it would be proper (says he) to refresh the Marquis de Puysieux’s memory.”  The King returned to Paris January 30, 1622.  Grotius was presented to him by the Chancellor and the Keeper of the seals in the beginning of March[137]:  the Court was very numerous.  His Majesty received him most graciously, and granted him a pension of three thousand livres.  He was much obliged to the Prince of Conde and the Keeper of the Seals on this occasion.  The King did not only confer marks of his favour on Grotius; but on his account protected all who were persecuted by the States; and by his Letters Patent, dated at Nantes, April 22, 1627, takes such as were condemned in Holland under his protection as if they were his own subjects; willing, that in case of death, their children and heirs should succeed, and that their effects should not be liable to be escheated.

De Vic dying on the second of September, 1622, his death filled Grotius and the Dutch Refugees in France with the greater concern, as the seals were given to Caumartin, a professed enemy of the Protestants.  As soon as Grotius thought himself settled, he looked out for a better house, intending to go the length of five hundred livres a year; but Tilenus took half of it:  its situation was in the Rue de Conde, opposite to the Prince’s hotel:  He probably made choice of that quarter, to be more at hand to pay his court to the Prince, with whom he had been in friendship above twenty years, and who had on all occasions given him marks of his esteem and protection.  Tilenus’s wife was very desirous of a coach; Grotius thought one equipage would serve both; but he was against setting it up immediately, in order to avoid an expence which perhaps he could not support.  What farther restrained him was, that though the King had granted him a pension with the best grace that could be, and Marshal Schomberg, superintendant of the Finances[138], had ordered it to be paid quarterly, and one payment to be advanced on demand, he could not however come at the money.  They had forgot to put it on the Civil List[139], and the Commissioners of the Treasury found daily some new excuse for delaying the payment.  He imagined[140] those who raised the difficulty hoped by that means to make him turn Roman Catholic.  A report that he was not far from changing his religion had reached Holland[141].  It gave Vossius some uneasiness, and he wrote to him, acquainting him of this report, and begging that he would do nothing to give it countenance.  Grotius removed his fears, assuring him he might make himself easy; for he might have avoided, he says, the grievous sentence passed upon him, and since his sentence would not have remained so long in captivity, and might also hope for greater honours than his country could bestow, if he would change sides.  It is more probable that, the bad state of the finances of the kingdom, or the greediness of the Commissioners, were the only obstructions to his payment.  He had at length reason to be satisfied:  by the solicitations of powerful friends, who interested themselves for him, he received his pension; and it was paid as grants were paid at that time, that is to say, very slowly, till Cardinal Richelieu, who bore him ill-will, gave private orders to prevent his enjoying the benefit of the King’s favour:  which obliged Grotius to leave France, as we shall see in the sequel.