but the place was soon after changed for Ryswyk, a village near The Hague, and afterward celebrated by the treaty of peace signed there and which bears its name.  Ten other associates were soon engaged by the exertions of Slatius:  these were Arminian artisans and sailors, to whom the actual execution of the murder was to be confided; and they were persuaded that it was planned with the connivance of Prince Frederick Henry, who was considered by the Arminians as the secret partisan of their sect.  The 6th of February was fixed on for the accomplishment of the deed.  The better to conceal the design, the conspirators agreed to go unarmed to the place, where they were to find a box containing pistols and poniards in a spot agreed upon.  The death of the Prince of Orange was not the only object intended.  During the confusion subsequent to the hoped-for success of that first blow, the chief conspirators intended to excite simultaneous revolts at Leyden, Gouda, and Rotterdam, in which towns the Arminians were most numerous.  A general revolution throughout Holland was firmly reckoned on as the infallible result; and success was enthusiastically looked for to their country’s freedom and their individual fame.

But the plot, however cautiously laid and resolutely persevered in, was doomed to the fate of many another; and the horror of a second murder (but with far different provocation from the first) averted from the illustrious family to whom was still destined the glory of consolidating the country it had formed.  Two brothers named Blansaart, and one Parthy, having procured a considerable sum of money from the leading conspirators, repaired to The Hague, as they asserted, for the purpose of betraying the plot; but they were forestalled in this purpose:  four of the sailors had gone out to Ryswyk the preceding evening, and laid the whole of the project, together with the wages of their intended crime, before the prince; who, it would appear, then occupied the ancient chateau, which no longer exists at Ryswyk.  The box of arms was found in the place pointed out by the informers, and measures were instantly taken to arrest the various accomplices.  Several were seized.  Groeneveld had escaped along the coast disguised as a fisherman, and had nearly effected his passage to England, when he was recognized and arrested in the island of Vlieland.  Slatius and others were also intercepted in their attempts at escape.—­Stoutenbourg, the most culpable of all, was the most fortunate; probably from the energy of character which marks the difference between a bold adventurer and a timid speculator.  He is believed to have passed from The Hague in the same manner as Grotius quitted his prison; and, by the aid of a faithful servant, he accomplished his escape through various perils, and finally reached Brussels, where the archduchess Isabella took him under her special protection.  He for several years made efforts to be allowed to return to Holland; but finding them hopeless, even after the death of Maurice, he embraced the Catholic religion, and obtained the command of a troop of Spanish cavalry, at the head of which he made incursions into his native country, carrying before him a black flag with the effigy of a death’s head, to announce the mournful vengeance which he came to execute.