Se ee te 
loyment. When he was in his 24th year, he was 
pinted attorney-general of Holland, Zealand, and 
st Friezland, and filled his high office with such 
talents 7 integrity, that the salary attached to it was 
ented. 
In 1613 he removed to Rotterdam, to in the 
duty of pensionary, or chief magistrate of that city, as 
successor of the deceased Elias Barnevelt, bro- 
ther of John, his early patron and friend. At this time, 
religious contro ran high in the United Provinces 
between the Calvinists, or Gomarists as they have been 
called, from Francis Gomar of Bruges, and the Armeni- 
ans, especially with respect to grace and predestination. 
Grotius, amidst the heat of the contending parties, con- 
ducted himself with such prudence and moderation, as 
to retain for a considerable time the respect of both. 
He was also admitted into the assembly of the states of 
Holland ; and as he had written in defence of the right 
of the Dutch to trade with India, he was sent to Eng- 
land, to adjust the differences which had arisen between 
the merchants of the two countries. He succeeded in 
the object of his mission, and received marks of regard 
from James I. At his return home, he found the Uni- 
ted Provinces divided and distracted by quarrels about 
religion ; and while he had the affliction to see that true 
patriot and able politician John Barnevelt sacrificed to 
a faction, under the pretence of treason and heresy, to 
“gratify its own ambitious Projects, Grotius himself most 
narrowly escaped sharing his melancholy fate. Barne- 
velt was tried by twenty-six commissioners deputed 
from the Seven Provinces, and, in terms of the sentence 
of this cruel tribunal, was beheaded in 1619. Grotius, 
who had been warmly attached to him, and who was 
suspected, by the bigots of the day, of favouring the 
- Armenians, was involved in his disgrace. Heé was ar- 
rested in August 1618, and in May following was con- 
demned to perpetual imprisonment, and to have all his 
property confiscated. He was strictly confined in the 
nud of Louvestein, near Gorcum. ‘ Here he remain- 
ed,” says Dumourier, “without any other consolation 
than the company of his wife, and of books which his 
friends were permitted to send to him. A large trunk 
was usually sent filled with books, which he returned 
after Having devoured them, (apres les avoir pure) 
and it was during this imprisonment that he translat 
Stobceus. But his confinement lasted only about two 
years, as he was happily delivered from it by the ad- 
dress of his wife, Mary Reygelsberg.* She mite Te- 
marked, that his guards (tired with frequently searchin 
the great chest filled with linen or books, that ee 
between the prison and Goreum) allowed it at length 
to be transmitted without opening it, advised her hus- 
band to place himself in it, after having made holes 
with a wimble in the part of it over his face, to allow 
him to breathe. He entered into the scheme, and was 
thus carried to the house of one of his friends at Gor- 
cum, whence he went to Antwerp by the ordinary con- 
veyance, after having passed through the market-place 
at. Gorcum, disguised as a mason with a rule in his 
hand, His wife, who had so dexterously managed the 
affair, pretended that Her husband was much indisposed, 
in order to afford time for his escape; but when she 
' supposed him to be in a place of safety, se told the 
guards that the bird was flown. It was at first intend- 
ed to prosecute her, with a view of having her confined 
in her husband’s stead ; but she was liberated by a ma- 
jority of votes, and slie was universally praised for hav- 
GROTIUS, 
ing restored her husband to freedom. This took place Grotius. 
Dumourier Memoires de Hollande. —\v™@ 
525 
in March 1621,” 
Grotius thus happily delivered, secretly left Antwerp 
in the following month, and repaired to France, where 
he experienced powerful protection, and was introda- 
ced to Louis XIII. who bestowed on him a pension of 
3000° livres, which he enjoyed for about ten years. 
Prince Maurice, the enemy of Barnevelt, and persecu- 
tor of Grotius, died in 1625 ; and it is a circumstance 
highly honourable to Grotius, that in his History of the 
Netherlands, from the departure of Philip II. till 1608, 
which was not published till after the author's death, 
he relates the splendid achievements of this prince with 
the utmost fidelity, and without alluding to the harsh 
treatment which he had suffered from him. The bro- 
ther of Maurice, Prince Henry Frederic, entertained 
the most friendly disposition towards Grotius, and would 
dly have recalled him, but was deterred by the jea- 
ousy of his political opponents, which still existed with 
unabated force. 
Many attempts were in the mean time made, but,’ 
happily for the best interests of learning and humanity, 
without success, to excite prejudice against him in the 
breast of his powerful protector Louis. That prince 
was not to be influenced by such unworthy efforts ; but, 
on the contrary, his respect for Grotius increased, b 
observing the unabated love which the illustrious exi 
bore towards his ungrateful country. He employed 
much of his time while in France in reading aid com- 
position, and increased the resentment of his eriemies 
who then prevailed in Holland, by his admirable de- 
fence of the deposed magistrates. 
In 1631, his pension from the French court was with- 
drawn, whether from motives of public economy, or 
from ministerial pique, or from what other cause, can- 
not be ascertained. He soon after ventured to return 
to Holland, confiding in the friendship of Prince Hen- 
ry Frederic. But, through the malice of his enemies, 
he was condemned anew to perpetual exile. Findin 
himself cruelly compelled to leave his native land, whi 
he still fondly loved, he repaired to Hamburgh, where 
he received the most gratifying offers of protection from 
the kings of Denmark, Poland, and Spain, aecompa- 
nied with solicitations from each, that he would attach 
himself to his court. He preferred, however, the pa- 
tronage of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, whose 
death, in 1632, obliged him for some time to remain 
unemployed in Hamburgh. Queen Christina fulfilled’ 
the wishes’ and intentions of her predecessor ; and in 
1634, appointed Grotius one of her counsellors. She 
soon after nominated him’ to be her ambassador at the 
court of France. This new diplomatic appointment 
displeased Cardinal Richelieu, then prime minister of 
Louis XIII. and he used his influence with Oxenstern, 
the chancellor of Sweden, to have him recalled. Gro- 
tius, who had remained in retirement at St Denis till 
the ulterior pleasure of the Swedish court should be 
known, made his formal into Paris as Swedish 
ambassador in March 1635. After having spent eleven 
years in France, he was, in consequence of his own re- 
quest, reealled, and having occasion to pass through 
Holland in his way to Sweden, he was received at 
Amsterdam’ with every mark of respect and honour ; 
for many of his enemies had retired, or were dead, and 
several of his friends were restored to offices of public 
trust. The account which he gave to the Queen of 
Sweden of the affairs connected with his embassy, pro- 
_ * Dumourier writes ber natne Reygelsberg, as in the text} but in a marginal note in Bayle’s Dictionary, she is called Reygersbergen. 
