He arrived at Paris on the 13th of April, 1621, at night.  The King was at Fontainbleau.  Boissise, who had been Ambassador Extraordinary in Holland at the time of Barnevelt’s trial, had not followed his Majesty; but waited for Grotius at Paris, to direct him how to act.  He assured him that the King bore him much good-will, that he did not doubt his Majesty would in a little time give him effective proofs of it, and advised him to continue at Paris till his friends did something for him.  Grotius visited M. de Vic, and the President Jeannin, who received him with the greatest marks of friendship, and repeated what Boissise had already said.  The States-General, in the mean time, ordered their Ambassadors to do him every ill-office; a commission which they executed with the greatest zeal.  They did all they could to destroy his reputation, but it was too well established to be shaken.  The revenge he took was by speaking of his Country like a zealous citizen; and by seeking every occasion to serve her:  this gained him the applause of the King, who could not help admiring the greatness of his proceeding.

When the Dutch Ambassadors saw that the French Ministry were favourably disposed towards Grotius, and that in all appearance the King would speedily give him public marks of his esteem, they spread a report that he had applied to the French Ministry, to use their influence with the States-General for obtaining his pardon:  they added, that the Ministry, after praising the good disposition he was in, assured him the King suffered him in France only because he knew these were his sentiments, and that the way to obtain a pension from the Court was by seeking to recover the favour of the States-General.

Grotius, informed of these reports, publicly declared he never acknowledged that he had failed in any part of his conduct whilst in place, and that his conscience bore him witness he had done nothing contrary to Law.  In a Letter[128] to Du Maurier he speaks of this slander as what gave him great uneasiness.  “An atrocious lye has been spread, which vexes me extremely:  it is reported that I being at liberty have asked pardon, which I absolutely refused to do, even when it would have saved me from ignominy, imprisonment, and the loss of my estate.”

There was yet another sort of people of whom Grotius had no reason to be very fond[129]:  these were the Ministers of Charenton.  They had received the decisions of the Synod of Dort, and held the Remonstrants in abhorrence:  they would not therefore admit Grotius into their Communion.  But excepting these few all the French strove who should shew him greatest civilities.  Messieurs du Puis and Peyresc[130] made haste to visit him as soon as they heard of his arrival.  May 14, 1621, he writes to Du Maurier that he had as much pleasure at Paris, as he had chagrin in prison; that the Great gave him on all occasions marks of their esteem, and the men of learning anticipated his wishes.  The only thing that troubled his joy for his happy escape was the thought of having left in prison a wife to whom he had so great reason to be attached[131]:  this grieved him so much, as he afterwards declared, that, had they kept her still in prison, he would have surrendered himself to his persecutors, rather than have been separated from her for ever.