We must not conceal that Du Maurier, the son, whose anecdotes are full of blunders, advances[548] that, when Grotius desired to be recalled, the High Chancellor readily took him at his word, because, says he, Grotius sent him only the news that every body knew.  Father Bougeant repeats this passage with great complacency; but he would have done much better to have read Grotius’s letters with attention, than to censure them without reason.  By their assistance he might have rectified several dates in his work, which, otherwise, deserves the public esteem.  Another author, whose history is written with indiscretion and partiality, but who was nevertheless well acquainted with the events of the age of Lewis XIII, sets a high value on Grotius’s letters[549]:  I mean Le Vassor, whose judgment deserves the more regard as he had little turn for panegyric.  He refutes those who advanced that Grotius employed his fine Latin to send Oxenstiern the lies of the day; and maintains that such as say this, have either never read Grotius’s letters, or are unacquainted with the history of Lewis XIII.  He does not deny, that, among the many pieces of news contained in them, there are some without foundation; but he excuses him, because a Minister is obliged to write what is generally reported.  He adds, “Those, who shall read Grotius’s letters with a little discerning, will find in them the most secret affairs of the times of his embassy touched upon in few words, with great delicacy and moderation.”  Grotius himself acquaints us, that he used great circumspection in writing news to the High Chancellor[550].  “I must beg, says he, of your Sublimity, to pardon the shortness of my letter:  I chuse rather to say little, than write what is false; and would fain send you nothing that is uncertain:  but this is attended with much difficulty amidst so great obscurity.—­Living among people, he says in another letter[551], who are very close, and receiving news which are often mixed with falshood, I am sorry to be obliged to give you my conjectures in the room of certainty; but there is nothing to apprehend from such an equitable Judge, who has regard to the good intention.”

This made him easy; and what ought to give us a high idea of his Letters, is, that they greatly pleased the High Chancellor[552]; and Muller, the Swedish Ambassador, set a high value on them[553].

The author of Vindiciae Grotianae assures us[554], after Morhof, that Grotius’s Letters are not all printed; and he adds, that he knew a cabinet in which were preserved upwards of two hundred and sixty, written to Queen Christina and the High Chancellor.  Bunau, a Privy Counselor at Dresden, is said to have had many of them.  Puffendorf saw several in cypher, to which he had a key.  Among those, which are printed in the collection of Grotius’s letters, there are some in cypher, relating to the general affairs and secret intrigues of the Court of France.  M. de Boze has a copy of these letters in his curious cabinet, with an explanation of the cypher, given him by a Swedish gentleman, which he communicates to those who desire it, with a politeness that it were to be wished were common to all men of learning.