As soon as Grotius’s wife ascertained that he was in perfect safety, she informed the guards of his escape:  these communicated the intelligence to the governor.  He put her into close confinement; but in a few days, an order of the States General set her at liberty, and permitted her to carry with her every thing at Louvestein, which belonged to her.  It is impossible to think without pleasure of the meeting of Grotius and his heroic wife.  From Vervie he proceeded to Antwerp; a few days after his arrival in that city, he addressed a letter to the States General:  he assured them, that, in procuring his liberty, he had used neither violence nor corruption.  He solemnly protested that his public conduct had been blameless, and that the persecution he had suffered would never lessen his attachment to his country.

[Sidenote:  His Escape from Prison.]

It was on the 22d March 1621, that Grotius obtained his liberty.  In the same year, the truce, concluded for twelve years between Spain and the United Provinces expired:  it was expected, that the war would be resumed with more fury than ever.  But this did not happen; the war of thirty years, which we shall afterwards have occasion to mention, had mixed the contest between Spain and the United Provinces with the general military plans and operations of the parties engaged in it, and had carried much of the conflict from the Low Countries into Germany.  Prince Maurice still appeared at the head of the army of the United Provinces; but he had lost, by his persecution of the Arminians, and his selfish intrigues, the confidence of the people.  Conspiracies against his life were formed:  fortune no longer favoured his arms.  His attempts to compel the Marquis Spinola to raise the siege of Breda were unsuccessful.  This reverse of fortune preyed upon his mind.  He thought himself haunted by a spectre of Barneveldt:  he was frequently heard, during his last illness, to exclaim, “Remove this head from me!” “This anecdote,” says the author of the Resume de l’histoire de la Hollande, “is related by all the republican historians of the United Provinces; it is concealed by the flatterers of the House of Orange....  To relate the remorse of princes for their crimes, is one of the most useful duties of historians.”

Prince Maurice died in 1625.

M. Le Clerc, in the 2d volume of the Bibliotheque Choisee, art. 3, shews, by unquestionable facts and irresistible arguments, that both Prince William and Prince Maurice sought to obtain the independent sovereignty of the United Provinces.  It was the aim of all their successors:  it has been effected in our times by means, which certainly were foreseen by none.

CHAPTER VIII.

VORSTIUS,—­JAMES I.

1622.

We must now carry back our readers to events which preceded the Synod of Dort.  We have mentioned the decease of Arminius:  soon after it, a circumstance took place, which, to the exquisite delight of the monarch, who, at that time filled the British throne, involved him in the theological disputes of the Belgic theologians.