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Grotius made a journey to Rheims, where the King was, to speak to him of it . The King gave him the most positive promises, and engaged to give John de Vert his liberty, if the Duke of Bavaria sent Marshal Horn to Landau. Grotius wrote to the Court of Bavaria; John de Vert was conducted to Selesdad: and at last the exchange was made at Strasbourg.
Yet, in truth, Sebastian was forcibly taken by the simplicity of a great affection, as set forth in an incident of real life of which he heard just then. The eminent Grotius being condemned to perpetual imprisonment, his wife determined to share his fate, alleviated only by the reading of books sent by friends. The books, finished, were returned in a great chest.
Four several times one or other of the soldiers expressed the opinion that Grotius himself must be locked within it, but they never spoke quite seriously, and Elsje was ever ready to turn aside the remark with a jest. A soldier's wife, just as the box was approaching the wharf, told a story of a malefactor who had once been carried out of the castle in a chest.
Grotius in reply again warned the commissioners against communicating with Maurice according to their instructions, intimated that the native militia on which they were proposing to rely might have been debauched, and he held out hopes that perhaps the States of Utrecht might derive some relief from certain financial measures now contemplated in Holland.
Grotius answers this obliging Letter on the 24th of June following . He owns he was always a lover of Learning; but modestly acknowledges that his friends, by engaging him too early in the study of the law and public business, retarded the progress which he might otherwise have made.
The Cardinal treated Grotius with more respect than he had ever done: he waited on him a little beyond the door of his Chamber, and gave him the upper hand. Bullion being at Ruel, Grotius went to wait on him: he promised to give two hundred thousand Francs, and even to add three hundred thousand more as soon as the state of the King's affairs would permit it.
He had the indiscretion one time to let his tongue loose against the Duke of Weymar: Baron Erlac, who was attached to that Prince, was highly incensed, and the consequences might have been very fatal. Grotius again employed his good offices to pacify Erlac. But this wrought no change in Schmalz's behaviour towards the Swedish Ambassador.
He was desirous, in the end of the year 1622, that his brother should settle his matters so, as to come to see him in the beginning of the following year; but this journey did not take place. Grotius's disgrace affected his brother: he despaired of attaining to honours, and Grotius advised him to think only of raising himself by the study of the Law. In April 1623 he married Alida Grasvinkel.
Some of them, particularly in his Apologetic courses, were brilliant and stimulating. Whenever he had a great personality to deal with, such as Origen, Grotius, or Pascal, or, in a quite different way, Voltaire, he rose to the full height of his powers. His criticisms of Hume, of Strauss, and of Renan, were also in their own way masterly.
These descriptions agree with that given by Grotius. Sept. 20, 1634, he writes to Du Maurier , "Had I come sooner to the High Chancellor, I should have found the times more favourable; but as his great courage is most conspicuous in adverse circumstances, it is proper we should conform to the example of so great a leader.
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