoons, who lay encamped at the Steen farm and knew nothing of the arrival of the Swedes, she asked and obtained the permission of the colonel to send her servant-girl out to a neighboring farm for something that was needed for the table. Thus she was enabled to send warning to the Norwegians about the plans of the enemy. Under the leadership of Captain Sehested and Sergeant Thor Hovland the Norwegians set out at midnight, and, guided by the fires which Anna had started under pretext of warming the chilly soldiers, they surprised and overpowered the Swedish force. Colonel Löwen was captured, together with one hundred and sixty men; thirty were killed, and the remainder escaped.